"Christian Revival" or Just a Right-Wing Revival?

Watch the full UnHerd event, "Christian Revival: Fantasy or Reality?" youtube.com/live/V8PeSvLS...

I feel Alex is teetering on the “I’m a Cultural Christian too” edge. Philosophers seem to think we all need to have some sort of meaning “bigger than ourselves!” I’m okay without that and am sick of being told that I’m really not.

Her main point was absurd... longing for something has nothing to do with whether or not it is real. I, for one, crave the existence of the arcane. And I would love to be able to attribute thunder to Thor and wave hello to Odin when I see ravens, and think of Heimdall's bridge when I see a rainbow... but that doesn't make those things real.

Is she pretending to get teared up? No one ever said logic or science could tell you who to love or comfort you at a funeral. What the hell is she even talking about

"Atheism doesn't give us anything." But it does. It forces us to become self-reliant, instead of being frightened children begging a god to save us from ourselves.

I don't understand this claim that secular rationalism is "not working". Does the existence of persistent problems in our society really diagnosed directly from rationalism?

I'll stand with Bertrand Russell on this one: is something is true you ought to believe it, if it's not true then you ought not to believe it. And I would say Jordan Peterson-style "meta-truth" does not count. There is no sense in "choosing to believe" something that is not true - no matter how good it makes an person or a group feel, an irrational beginning will lead to irrational outcomes. The history of religion demonstrates this over and over and over again. I think it's had way to many chances already, it neither needs nor deserves another.

Oh boy, this new irrationalism is going to wreak so much havoc over the next decades. Amazing that things have gotten to this point.

I wouldn't worship any God... willingly. Ask yourself one question: If you woke up tomorrow as God yourself, all-powerful all-knowing etc. what kind of God would you be if you demanded or even wanted worship?

Your recent interview with JP convinced me that it really is all about politics. "Historical truth doesn't really matter, the important part is how this book can teach us about what humans are like in a very accurate way, which makes it meta-true" is just a fancy way of saying "this book agrees with me, and if I say that my view of the world comes from it I don't have to justify it, because this speficic book gets a free pass on sources, so with this I can change society to my liking without having to use political arguments". The funny thing is, the reason WHY said book gets a pass is that many Christian apologists over the years have been working to prove the logical consistency of said book, and the people who now despise this approach to Christianity are only able to talk about "meta-truths" because of THEM, because people trust that there is a logical reason to assume that the book is right about everything. This attempt at revival is destined to be short-lived, because sooner or later people are gonna start asking "ok, but can you tell me WHY what the book says is true?" and the fact that these newly converted "Christians" are cuttings ties with Christian apologetics is gonna make answering that question really fucking hard. I'd wish them good luck, but I also think they're fucking evil so...

“Secular Humanism isn’t going to get you very far.” Get us very far toward what? I mean, I agree it’s not going to get you very far at appeasing religious people (or pseudo-religious people like Ali).

I think Alex is correct in one thing: the “revival” of religion in this age is much more to do with political polarization than any genuine conviction of people. People will grab onto ideas and people who they think will protest what they think is going wrong in the world. I fundamentally disagree with Alex wanting the Christian religion to be true. To want the Christian religion to be true entails wanting the vast majority of the human race to be tortured forever consciously. To wish for Christianity to be true is to wish evil to run the universe (see Jeremiah and 2 Samuel). As a Christian, I used to want it to be true, because I selfishly thought that me and a select few could avoid death and achieve paradise, the ignorant masses be damned, literally. I now see this thought process for what it is: an imposed psychopathy.

That woman, Jesus... I've never seen anyone defend stupidity so passionately.

This political kind of Christianity is more a metaphysical basis for conservative and right wing beliefs.

I'd really like for Alex to make a video essay describing this "wonderful Christianity" he sees

This is the first time I can remember watching an Alex O'Connor video where I disagreed with him more than I agreed.

“Christian” for the Ayaan Hirsi Ali types is just a particular flavor of conservative.

Ultimately, it’s just religion doing what humans invented it for: assuaging our fears. ‘Afraid of death? Well, don’t worry, you get to live forever.’ Instead of there being an endeavor to overcome our inherent animal insecurities, there is a renewed retreat into superstition. Isn’t it better to strive to overcome our foibles than do this again? And this time around it’s even worse: deep down we know it’s not true. But we no longer care as long as we can sleep with our security blankets

Dawkins is right that secular liberalism failing is not the issue. The societal and material problems in the UK are a direct result of 14 years of Tory rule, and the gutting of the UK economy

Alex, please explain in detail which christianity you actually would choose to believe in, if you could.