Originally posted on Wordpress on 4 August 2023
My working title for this post was been "I used to be an atheist". For the past couple of years, I've been thinking about if I really wanted to write it or if it would be useful to post online. I've come to the conclusion that as my experience seems to be pretty unique, I may as well write about it and see if anyone has any similar experiences.
I grew up in a nonreligious (atheist) libertarian family. Skepticism of the state and government was always a thing. It wasn't very difficult for me to make the leap over to anarchist later on at 14 or so. In fact, it wasn't a leap at all. I learned about libertarian socialism on a Wiki walk one day and realized that it described my existing beliefs perfectly.
Anarchism is, fundamentally, about the dissolution of structures of control. So, obviously, dissolution of the state and organized religion, given that both are hierarchical and allow for the consolidation of power and control over the narrative. "No gods, no masters," you know?
There weren't any other atheist or state-skeptical kids in my elementary school, so it wasn't until I was in high school that I really started looking into atheism...on the internet. And I honestly wasn't impressed with what I saw. Even though I was comfortable calling myself an atheist, I didn't have all that much in common with these other atheists, belief-wise.
While both me and other atheists believed that organized religion was oppressive and needed to be abolished, that's as far as their beliefs went while mine included other hierarchies and power structures. I've always been baffled by what seems to be an incredibly obvious inconsistency, and it's only recently that I've come to a conclusion.
It seems that some atheists, particularly those that leave highly authoritarian religions, or sects of religions, or lifestyles - you get the point - simply change their target of worship instead of quitting worship altogether. They go from treating their holy book as an infallible source of truth to...treating the laws of the state as an infallible source of truth. Their church becomes the state. It's like switching addictions by taking up smoking instead of drinking rather than quitting drinking entirely.
Atheism is so intertwined with this kind of uncritical state worship that I can't consider myself any kind of atheist. I can't even describe my beliefs as atheist. I simply have no desire to be associated with these people.
The point I'm trying to make is that when examined from an anarchist perspective, atheists/atheism is more often than not a disappointment. More than a disappointment, in some cases, when their infatuation with the law as an "impartial" structure (there are no impartial structures, or people, or anything) turns into state worship.
These are just my thoughts, but like I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I wanted to put them out there to see if anyone has ever felt the same.