Mass entertainment sustains religious habits of thought even after belief in God fades

Evidence

Who needs religion when you have television? On soap operas, unlike in life, villainous characters almost always face their comeuppance. TV cops may now be required to have “complicated” private lives and dubious personal ethics, but we’re seldom in any serious doubt about the difference between good and evil, and on which side of the line the maverick cop ultimately falls. The persistence of the fantasy that justice is guaranteed — a religious fantasy — wouldn’t have surprised the great thinkers of modernity. Theorists such as Spinoza, Kant, Nietzsche and Marx argued that atheism was extremely difficult to practise. It’s all very well professing a lack of belief in God, but it’s much harder to give up the habits of thought which assume providence, divine justice and a secure distinction between good and evil. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 694

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Fisher’s broader theme in later chapters of capitalist realism and how ideology persists not as belief but as concealed assumption. — connects to: Atheism can become culturally stable despite religion’s cognitive head start. — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 628; Modern religiosity persists after its supernatural objects are excised — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 864; Religion’s resurgence reflects political instrumentalization, not personal piety — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1664 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Modern religiosity persists after its supernatural objects are excised #corroborates (0.88) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 864
• Religious belief persists through multiple independent sustaining mechanisms #expands (0.80)
• Atheism can become culturally stable despite religion’s cognitive head start. #expands (0.75) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 628
• Habitual analytic thinking produces and deepens religious doubt #complicates (0.75)
• Religion’s resurgence reflects political instrumentalization, not personal piety #qualifies (0.72) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 1664
• Religious communities endure through organized repetition of apologetics and intellectual hierarchy #expands (0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1222