Voting is to Government, what praying is to God

Consider the following...

Imagine if you were forced to attend a religious or religion approved school 7 hours a day, more or less 5 days a week, and on aggregate about 7 months a year. At this religious school they would teach you writing math and science, but they would also teach you religion. Would you expect the person who came out of this education to believe in God? Of course you would. I'm sure you could have some debate on this or that verse of the bible, and debates about the extent of God. You would have Biblical extremists and literalists, and people who have a more moderate view of God, that didn't take the Bible too literally, or even not taking the bible as true at all. BUT they would all agree on the existence of a God.

The graduates of this school would certainly be civil in debates about God, or most will at least. Many will even stress inter-faith relations,BUT as soon as you question the existence of God altogether than the debate becomes hostile. They will argue unreasonably and make objections in bad faith. They will refuse to recognize that the burden of proof is on them, they will be dismissive, they will not think but fight ex-post facto.

Contrast that with....

Imagine you were force to attend a state, or state-approved school 7 hours a day, more or less 5 days a week, and on aggregate about 7 months a year. At this school they would teach you writing math and science, but they would also teach you "history" and the founding of the government. Would you expect the person who came out of this education to believe in the virtue and necessity of the state? Of course you would. I'm sure you could have some debates about government involvement on this or that issue, and debates about the extent of Government. You would have political socialists and militarists, and people who have a more libertarian view of government that advocated minimal interference, BUT they would all agree on the necessity and virtue of Government.

The graduates of this school would certainly be civil in debates about Government, or most will at least. Many will even stress inter-ideology relations, BUT as soon as you question the existence of Government altogether than the debate becomes hostile. They will argue unreasonably and make objections in bad faith. They will refuse to recognize that the burden of proof is on them, they will be dismissive, they will not think but fight ex-post facto.

Voting is to government what praying is to god. The reason that so many people still believe that praying makes a difference is because when they were young, they were taught or indoctrinated that praying is a way to get a God to change the world to their preferences. In reality, there is no god.  There are just people, like priests, who claim to speak on behalf of God.

The reason that so many people believe voting makes difference is because they were young, they were taught or indoctrinated into believing that voting is a way to get a government to change the world to your preferences.

In reality, there is no government. There are just people, politicians who claim to speak on behalf of a government.

The reality is there is no god and there is no government. There are just people and their silly ideas.