Is Politics a religion?

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Published on Saturday, 27 October 2012 06:32

Written by John Draper

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Politicians usually belong to a party that has a set of principles.? These are then used as the basis for policies and each new member must agree that they are in agreement with them.? They are not factual things like being able to speak a particular language, having a level of education, living in certain locations etc - No they are principles, beliefs,? commitments, intentions etc.? I have extracted the principles for Canada's main parties:? ?Conservatives, NDP and Liberals.? (Download a short pdf for each by clicking their names).? It's immediately obvious that these principles are very similar structurally to the dogmas of Churches.? They require belief on Faith although like theology, research is done to justify each belief.? None of this would matter except that people with these dogmas run our country!? If they ignored the dogmas and decided what to do based on reason, evidence and even common sense, then it would not matter what they believed.? Some actions are like that but too many times, dogma is used as the basis for actions.

It's made even worse when dogmas from an MP's personal religion is used as the basis for an action.? This often happens when an issue is unrelated to a political dogma.? For example, gay marriage and abortion are not mentioned in the principles of any Canadian party.

The thought that politics is a form of religion is complicated by the fact that certain religions tend to? be related to political parties.? For example, Conservatives are more likely to be religious (Catholics or fundamentalists) while NDP members have a higher proportion of atheists.? But that's not what I am discussing here.

Let's think about it.? If you belong to a religion and you have a set of dogmas, then when you come to decide something that relates to one of the dogmas, it will decide for you what to do.? For example, Catholics don't think about whether to choose an abortion or not - they know not to have one.? Or at least faithful Catholics are supposed to act that way.? But politicians also have a set of dogmas - when an issue comes up for a decision, they will base their decision on their principles.? They are acting the same way as a religious person.? What they should be doing is deciding each issue on its merits using evidence and reason - not faith.

And it's not just the politicians - their supporters think like that too.? In effect, they have a religion that is what their party preaches.? They could also have a theist religion so would then have two religions - which may or may not conflict!?? Not every supporter accepts all of their party's dogma? - many choose based on the issues for each election.? That's just as well - otherwise we'd never get a change in government.

Let me highlight one "principle" for each Canadian party:

Conservative
A belief that the purpose of Canada as a nation state and its government, guided by reflective and prudent leadership, is to create a climate wherein individual initiative is rewarded, excellence is pursued, security and privacy of the individual is provided and prosperity is guaranteed by a free competitive market economy.

Liberal party
The Liberal Party of Canada is committed to the view that the dignity of each individual man and woman is the cardinal principle of democratic society and the primary purpose of all political organization and activity in such a society.

NDP
That the production and distribution of goods and services shall be directed to meeting the social and individual needs of people within a sustainable environment and economy and not to the making of profit;

So, simplistically, if an MP from each party were to be faced with a decision about the economy, a Conservative would support "a free competitive market economy", a Liberal would support "the dignity of each individual man and woman" (whatever that means) and the NDP would ensure the environment was looked after and no profit was made. In practice, few decisions on the economy can be made based only on these principles - or even all the party's principles.? Like any decision, the facts of the particular case must be known, all the options considered and the best choice made that was right for all those affected.? This requires an approach much like a scientist uses in establishing how things work.? What I'm afraid of is that politicians might use an approach used by religious? people e.g. "What does my religion (dogma) say? Let's do that."? Easy but not based on reason, logic or evidence.

Allan Gregg recently addressed Carlton University on this subject. (Text here - more from Allan in a column in the Toronto Star)? His thesis is that the Harper Government is using their Conservative dogma to make decisions and throwing reason out the window.? My view is that he is biased against Harper but that he has a point.? However, I would be very sure that other politicians would do the same - especially if they had a majority.? I think it's a problem with politicians, not just with Harper.

Viewed from Canada, the U.S. has the same problem but worse - the intransigence of both parties on the "fiscal cliff" issue is based on their ideologies (dogmas).? The solution is to stop treating politics like a religion but that's hard when Americans are so steeped in religion and see strong faith as a virtue.

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Source: http://www.cobourgatheist.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1527:is-politics-a-religion&catid=58&Itemid=165

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