[adaisadais]

As religious faith has declined, comment intensity on HN has risen.

All joking aside this is a pretty well-known phenomenon that folks like Hegel and Nietzsche have discussed. The Enlightenment has had its tentacles on formalized religion for over 300 years in the Western World.

Nietzsche’s mad man who runs about the town telling people that “God is Dead” is not meant to be taken as a positive or light statement. Nietzsche posited that many of the key elements of modern society would cease to have meaning. Why then, if man is not created in the image of God, should man treat fellow man in any which way? What justification does one have for not harming fellow man if his fellow man is but ape?

Books I loved with perspectives on this are “Enlightenment Now” by Steven Pinker and “The Rise of the Modern Self” by Carl Trueman.

“You gotta serve somebody.” -Bob Dylan

[AndrewKemendo]

You're correct that this isn't really new territory in philosophy - but "lay" people are actually starting to see it play out at scale in society which is making them perk their ears up.

I doubt we'll see Beyond Good and Evil become a NYT bestseller unfortunately.