Source: AryAMsha
Who would’ve thought that the Bible Belt will turn out to be more religious than Italy, Greece, Portugal and Spain a hundred years ago. “Wasn’t part of the founding stock Prot zealots?” Yes, but the Puritans were gone even before the Revolutionary War started. Puritans > Yankees > Unitarians You can trace the progression of individual Puritan families from theocracy to global protestantism to universalist unitarianism (c.f - Beecher family) Fundamentalist scriptural literalists would be a good way to define Baptists. It’s weird how they combine aspects of modernity with Biblical Fundamentalism. Look at their auditorium style theatre churches, christian music festivals & christian rock music for example.
One thing I’ve noticed (that may be obvious to others too) is that the only ethnoreligious groups that can put up an effective wall of opposition against modernity are those which adhere to blindfolded scriptural literalism. They cut off all dialogue with scientific positivism. The groups that try to “engage” with rationalism, post-modernism, empiricism & scientific positivism dilute their beliefs step-by-step until they’re left completely exposed. At this point, these groups adopt reformist positions.
This isn’t a weakness of religion as much as it’s a weakness of the inherent structure of the mind. Few are intelligent enough to synthesize so much knowledge that they can read hundreds of books written by 21st century scholars & still not let it affect their belief. This is why it was considered dangerous in ancient societies to let everyone and anyone read whatever they want. Most people will adopt the views of whatever smart academic scholar they read on that topic for the first time, rather than reading 10 more books on it.
This is why Kumarila Bhatta & Sallustious both considered the myths of the popular religions to play a useful role, a noble lie, in keeping the masses hooked to religion. The esoteric mysteries & metaphysical meanings of the myths were never going to be the domain of the masses. Vedanta or Platonism or even Christian Scholasticism were never things the average European or Indian knew about. Popular folk religion is necessary to keep a society pious. Those myths do have meaning, beyond the material world; however, it is not transparent. It’s hidden. “The Gods love the esoteric and they hate the obvious” (parokSha-priyAH hi devAH pratykaSha-dveSaH)
What modernity has done is shatter the faith of the laity in priests & in popular religion. But the laity isn’t well-equipped in hermeneutics or exegesis of ritual to regain faith in it’s efficacy. So the laity is cut-off from the “upper level” understanding of religion.
So what kind of religious movements resist modernity? It must be obvious now, those kind which double-down on the “low level” understanding of myth and scripture. Which completely cut off all dialogue with the ivory tower academic elite. No negotiations leads to no compromise.
Btw, to further substantiate our hypothesis take a look at religious beliefs of American Muslims. They’re the groups that have the strongest belief in scriptural quranic literalism. They’re also as conservative as Southern Evangelicals. Take a look at the Hindu stats too.
This conversation was inspired by discussion w a friend who told me what was the point of studying european philosophy and the enlightenment if it’s end result was the supremacy of historical materialism and scientific positivism? (This assumes that the end result “is here”.)