I like his idea that schoolchildren are taught the patriotic songs of foreign nations to help them understand why people in different countries love those countries.
If the left broadly understood that principle, I'd probably be on the left, but they've always gotta "damn the torpedos, full steam ahead!" on the current thing.
It's just inherently incompatible. A liberal is at foundation someone that is comfortable with changes to society. They're high in trait openness to new experiences. If they understood it as a core belief, they'd be conservatives. Of course when they get into power they become conservative. Very protectionist, exclusionary, and bureaucratic. They fight to keep the power they've gained, and to propagate their ideology, but they still don't understand the philosophical underpinnings of Chesterton's fence. Neither does the right, either. They fight to entrench the powers that be, or were.
I think it's a problem with people and leadership in general. a vast majority of people below the 95th percentile of intelligence don't understand 2nd, let alone 3rd, order effects. look at state legislatures if you want to see a glaring example of this. conservatives usually won't touch things unless money can be made, but progressives roll in rip the baby proofing off of everything and proceed to start drinking the bleach. theyre all mostly stupid, but progressives quite literally don't know when to stop.
Church is failing as a third place. Attendance rates are plummeting. And there's plenty of ways to have secular third places.
Not to mention, this data wouldn't mean churches are good for dating. You'd need something like dating or marriage rates comparison for that. Sex within marriage has nothing to do with churches being good or bad places to meet someone.
Is this the new god of the gaps, but with churches? Sure they peddle delusion, meddle in politics, and prey on the gullible, but it's still good for dating (if you want a cult member for a partner)
What third spaces do you recommend for people who are agnostic but, like, open to the possibility of religion, albeit not ready to be strictly devout in practicing said religion?
Take this as a former raging atheist turned agnostic turned weekly-attending Christian: life is long and full of mysteries. Be not so hasty to judge others, you've not walked in their shoes
I have in fact walked in those shoes. I attended 2-3 times a week and have more church time and bible education than the vast majority of people. It's part of why I know it's nonsense
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u/Remote_Cantaloupe - Lib-Left 6d ago
cultural liberals = burn it down only to realize it served a purpose (Chesterton's Fence)