What do "Rick and Morty", the Russian Revolution, "South Park", and Hobbes have in common? Well, in various ways they are interconnected, each revealing the problematic features of society in relation to institutionalized religion (as well as its accompanying ideological values). Organized religion as an ideological apparatus has allowed distasteful figures (as seen throughout the Russian Revolution) to rise of power. Moreover, the aforementioned cartoons and historical event notably and fastidiously portrayed the way in which humans try to explicate factors beyond their control. Finally, historical pasts, as well as contemporary cartoons, reveal the root of society’s issue in relation to organized religion (this is applicable to strict atheists, anyone who think they ‘know’ it all when in reality they lack concrete evidence and vice versa) is its accompanying ideological value of absolutism.
Organized religion in its entirety is an absolutist theory, meaning all of its ideological values (which includes its moral values and scientific explanations). Essentially, the absolutist has an answer for everything as well as a self-contrived explanation for events that are explicable through the use of science or even events that us humans simply cannot determine the cause of at all. For instance, I can genuinely say I will not know what happens to me when I die. How could I possibly determine that? Which is why, I believe there is no use in sitting around and contemplating something beyond our control as well as our understanding. My aforementioned argument is supported by Hobbes when he argues on behalf of man’s incessant quest for explanations that, “This perpetual fear, always accompanying mankind in the ignorance of causes…And therefore, when there is nothing to be seen, there is nothing to accuse, either or their good or evil fortune, but some ‘power’ or agent ‘invisible’ in which sense perhaps it was that some it was that some of the old poets said that the gods were created by human fear; which spoken of the gods, that is to say of the many gods of the Gentiles, is very true. But the acknowledging of one God, eternal, infinite, and omnipotent, may more easily be derived, from the desire men have to know the causes of natural bodies and their several virtues and operations, than from the fear of what was to befall them in time to come (Hobbes 7).” This segues into my two primary examples of the two previously addressed (satirical) cartoons, "Rick and Morty" (Season 2: Episode 5) and "South Park" (Season 10: Episode 12 ).
As aforementioned, religion uses absolutist explanations in order to explicate every perceived natural event, despite the blatant fact that they lack the knowledge, understanding, and most importantly, the total control that is required to fully determine its rudimentary cause. In "Rick and Morty," “Get Schwifty,” giant yellow heads come to Earth and says the following, “Show me what you got!” So, of course the logical thing to do is praise the ‘giant’ heads, right? (Which is exactly what some people proceed to do.) However, the average person watching the show is in tune to the scientific truth as revealed to them by (one of the main characters) Dr. Rick Sanchez as well as his grandson, Morty. The real reason these giant heads were there is because they were from another planet and they wanted planet Earth to sing to them. Essentially, them asking ‘what Earth’s got’ is their way of asking Earthlings to sing a hit song. It is all a part of an inter-dimensional reality TV show (it’s basically their deranged equivalent of "American Idol" or "The Voice"). Rick knows these enormous, yellow heads are not so amicable (as they might appear to be according to those who decidedly started worshipping it with the misconception that it is a primarily benevolent deity, who just happens to be displeased with the people at that given moment) granted they obliterate planets to which they, “Don’t like what they’ve got.” Ultimately, Rick and Morty save the day, but the underlying message is that our contrived explanations for the inexplicable events are most likely insufficient granted they cannot be feasibly tested. Sometimes people began to believe these fallacies wholeheartedly, yet their efforts are often misguided because their ‘facts’ are not ‘facts’ at all; they are either coincidences based on chance or events that cannot be explained without any concrete proof.
As aforementioned, religion is an absolutist moral theory, which may be problematic if what is universally regarded as moral theory is misconstrued. It is also imperative to note that it is detrimental to have an absolutist attitude especially when it is not entirely rooted in fact, because it can evidently be subjected to change. Coincidental explanations provide people with justifications for a theory that is rooted in the invisible. Essentially, just as religion has its faults, why is it any better to be an arrogant atheist? Thus, I am brought to my second and third examples regarding South Park’s episode entitled, “Go God Go” and the widely renown self-proclaimed atheistic historical event, the Russian Revolution.
Upon studying the Bolshevik acquisition to power, I noticed it is firmly interconnected to religious rhetoric. The Bolshevik Communists of the former Soviet Union were atheists, but their emotionally charged, rhetoric in terms of ideological values had absolutist implications that are often associated with organized religion. Hobbes is an atheist as well, yet there is one notably apparent distinction. As aforementioned, Hobbes is not driven by the absolutist's way of thinking that he must prove which side is ‘right.’ He accepts the position that we do not know and cannot determine the cause of good and evil.
Amidst the revolution, religion was viewed as obsolete in Russia, yet ironically their ideological values in relation to the Bolshevik party harkened back to practices similar to that of organized religion. Mayakovsky is a prime example of an individual who used religious imagery as a way to explicate the central purpose of propaganda, meaning he included pious analogies as a way of making the propaganda easy to understand. The strategic placement of religious ideology allowed Russian peasants to understand the revolution’s importance in terms they could understand (given most of them understand these religious symbols better than the revolution itself).
Secondly, the Bolshevik party was an absolutist party, meaning if your values did not coincide with Lenin’s than you could be arrested, killed, or exiled. How is this treatment of Christians, Jews, or non-Bolsheviks in general any better than the horrific way organized religions have treated one another? When Lenin finally died, his body was embalmed and left in public memorial for approximately 65 years. The people treated Lenin like Jesus, which he clearly was not. Moreover, this practice of embalming Lenin is strikingly similar to the relics of Saints that have been acquired and preserved by the Catholic Church. Essentially the example of the Soviet Union indicates that even a society based on atheism can still, contradictory to their belief, emulate the ideological values that accompany organized religion. Human beings cannot determine the existence of a higher power any less than they can disprove this said power. Moreover, if one were to review the numerous wars consecrated on behalf of adversarial divisive doctrines, one would find it is often connected to religious absolutism associated with organized religion. However, I will end with my concluding example regarding atheistic absolutism depicted in the cartoon "South Park".
In South Park’s “Go God Go”, Mrs. Garrison is a Christian teacher at South Park Elementary School who profusely refuses to teach her classroom Darwin’s theory of evolution. When she goes on a date later that day, her date criticizes religion, calling it “an argument from ignorance.” Suddenly, Mrs. Garrison miraculously ‘agrees’ with atheism (most plausibly because she was using her date as means to gain sex as an end). Regardless, this realization pushes Dawkins (the date) to the conclusion that it is “his duty to rid the world of religion and bring about peace with its abolition.” While this goes on, Cartman becomes frozen and is discovered hundreds of years later. Interestingly, the writers of "South Park" depicted an entirely atheistic future caused by the permeation of evolution into the school’s curriculum. Much to the dismay of atheists who claim life would be ‘SO much better’ without religion this episode unearths that as a mere fallacy. They prove this by depicting a world that IS entirely atheistic, but is still divided into sectors who constantly fight over who has the “right answer to ‘the great question.’” These sectors included the ‘United Atheist Alliance (UAA)’ and the ‘Unified Atheist League (UAL).’ These opposing sides start countless wars amongst one another solely because they disagree about what the atheist league should be called. (Yes, it was that petty of a reason that divided these two groups of individuals, causing them to be increasingly violent towards one another). It is then probable to make the assumption that mankind needs to simply eradicate their absolutist way of thinking, even in terms of something as simplistic as a name.
Conclusively, the problem isn’t organized religion itself, but rather the issue lies in its problematic ideological value of absolutism. Thus, the problem is that not enough people think like Hobbes, meaning we need to learn to accept that we do not have all the answers. Instead of focusing on divisive factors and proving who is ‘right’ we should just live our lives according to what we know and not based on some form of honor code supplemented by the bible or scientific code. My concluding statement is that we should aim to live in a world where everyone respects one another’s opinions and recognizes that one’s own opinion is merely insignificant in the grand scheme of things. In the end, we must all coexist in order to generate true unity and happiness; Additionally, we should abandon our quest to answer what cannot be explained.
