4 Reasons Why Today's Politics Look More Like Religion Than Reason
When reason is replaced by belief, every ideology becomes a faith
First, it’s a mistake to interpret religion as though it were merely a collection of testable hypotheses. Religion, particularly in its deeper expressions, is symbolic—a narrative representation of mystical experiences and enduring human values —a North Star. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the central mystical realization is the oneness of God: the idea that reality is a unified system and that we, as conscious beings, can come to know it. This is the essence of the Logos—the rational, intelligible order of the universe. In the beginning was the intelligible order.
It was this foundational belief that gave rise to science. The early natural philosophers—many of them monks—saw that the same principles governing the movement of stars also governed the turning of seasons and the motion of objects on Earth. The laws that brought us to the moon and safely back home are rooted in the same cosmic order described in “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Science emerged not in opposition to religion, but as an extension of a mystical realization—that the universe is intelligible.
Second, the philosophical foundation of today’s radical left—often labeled postmodern neo-Marxism—functions in practice much like fundamentalist religion. It offers a closed system of thought in which core doctrines like DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) and CRT (Critical Race Theory) are treated as moral absolutes. To question these frameworks is not seen as disagreement but as heresy. The language may be secular, but the structure is religious. The absence of a deity does not make a system less dogmatic if its adherents treat its tenets as beyond question and its dissenters as inherently evil.
Third, based on a decade of engagement—particularly on platforms like Facebook—I’ve found that conservatives are generally more willing to entertain alternative viewpoints and engage in reasoned discussion. In contrast, many hardline progressives resist even basic inquiry into their beliefs. Out of countless interactions, I can count on one hand the number of constructive dialogues I’ve had with individuals on the far left who were willing to examine their assumptions without resorting to moral condemnation.
Fourth, the last decade has seen an alarming rise in authoritarian behavior—not from a theocracy or a traditional dictatorship, but from cultural institutions captured by radical ideologies. Cancel culture, the erosion of scientific objectivity, and the enforcement of ideologically driven policies in education, medicine, and media reflect this. When people celebrate violence against ideological opponents, justify blatant antisemitism, or promote irreversible medical procedures on children in the name of identity politics, we must ask: how is this different from the zealotry we condemn elsewhere?
Authoritarianism does not always come dressed in military garb. Sometimes, it wears the mask of compassion. But whether the impulse is religious, ideological, or utopian, the pattern is the same: dissent is silenced, words are redefined, and power is justified by moral certainty.
In short, authoritarianism is not exclusive to the left or the right—it manifests wherever critical thinking is replaced by unquestioned belief.
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