I recently interviewed philosopher Ron Lindsay about his new book, Against the New Politics of Identity. During the interview, I asked Ron about the claim that the new leftist idiology, or wokeism, is a religion. His response, lightly edited for clarity, is below:

Ron Lindsay: I’m a little reluctant to embrace that because, just for constitutional law purposes, I’ve always wanted to make the point that an essential element of religion is a belief in something supernatural. In fact, I think that’s the only way you can consistently distinguish religion from secular ideologies.

Now, what wokeism and religion do have in common is this sense of certainty. The sense that there’s a dogma out there that I can’t question. So, it is true that, among some on the left, they are simply unwilling to consider evidence that might be contrary to their viewpoint, whether it’s systemic racism, standpoint theory, or the view that equity must take precedence over other selection criteria.

So, this idea that there is a set of principles that you can’t question, that is something that these secular ideologies do share with religion. If you want to call it a religion… There are analogies, like original sin and blasphemy, so I can see it.

Watch the full interview on the Atheists for Liberty YouTube channel:

To support our mission to normalize atheism and preserve free thinking, sign up for our newsletter or join us as a member.

---

Ronald Lindsay is a lawyer, philosopher, and has served as the president and CEO of the Center for Inquiry. He’s the author of several books including Future Bioethics, The Necessity of Secularism, and Against the New Politics of Identity.