What AB said, basically. There are places where religion can be a serious impediment to progress that we should be immediately concerned with, but generally the best way to foster secularism in society besides also destroying religious political organizing (which is not the same as shutting down churches generally) is through education and improving people’s material conditions.
You can look at the course of development for the standard of living for the American working class from the post-ww2 period to now and see a steady decline of religiousness corresponding to the steady increases to standards of living, which in the past few decades is mirrored by the steady decline of standards of living corresponding to new waves of religious fervor as the people have no outlet to channel their frustrations towards their predicament other than what has been passed down to them by their forefathers; the sweep painkiller of going to church and believing you’ll get pie in the sky when you die.
That they are going too far ahead of the people?
Right
What should they do instead?
Focus on social evils and superstitions that harm them, and find ways to help them there?
Education, literacy, housing, medical access, jobs with livable wages. Things that actually materially improve standards of living.
What AB said, basically. There are places where religion can be a serious impediment to progress that we should be immediately concerned with, but generally the best way to foster secularism in society besides also destroying religious political organizing (which is not the same as shutting down churches generally) is through education and improving people’s material conditions.
You can look at the course of development for the standard of living for the American working class from the post-ww2 period to now and see a steady decline of religiousness corresponding to the steady increases to standards of living, which in the past few decades is mirrored by the steady decline of standards of living corresponding to new waves of religious fervor as the people have no outlet to channel their frustrations towards their predicament other than what has been passed down to them by their forefathers; the sweep painkiller of going to church and believing you’ll get pie in the sky when you die.