Cult of the Left

A long time ago, I spent nearly two years in a cultish fundamentalist Christian church; whereas, I am now an atheist.

A benefit of my religious background is that I am able to recognize when an individual or group is making the same kind of arguments as cult members or regular religious people. For many years now, I have recognized that the political arguments of the left are much like religious arguments, and the more extreme left thinks much like cult members; whereas, the right is not religious about politics. I have also observed that the left as a whole is becoming more cult-like.

In other words, politics/government is the religion of the left; whereas, religion is the religion of the right.

My main point is that my personal experience has uniquely enabled me to recognize parallels between religious cults and the political left. This may be impossible to prove or even illustrate in a clear manner, but I will try.

Let’s compare a real religious argument with a real argument from the political left as told to me by an intelligent and well informed representative from each group.

Here is an example of a religious argument: Older fossils are found deeper in the ground than newer fossils, and I heard that a fossil from a species that supposedly evolved recently was found lower than a fossil that should have already been extinct. Therefore, this fact disproves evolution.

First, note that a single fact can indeed disprove a scientific theory. In other words, scientific theories are falsifiable. Falsifiability is what distinguishes science from non-science according to Karl Popper (I don’t know if he said anything else that makes sense). If it were theoretically impossible to disprove a claim, then it would not be a scientific claim. For example, the claim that everything is God’s will is impossible to disprove, and is thus not a scientific claim. In fact, the claim that everything is Leeroy's will is impossible to disprove, and thus is not a scientific claim. (I could prove that everything is my will, but you must have faith.)

Before we look at a similar argument from the left, let’s point out just a few of the flaws in this religious argument:

1. Scientists do not claim that the depth of a fossil proves its age.
2. Proving that one technique for measuring age is not always accurate would not disprove evolution.
3. How do we know anyone actually found such a fossil arrangement? Were these fossils even in the same location?
4. Maybe an animal or some natural process created a hole, and then the bones of another animal ended up in that hole.
5. We can find layers of rock inverted 90 degrees by geologic forces in many locations. If such a formation fell, it would them be inverted 180 degrees (upside down).

I do not want to bore you with additional flaws, but I would like to point out that anyone could have thought of these flaws, and thus no thoughtful person should feel certain that a fossil at the wrong depth disproves evolution, and yet many religious people selectively suspend their critical thinking skills like this when necessary.

Now lets look at a similar argument from the political left: Human activity could cause an Ice Age, and we know from the discovery of a frozen Mammoth that still had food in its stomach that such an Ice Age could develop in just a few days.

Flaws in the leftist argument:

1. Mammoths lived in really cold environments. If one fell into icy water and drowned, it would be preserved for months as the water froze.
2. Even if the environment changes rapidly in one location, that does not mean it changed rapidly everywhere on Earth.
3. Suppose the complex theories claiming that the Gulf stream would stop flowing and thus stop bringing warm water to northern latitudes is true. Northern latitudes would only get a few degrees colder – except that the left also claims global warming would make the Earth a few degrees warmer – so that equals little or no change. Also, the cooling effect would take years – not a few days.

Again, anyone could have thought of these flaws, and thus no thoughtful person should feel certain that global warming can cause an ice age to develop in just a few days, and yet many on the left selectively suspend their critical thinking skills like this when necessary.

There are many other parallels between the left and religion. For example, religious people face extreme peer pressure about religious beliefs/values from other religious people, and leftists face extreme peer pressure about political beliefs/values.

Perhaps the most important point is that neither the left nor religion is the path to reality.