How Religion and Democracy Struggle -- Philosophy of Religion Directory
Updated: Dec 29, 2024
How Religion and Democracy Struggle -- Philosophy of Religion Directory
Introduction: An Historic Overview
Most of the world's countries are democracies. That is even though democracy often suffers by the corrupting trends of the world. Within each country, its own unique fabric of interactions and interplays between values, under the guidelines of norms and cultures. To quote Simeon Strunsky:
People who want to understand democracy should spend less time in the library with Aristotle and more time on the buses and in the subway.
When a central authority isn't busy oppressing its populace, what it allows is a more multicultural growth of alternative frameworks and organizations. Without its oppression, many people can become leaders in many fields, forming their own businesses, institutions and virtual empires. Additionally, it allows people to venture out from the orthodox matrix of society, deviating and growing in ways unique to them.
Whether your country is more capitalistic or more socialist in its politics, under democracy it matters less freedom-wise. A more democratic nation often turns a blind eye to many things, and as a result the average citizenry can get many freedoms, such as the freedom of expression, the freedom to vote, and so on.
These freedoms would have been considered privileges in earlier times of human history, who were mainly dominated by kings, sultans and emperors. Understand that despite the dystopian concerns some people might have today, many people today live in freedoms greater than in any period in human history.
As such, the only absolute monarchy today, where the king has absolute authority, is just a small, landlocked African nation. Blessed be the fact that most monarchies today are constitutional, or in other words, severely limited.
When Religion Corrupts
Morality is of the highest importance – but for us, not for God. — Albert Einstein
When religion is introduced into official rules, there is a competition with democracy. That, however, applies only when the laws of said religion threaten the freedoms introduced by democracy.
Furthermore, religious manipulators could use the very freedoms they are given to commit acts of malice. When these figures of authority become part of state authority, the corruption turns from a civilian matter to more of a public issue.
When religion is corrupted by such leaders and their helpers, that is when people might find themselves disillusioned with institutional religion, and instead turning to spirituality and to research of the arcane.
Skepticism Under Democratic Fabric
When questioning their own faith, people may utilize the power of choice of whether to keep staying within religious norms or go their own ways. Often, major religions get their own sects as a result. Under the framework of democracy, deviating and even creating one's own religion is easier.
In the online world, one can find many, many cults. Furthermore, some may even consider fandoms to be cults.
Cults are basically small, alternative organizations that pose as societal outsiders. Living below the radar, they are of course known as secret societies. Secret societies/cults/whatever other synonyms, can range from a gang of hooligans, to organized crime, to unrecognized street performers.
Their contemporary negative connotation is a quasi-specific term, meaning cults are not necessarily these shady fanatics serving a charismatic love-bomber. The mere image you may have of them negates the fact that even a pirate ship or even a hobbyist micronation can be "a secret society". Sometimes you are secret because you will always have it hard being accepted into society in the first place.
That is why so many deviations outside of general society can be considered morally-grey by default. Depending on your perspective, they can be either anti-hero or even anti-villainous.
So much as you can see, happens when your democracy allows you to deviate from your own religion. Not only from your own religion but also from traditional norms whom may be questioned by many.
Philosophy and Disillusionment
God is not separate. God is our very being. He has not to be attained, only discovered. He is hidden in us; there is no need to go anywhere else to find him. -- Osho
Philosophy starts from within. As philosophy examines life, it gives life meaning. As such, examining philosophy is also about examining life itself.
One might philosophize, "Why do we even need a public religion to force us to do or avoid things regardless of our consent?" The more we question the very public ideas that are part of our lives, the more we may find ourselves deviating from it. Indeed, while tyranny might stem from democracy, democracy is often where philosophy prospers most!
As we question tradition, religious or otherwise, we might find ourselves on an unintended path of self-discovery, where we discover who we are not only in our questions but also in our actions. As you can tell, philosophy is also a way of life and goes beyond mere academic discourse.
You might find religions and philosophy weirdly intertwined as a result as philosophy is what allows individual and collective deviations in the first place. Philosophy is not a mere ideology as it is a tool meant to examine ideology. Of course, an ideology can also be religious, when it comes to the matters of the divine.
Philosophy may not only examine and critique ideologies and religions, but also may create ones, as seen in the cult of Pythagoras.
The State As a Distant Authority
As you can tell, state intervention in philosophy and religion is not a requirement. As such, Japan, despite its interfaith of Shintoism and Buddhism, remains largely atheist in its population.
Religion is something that can be practiced even without being the mark of the state. In other words, you don't need state funds or support to have you perform the rituals, the holidays, the traditions, and the prayers required in your own religion. When the state is a distant authority, instead of an intervening, oppressive one, people are more free to do as they please under the obliviousness of society.
I don't see why I, as an irreligious man, have to cater to state religion beyond my attempts to survive in ordinary society that cares little about me as an individual. I see less and less reasoning to seek global recognition when I can simply be recognized for my immense philosophical work by those who find it relevant to their lives.
The Biological Imperative: Survive!
Therefore, due to the problems between many religions and the freedom of democracy, there is no perfect solution to create full harmony between these two values. What should be used instead is the understanding that we need to survive if we want to live the life we want to live.
If you cancel your official religion, it will upset the population of that religion, and if you cancel democracy, the state will become a theocratic dictatorship without the ability to vote for a party or regent. Perhaps we shouldn't resort to any extreme! Perhaps we should focus on respecting our different ways of life!
In one way or another, they would always have to collide with one another. That is because we never exist in a vacuum and to quote Epictetus:
Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever is our own action. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever is not our action.
In rulership, be it within the state or outside of it, you cannot please everyone. Attempting to please is not something philosophers often do in general, meaning that being a philosopher already is a social risk in your respective nations.
A Factor Of Democratic Deviation: Being Misunderstood
Either way, the state may fail to understand that it alienates some of its population. Forcing on them the same limitations that religious people place on themselves anyway is also a cause for deviation.
In dictatorships, deviation from orthodoxy is far harder and can be heavily destructive for both the loyalist factions of the state, and those who rebel against it. For me, the idea of using physical violence against someone just because he thinks and believes differently than you is absurd. I prefer to avoid the battle, as Sun Tzu would suggest.
If the religious are disciplined enough to follow their own path religiously (no pun intended), then why should that path be imposed on the rest of the population? The very fact that it does makes people want to deviate from it in the first place. That is even when the state with an official religion, is also a democracy.
Democracy permits, while religion limits. When freedom is allowed while a specific religion prohibits it, the authorities need to decide: which value do we prefer most?
Conclusion
When you allow people to be themselves, however, and deviate without concerning of their practice of rituals, you can allow yourself, as state official, to focus on issues of far greater concern:
The welfare of the citizens.
Thus, when freedom is preferred over religion, the true value of freedom can be recognized and appreciated... As the more freedoms we all have, the less we can be concerned on public matters, and be more ourselves, instead.
Like neighbours who cannot force one another to move, these two values need to just get along with one another.
There is, you see, there is no hope in sight, choosing one and cancelling the other. What we should never, ever cancel, is our ability to live in harmony and in inner peace.
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