Leo D.M.J. Aurini - Why Atheists Become Statists

00:00:00.000 Let's get started.

00:00:30.000 So the other day, Stefan Molyneux posted a video titled, Why I Was Wrong About Atheism,

00:00:35.720 in which he discusses why it is, in his opinion, that so many atheists become very hardcore

00:00:42.800 statists, demanding not just a strong government, but a left-wing, socialist, invasive government.

00:00:51.280 And it's a great video, and I certainly don't disagree with his conclusions, but there's

00:00:56.040 a comment I left on the video, giving a theist's perspective on all of this, and I wanted to

00:01:02.200 expand upon that in this video.

00:01:04.120 I won't ruin his conclusions for you.

00:01:06.280 Link to his video is down below.

00:01:08.160 But this is my thoughts on the matter.

00:01:10.380 Why is it that religious people tend to be much better at maintaining a limited government, 1.00

00:01:17.220 as opposed to atheists, who are supposedly reasonable and smart, and they can figure out something 1.00

00:01:25.600 as blindingly obvious as libertarianism?

00:01:30.280 Well, the issue, it strikes me, it comes from living in a reality where you don't have an

00:01:39.660 ultimate arbiter, where there is a hint of nihilism in things.

00:01:43.860 You see, on the one hand, all humans, we all have a moral sense, okay?

00:01:50.960 We have a basic understanding that lying, cheating, stealing, we know that this stuff is wrong,

00:01:58.400 innately.

00:01:59.380 And we also have a sense of societal purpose that comes innately to us.

00:02:05.120 We understand that if we don't have children, there will be no society in the future, that

00:02:11.200 we need to have a direction in society, having something like a permanent welfare class is

00:02:16.500 a bad idea.

00:02:17.800 We innately understand that.

00:02:20.440 C.S. Lewis likened it to having a fleet of ships.

00:02:24.980 You know, personal morality would be how we run our own ships, making sure they're seaworthy.

00:02:32.280 And the societal direction, the societal impetus, would be the direction that the fleet is going.

00:02:38.060 Because if nobody can agree on where we're going, then we're all going to crash into each

00:02:42.780 other.

00:02:43.600 This stuff is fairly obvious.

00:02:45.220 Anybody can figure it out with a moment's reflection.

00:02:49.520 And yet, with atheists, we find that so often, they start demanding these rigid controls on 0.99

00:02:57.540 everything and everybody.

00:02:58.960 And it's because of the nihilism that is so present in most atheists.

00:03:06.760 And it starts off small.

00:03:08.520 It's like water seeping into rocks over the years and bit by bit causing them to crumble,

00:03:14.920 freezing and expanding and shattering the rocks.

00:03:18.900 And, you know, let's take sex as an example.

00:03:24.560 Now, there's a really pithy little argument I heard in The Last Man on Earth, where the

00:03:31.620 woman says to him, and she looks at the pornography collection, she says to him, you know all those

00:03:36.260 girls were abused, don't you? 1.00

00:03:38.400 And I think that's a pretty powerful argument as to why you shouldn't be supporting the

00:03:42.500 pornography industry.

00:03:43.400 You know, if you put your finances into that, then you're supporting an industry that does,

00:03:48.440 to some extent, exploit the misery of other people.

00:03:53.860 You know, and let's just take that argument, forgiven, right now.

00:03:58.040 Let's take it on face value.

00:03:59.940 But here's the thing.

00:04:00.800 So let's say you don't support pornography.

00:04:03.640 You don't put any money into the system.

00:04:05.720 But what's so wrong with downloading an electronic copy of a free trailer?

00:04:13.400 For pornography.

00:04:14.600 After all, you're not forcing anybody to do anything.

00:04:18.060 You're not putting any money into the system, and that's backing the system.

00:04:21.440 So what's so wrong with downloading a little bit of pornography?

00:04:27.260 You know, so let's go the step further, you know, where you start saying, well, you know,

00:04:33.860 like I understand that sex, like the basic teleology of sex, you know, it's to help,

00:04:39.880 it's to reproduce, it's to make children. 0.97

00:04:41.620 It's to bond married couples together.

00:04:45.480 You know, it's a very intimate act for a married couple to share. 0.97

00:04:49.120 You know, the best way to end an argument is probably to have sex with one another. 0.88

00:04:53.740 It's, and this is why the human women, they're, they're, they are sexually aroused even when 1.00

00:05:01.940 they're not an eustress.

00:05:02.980 Um, it's fairly easy to look at sex and see what its ultimate purpose is, uh, to maintain

00:05:09.840 families that can raise children with one another.

00:05:13.800 But, you know, you're young and you met somebody and you like them and so, you know, maybe you

00:05:20.580 don't really want to marry them, but, yeah, we'll use a condom.

00:05:25.020 Why not?

00:05:28.440 Well, and from there, you know, now that you've taken that step, well, why not take the next

00:05:33.720 step down the road and the next and the next?

00:05:36.800 And, and each one of these is a very tiny step until you result in this, this world where

00:05:44.600 there is casual sex happening all over the place.

00:05:47.800 There are broken hearts happening all over the place. 0.92

00:05:51.020 Because let's remember, you know, sex is a very intimate act.

00:05:54.500 It's very psychologically impactful.

00:05:57.020 And, yeah, you know what?

00:05:58.980 You can, you can play around a bit in college, you know, uh, meet a few girls and maybe it

00:06:03.700 doesn't work out and, you know, there's some bruised feelings, but no souls are being ripped

00:06:08.240 out from it.

00:06:09.060 So, you know, it's not so bad.

00:06:12.020 But what you'll find is that everybody has a different set point.

00:06:16.760 You know, some people are more tempted than others.

00:06:19.540 Some can handle drugs while others can't.

00:06:22.740 And, you know, if you have this, this free love society, if you are going to make up your

00:06:29.860 own morality about how you maintain your ship, there's going to be people that don't maintain

00:06:35.980 their ships.

00:06:36.780 And there's going to be people that don't understand that, yeah, the, the purpose of

00:06:40.940 sex is to raise children in a loving household, ultimately.

00:06:45.420 And soon you wind up with a rather disastrous situation.

00:06:50.340 Another example.

00:06:51.800 Let's think about health.

00:06:54.460 It's, it's self-adventing.

00:06:56.220 And for yourself, you should maintain your health, right?

00:06:59.540 That way you'll live longer, you'll be happier, you'll enjoy each day more if you just do a

00:07:04.820 little bit of exercise and you try and eat, eat healthy.

00:07:08.760 And at the same time, on a societal level, we want a population that is physically fit and

00:07:15.640 like, so that they can go fight in war if need be, but also so that they don't cost the

00:07:20.540 healthcare system billions of dollars on obesity treatments and, and other things.

00:07:27.540 You know, you can mix a body modification into this.

00:07:30.260 You know, that if, when we have people spending tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of

00:07:36.300 dollars modifying their bodies, whether it's, you know, just because they want bigger breasts 1.00

00:07:41.180 or because, you know, it's, you know, earrings, tattoos, uh, weird piercings, um, bigger tits, 1.00

00:07:48.860 transsexualism, uh, becoming a dragon. 1.00

00:07:52.960 Each of these are a small step along the way. 0.55

00:07:56.820 And there's no reason not to take that next step along that path.

00:08:02.180 And eventually you wind up with a system that is a state of affairs that is very confusing

00:08:12.020 and is very disruptive.

00:08:14.600 And what do you do about that then?

00:08:19.260 So right now we have this, this generation of women that have been, they've been taught

00:08:25.420 by the system that having sex is empowering.

00:08:28.400 And it doesn't, you don't have to do much to convince a teenager to have sex.

00:08:32.740 Okay.

00:08:33.060 They're, they're raging with hormones. 0.83

00:08:34.320 Of course they want to have sex.

00:08:35.760 And if you tell them that it's empowering and the broken heart is worth the five minute 0.99

00:08:40.000 orgasm and, you know, be proud of your STD status and that, you know, homosexuality is 1.00

00:08:48.240 perfectly normal and should be encouraged. 0.64

00:08:50.480 Uh, you get to the point where people are having, they're isolated.

00:08:56.100 Okay.

00:08:56.500 They're, they're hooking up on Tinder, but they are no longer able to feel intimacy.

00:09:00.400 There's a lot of damage being done, a lot of confusion.

00:09:03.620 And, you know, I was reading this one article in a mainstream publication and it was generally

00:09:08.920 talking about the whole feminist script and how that is leaving women feeling absolutely

00:09:13.780 miserable. 0.75

00:09:14.720 You know, the, the casual sex is making them feel used and the, the careers and the corporations,

00:09:20.700 which are all exciting and, you know, glamorous at first leave them feeling empty and hollow

00:09:25.740 and lonely as they get older.

00:09:27.960 And of course the obvious solution to all of this is to say, maybe they shouldn't be

00:09:31.980 doing that.

00:09:32.920 You know, maybe there's a way that people are meant to live that they're not, they're

00:09:39.100 not living up to that ideal.

00:09:41.120 You know, which isn't to say we're, we're all identical robots that need to be the same,

00:09:44.800 but to say that, you know, we're each unique, but we do fall into patterns.

00:09:52.960 The article completely sidestepped this absolutely obvious conclusion to conclude that we needed

00:09:59.160 more feminism, you know, or as the, the radicals in the university like to say, we need more 1.00

00:10:03.580 study of this.

00:10:07.360 You know, I've commented before how evil spreads faster than good.

00:10:16.100 You know, it's like Yoda says, it's quicker and easier, though it's not stronger.

00:10:21.160 And so when you, you have this hookup culture, there's a lot of damage that gets spread around.

00:10:30.380 A lot of pain happening.

00:10:33.160 And so somebody needs to come and arbitrate that pain to, to say who did what to whom,

00:10:41.540 who was in the right, who was wrong.

00:10:43.720 When you have this casual sex resulting in lots of single mothers, you know, well, who's 0.99

00:10:49.600 going to support those single mothers, you know, letting, letting them starve to death 1.00

00:10:53.680 and letting kids die in the street.

00:10:55.120 That doesn't seem right to us.

00:10:57.540 So progressively we need more and more of this, this state to regulate things.

00:11:04.480 Take the obesity epidemic.

00:11:07.720 When we have people, you know, and it's like, okay, well, you know, today I want to have,

00:11:13.280 you know, a cigar and some whiskey, or I want to eat some Doritos, or I want to,

00:11:19.600 so on and so forth, until you get to the obesity epidemic.

00:11:25.640 And so now we want the state to do something about it.

00:11:28.380 We want free health care for everybody, because it's not fair that somebody with a glandular

00:11:32.960 disorder should have to pay more for health care.

00:11:36.160 And we also want them to start limiting the size of beverages.

00:11:40.320 You know, when we start saying that there's no judgment to be had on any sort of sexual

00:11:49.080 deviancy, we, the transgender bathroom issue is the natural result of that. 1.00

00:11:55.840 All of a sudden we need government stepping in and saying, saying whatever.

00:12:01.040 Either that you have to allow men that claim they are women to use the women's washroom and 0.95

00:12:05.900 to change at the pool in front of little girls, or that we aren't going to allow it. 0.96

00:12:11.200 And then you have this complete liberal uproar over what the government's doing.

00:12:16.480 The problem is that both sides are trying to do something instead of people policing themselves.

00:12:24.160 Now, a religious people, people that acknowledge a higher truth and strive to live up to that

00:12:34.220 higher truth, will naturally police themselves.

00:12:39.200 They won't always agree on everything.

00:12:41.640 And Lord knows there is constant debate within the church and between different branches of

00:12:47.080 Christianity.

00:12:47.640 But when religious people disagree with one another, they don't disagree on the existence

00:12:55.400 of God and that we are being watched, we are being measured.

00:13:00.140 And not in a terrifying way either, okay?

00:13:03.360 Like the whole sky daddy thing.

00:13:06.820 Not necessarily in a terrifying way.

00:13:09.380 You know, and that we're also offered a lot of help and that we help one another out.

00:13:14.000 Because none of us is living without sin.

00:13:17.640 Like, we were talking about obesity.

00:13:20.840 Listen, the father at my church, he is very morally courageous, incredibly compassionate.

00:13:29.560 And you know what?

00:13:31.240 Kind of a big guy.

00:13:32.340 I think he likes his pizzas.

00:13:34.220 But you know what?

00:13:35.260 He's following the discipline of St. Paul.

00:13:39.140 So I think he's entitled to indulge a little bit in, you know, having a little bit too much

00:13:45.620 to eat every once in a while.

00:13:46.700 You know, and like, we all have our own burdens to overcome, our own difficulties.

00:13:57.280 And so nobody in the religious community is pretending to be perfect.

00:14:00.540 All right?

00:14:00.940 We're trying to become better.

00:14:03.260 We're trying to mitigate our errors and improve upon them as time goes on.

00:14:08.960 And there will be debates.

00:14:12.080 You know, what is appropriate in this scenario?

00:14:15.980 And it's not always the same answer for everybody.

00:14:18.520 The point is that we're trying to get better.

00:14:20.740 And so we not only, we police ourselves as individuals, but with one another, we try and

00:14:28.160 help lift one another up.

00:14:29.720 Because we're each trying to understand what the best version of ourselves is.

00:14:36.660 And we understand that there's a much higher commitment that we all have.

00:14:42.300 So we, the pornography, the reason that we resist even that first step down that road, you know,

00:14:51.100 just copying a file, you know?

00:14:53.720 You wouldn't download a bike, would you?

00:14:55.580 You're not stealing anything.

00:14:57.860 You're not encouraging it.

00:14:59.580 You're, it's just a copied file, right?

00:15:01.540 But you understand that you're doing something to yourself in the process and that you're

00:15:07.460 taking a step down into the wrong path.

00:15:13.620 Same thing for drunkenness and drug addiction.

00:15:17.020 But I mean, even Christ drank wine.

00:15:22.960 It's a question of what we're most tempted, what is most dangerous for us, and trying to

00:15:28.100 resist and be better than that.

00:15:31.540 So, religious people will wind up naturally policing themselves. 1.00

00:15:37.420 And there will occasionally be disagreements.

00:15:39.620 You know, certainly over finances, over property and whatnot.

00:15:43.180 But it's rather, those are rather simple things to put into a code of law.

00:15:47.680 That's the sort of the thing, that's the sort of thing government can define because it's

00:15:51.600 objective.

00:15:52.440 It's out there.

00:15:53.360 It's outside ourself.

00:15:54.900 Even if you don't like the property law, at least you understand what the property law

00:15:59.540 is.

00:16:00.520 You can lobby to change it if you really think so, but it's more about having the rules

00:16:05.960 laid out there.

00:16:07.160 Simple, basic, not too complex.

00:16:11.240 Where is the definition of what sort of people we're trying to be?

00:16:16.080 How a man or a woman should live their life? 0.99

00:16:19.260 That's something governments aren't very good at defining.

00:16:25.500 Because it's not objective.

00:16:27.000 It's spiritual.

00:16:29.420 And in the church, we work with one another to be the best versions of ourselves.

00:16:33.840 And again, you just go back to the innate common sense.

00:16:39.040 Collecting STDs, irresponsibly having children, being incredibly unhealthy, being addicted to

00:16:50.100 drugs or to video games or to movies or anything.

00:16:55.040 We innately know that these aren't healthy.

00:16:58.260 And we appeal to the guilt that we feel within one another.

00:17:02.000 Because we do acknowledge that we're imperfect and there is a higher moral power.

00:17:05.780 If you reject the concept of absolute truth, the concept of God, of a higher moral law that

00:17:14.840 we all feel in our hearts that can be appealed to, if you reject that, then somebody needs

00:17:22.000 to define the good way of living.

00:17:24.200 Somebody needs to define what human life is meant to be.

00:17:32.520 And so currently in our society, the good life being promoted is sexual degeneracy. 0.80

00:17:40.080 You know, don't you dare shame me.

00:17:42.800 The good life in communist countries was the exact opposite. 0.98

00:17:46.100 Homosexuals were put into gulags. 0.99

00:17:48.620 You know, because we didn't try and help them become better people. 1.00

00:17:51.400 We just put them to death. 1.00

00:17:52.960 They're useless. 1.00

00:17:53.480 Oh, a lot of more? 1.00

00:17:54.660 Oh, those people aren't radical enough. 1.00

00:17:56.100 We'll just kill all of them. 1.00

00:18:01.780 And so this is why atheists so often turn to statism. 1.00

00:18:09.960 Because they're nihilistic at the end of the day.

00:18:12.260 They don't believe in an absolute truth.

00:18:15.000 They try and have the objective truth without acknowledging the higher truth, the absolute truth.

00:18:21.980 Right?

00:18:22.220 They're trying to have their cake and eat it, too.

00:18:24.680 And because they reject this higher moral law that they're called to, what they end up doing

00:18:29.100 is rationalizing everything they do.

00:18:32.240 Right? 1.00

00:18:32.580 So jerking off to pornography, that's okay. 1.00

00:18:35.260 Sleeping with this girl that I like but I don't want to marry, that's okay. 1.00

00:18:39.180 Or just sleeping with whatever girl I run into, you know, even if it breaks her heart, that's okay.

00:18:45.640 Leaving her with a kid and then running off on her, that's okay. 0.84

00:18:49.840 And so now you need some organization to implement some mockery of justice and try and just keep things medicated and keep things running.

00:19:02.080 Man is meant for God.

00:19:09.400 We are all called to sainthood, to live the life of a saint.

00:19:15.480 We are not made for this world, okay?

00:19:23.620 This world is not enough for us.

00:19:25.460 And when we throw away the idea of becoming better people, when we accept ourselves just as we are, well, you're either getting better or you're getting worse.

00:19:35.180 And when we try and make moral law on our own, when we try and invent our own moral law, there's always a piece missing.

00:19:45.040 There's always a way to cheat the system.

00:19:47.640 And each time somebody cheats the system, we need a new law.

00:19:51.100 And we wind up with this monstrous, this corporate world of just misery and enemy and isolation.

00:19:59.320 And so instead of acknowledging that the corporate world is sick, that this society is sick, we medicate people.

00:20:07.300 Little boys aren't sitting down and learning all the schoolwork in a boring environment.

00:20:13.480 Ritalin.

00:20:15.300 You know, women are miserable because they don't have children and none of the men they sleep with love them. 1.00

00:20:22.220 Antidepressants.

00:20:22.740 You know, we induce the problems because we're selfish and we don't want to admit we're wrong.

00:20:30.980 So we create all these problems.

00:20:33.000 And instead of saying, oops, we made a mistake, we try and invent a new solution.

00:20:38.760 Another patch, another patch, another patch.

00:20:42.680 Until we are nothing but a fleet of ships held together with duct tape and bubble gum and not a prayer in sight.

00:20:52.740 Deus Volt, folks.

00:20:56.480 Berrini out.

00:21:22.740 Oh, and one last thing, before any of the wags down the comment section complain.

00:21:30.420 This is not proof of God.

00:21:32.020 I'm not claiming to prove God in this.

00:21:34.620 I'm just observing that people who have faith tend to live in freer societies.

00:21:39.940 Peace.

00:21:40.340 Peace.

00:21:40.940 Peace.

00:21:41.380 Peace.

00:21:41.880 Peace.

00:21:41.900 Peace.

00:21:41.960 Peace.

00:21:42.220 Peace.

00:21:42.680 Peace.

00:21:42.940 Peace.

00:21:43.120 Peace.

00:21:43.920 Peace.

00:21:44.040 Peace.

00:21:44.360 Peace.

00:21:44.380 Peace.

00:21:44.800 Peace.

00:21:44.960 Peace.

00:21:45.860 Peace.

00:21:46.220 Peace.

00:21:47.320 Peace.

00:21:48.360 I'm back.

00:21:48.860 Peace.

00:21:49.320 Peace.

00:21:49.440 Peace.

00:21:51.340 Peace.

00:21:52.080 Peace.

00:21:53.780 Peace.

00:21:54.120 Peace.

00:21:54.320 と지つまいつば

00:21:55.840 Peace.

00:21:56.220 Peace.

00:21:57.340 dominion.

00:21:57.640 Peace.

00:21:57.740 Peace.

00:21:59.120 Peace.

00:21:59.860 Peace.

00:22:01.380 Peace.

00:22:01.740 Prison.

00:22:02.180 Peace.

00:22:03.020 Peace.

00:22:03.980 ешь.

00:22:06.020 Peace.

00:22:06.120 Peace.

00:22:06.540 Peace.

00:22:07.800 Peace.

00:22:07.980 Peace.

00:22:08.360 Peace.

00:22:08.840 Peace.

Leo D.M.J. Aurini - April 19, 2016

Why Atheists Become Statists

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