I continue to speculate on the future of Christianity and “anthropomorphic monotheistic” religions. Mostly Christianity because I live in America. I’ve started looking at some of the utter crazy I see, from Christian Nationalists, to conspiracy theorists, to politicians who manage more than two faces. I’ve started thinking it’s a kind of prison.
Let me back up a bit.
First, when I discuss monotheism, I’m describing anthropomorphic monotheism, which assumes an all powerful omniscient deity who is also possessed of identifiable human traits and idiosyncrasies. I’m not talking the more abstract or neo-Platonic or transcendent ideas, but “ultimate power that in its true form is basically a superpowered person.” I find it’s an idea people who believe rarely question theologically despite the fact it’s hard to reconcile considering.
Anyway, I noticed people who had these beliefs also contain a heavy amount of weird instability if not outright insanity. It finally struck me that be it true believer or religious scam artist, this idea will drive you nuts as it’s about prison.
If you truly believe in a god that is all-powerful, all-seeing, and as biased and emotional as you that’s utterly terrifying. There is no escape from them. There is no bargaining with them. They are just as messed up as the average person and they control the universe. To believe in such a god is to believe you are permanently trapped and at their mercy.
You are in prison you are never getting out and the being in charge is is just as erratic as anyone else. Try figuring how people cope with that.
But let’s say you’re a megachurch pastor or conspiracy podcaster. Truth doesn’t matter a lot, as you’re here to make money. You just have to talk about the Superpowerful Man Who Controls all, but you don’t have to believe. You might not even be able to believe considering your career in bullshit.
But you’ll still go a little crazy and definitely sound crazy because you’re still in prisoni
If you’re just a religious scam artist who praces anthropomorphic monotheism, you essentially have a writing problem – your prison is the tales you spin.. You have to explain why the god you don’t believe in is like they are. You have to explain their human side and their omnipotent and omniscient sides. You are essentially managing the theological equivalent of an extended cinematic universe, mixing marketing and continuity, and almost certainly failing. Your theology is going constantly need maintenance.
This is going to be hard. There are always going to be holes in your story and you’re always editing and re-editing your theology. After awhile that will probably make you a little unbalanced, as you’re always changing and always under threat at making a mistake. This probably explains why so many “religious” public figures seem to give up after awhile and just mouth platitudes.
I think in our complex modern world, facing so many challenges, with so much knowledge, it’s hard for anthropomorphic monotheism to continue. The rapid changes of the world are hard to explain. The theological challenges difficult. The burden of mass media “keeping up” is hard.
I think there future of Christianity is going to be more crazy from people coping with the prison experience and the constant rewrites. But I also think there’s going to be more shrugging and mouthing platitudes because people who are faking belief are tired and figure they can just lie and get away with it. Hypocrisy and insanity.
Our world is more complex than limited theological ideas. Ramming it into such a mold is madness, and the wages of such activity is madness as well.
-Xenofact