@isaacsapphire , @discoursedrome, and @ranma-official are discussing “Why is the Left anti-atheist” in a few other threads. This deserves some response, though most of the discussion is just-so story-making about reasons the Left dislikes Atheists.
For one, no, atheists are not the outgroup for even the most cliche social justice progressives. Social justice ideology is still a coalition of many different groups, beliefs, and experiences and there are definitely many atheists among them. It’s not like if you met an avowed feminist, and it came up she was atheist, any of us would really be shocked.
There are not purity squads going around testing whether people believe in god and pouncing on any sign of atheism, the way they are for libertarians, or HBD, or ever having voted Republican. (Well there may be some, the world is wide and surprising, but they’re certainly less conspicuous than the other varieties.)
Atheism is not the official belief of progressive ideology these days, and in some ways it may be less cool than Suffi Islam or extremely non-specific spirituality, but it’s still a real part of the coalition.
So what’s going on here?
Well to some degree the answer is “cool liberalism doesn’t hate atheism, it just hates Richard Dawkins”, which is pretty self-explanatory. But I do think there is something more generalizable at issue.
@oligopsonoia was talking about Moral Therapeutic Deism as an important advance in philosophical/cultural technology. And indeed, it was great at getting people to stop killing each other over god.
MTD is the theology of cosmopolitan liberal ideology. Or it’s atheist version “Jesus may not have been the son of God, but I think he was a great moral teacher.” It’s very soft-hearted respect for all this “religion stuff” without fully buying into it. That way, our “Coalition of the Ascendent”, including both academic Leftists and Muslim immigrants, can all get along.
As passionate atheist writers and Christian philosophers both say, if God exists that is the most important fact ever. To them, everything you believe about the world should be derived from the existence of, or absence of God. This is a committed ethical stance.
Not only is that awkward for the coalition, that committed ethical stance is entirely antithetical to how ideology works. A mature ideology does not want people who take their philosophical commitments more seriously than anything else! Those people are inconvenient, annoying, and not easily moved.
Ideology wants reasonable people. It wants people who are part of the “broad movement” overall, much more than passionate commitment to one ideal. Social justice ideology wants investment in anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-imperialism, anti-bad-corporations, anti-traditional religion, and a lot of other things while never answering which of those is the most important if they ever come in conflict. It uses a great deal of social pressure to convince people to never ask that question.
Atheism as a cause might be able to make peace with all the other religious minorities, but it will never be in harmony with MTD. It takes God seriously, and taking something truly seriously, putting the intellectual foundation from first principles above any social necessity, is the predator to ideologies.
It’s not cool. It’s not harmonious. You can have your atheism, just don’t take it too seriously, and you be more on board making fun of Ivanka Trump’s fashion than trying to debate the source of morality in a God-less world, when you’re part of the ideological culture. (Dear lord, do not question “what is the source of our moral certainty.” That must always be assumed to be shared by everyone without any need for explanation or justification.)
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