In Lieu of Donations to the Church of Resistance
Morning Thoughts #29
It might be that true atheism is impossible once consciousness reaches a certain level. An outdated definition of what constitutes religion artificially restricts the number of "believers" on official attendance rolls. Gods take many forms, and what most people hold as their god today is not necessarily named "God". This is more an error of definition than anything else: the notion that if one's foundational belief (their personal North Star of meaning that orients their worldview) is in opposition to a historically dominant idea of God, then it means they believe in no god at all. As with any proclamation of atheism, this implies a certain level of arrogance. Perhaps, even, it is more arrogant to say that you can live without a god than it is to say that you are a god yourself!
One of the most common modern forms for God to take is the spirit of resistance. Those who find their life's ultimate meaning in resistance need to make sure the tension that is the proof of their god never goes slack. If such resistors have no enemies, they will create them; this is out of religious need. These "resistance believers" create their meaning in the act of pushback, and their world would fall apart if they were to discern a world that comes in peace when greeting them.
Picture the familiar image of a tortured believer, desperately attempting to cling to faith (the way they make sense of the world) amidst growingly persistent doubts regarding the existence of God. Now, picture a child raised in a culture that celebrates (sanctifies?) teenage rebellion as a necessary rite of passage, but whose parents are permissive and, for lack of a better way of putting it, are just too damn cool and in favor of the spirit of the times. Can you see how we might be looking at a variation of the “tortured believer” trope? Praying perhaps: "Oh please give me an authority figure worth resisting that I may believe in resistance once again!" Thus, when life is too easy, the comfortable suburban activist class must become more and more creative in finding enemies to resist!
So where do these 'believers' turn? The less resistance they encounter in their immediate sphere, the further they will go to find it. First, they will seek out those enforcing society’s laws, and finally, they will end up resisting anything that seems to enforce universal laws, including deities. Like the final boss in a video game, God the father is simply the last authority figure to be defeated in the culturally reinforced teenage rebellion that has become a lifelong identity. But this defeat is actually illusory, because we've reached the tipping point where our culture's god has shapeshifted again, and now we worship resistance itself.
Ah friends, before we end, let’s have a moment for self-reflection. If resistance has now become god, does that mean if I write against this resistance that I am actually now on the side of resisting god? Oh friends, has the cycle just begun again? What do you think and where is the exit?