I should start this out by pointing out that most of you are not going to want to read this. If your dander gets up easily over the idea that someone could have the gall to question and criticize things that most people consider off-limits then please read another column. I would also like to point out that my views, as logical as level-headed as I feel they are, are not necessarily reflective of those held by the publisher of The Local Voice. The religious convictions of the publisher, if indeed there are any to speak of, are unknown (and irrelevant) to me.
“To argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine to the dead.” — Thomas Paine, The Crisis
Religion casts a large shadow. It permeates the lives of almost every single person, in every single country, on every single continent. It lays the framework for the behavior of almost every person who has ever existed. It would seem to me that this is exactly the sort of thing we may want to keep an eye on, and call into question from time to time. Many people, for reasons unknown even to them, cringe at the idea that belief in supernatural goings-on are not real. Their gut reaction is one of discomfort and disgust. If we could move past that initial knee-jerk reaction we could arrive at a place where a truly objective discourse is welcome. It is my hope that this particular column serves, not to rake the muck, but to encourage independent thought, or at least the toleration thereof.
It is my sincere feeling that religion is not only untrue, but among the worst notions that mankind clings to.
In millennia past Man had no way of knowing much about anything outside of his immediate surroundings. The nature of the stars, the changing of the seasons, strange lights in the sky, the illusion of design and the peculiar behavior of fellow men all must have had our ancestors scratching their heads in befuddlement. Man being the domineering creature that he is, quite naturally had to have answers to these questions and had to have them immediately. The problem is that our ancestors did not have the tools with which to decipher these mysteries. They could not fathom that stars are nuclear reactors that forge the atoms, nor could they grasp the rotation and revolution of our Earth, comets, evolution, natural selection and the nature of mental illness. Requiring answers in their here-and-now, the heavens became Heaven, seasons and weather phenomena were the work of magicians (and later, the gods), the illusion of design was the work of a Creator-god and Tourette’s syndrome was possession by evil spirits.
Times have moved on, of course. The ancient pantheon of gods has been whittled down to one god, which many see as an improvement somehow. Looking at the world in which we inhabit, I would beg to differ. Sure, we have a longer life expectancy now, but that is due to people behaving rationally and logically, not superstitiously. We now understand a great deal about the nature of our little solar system, but again, prayer had nothing to do with that. Indeed, with every great step forward that science has given mankind religion has been there resisting it.
And why?
There are many examples of religion being a force for good. It gave order to ancient cultures. Some devoutly religious people (too few) are good about feeding the less fortunate. It kept people from eating meat that easily spoils in a desert climate. And so on, and so on. My purpose here is not to say that religion did not serve its purpose in days past, but rather that its time has come and gone. The Earth is a crowded place now. In ancient times there were not nearly as many people on the planet. Although war is apparently a constant, for the most part ancient cultures could afford to live and let live because those cultures weren’t bumping elbows with one another and thusly, agitating one another quite so much. In an age when weapons of mass destruction are getting harder to keep track of, religion has become the most dangerous of things.
Religions, almost all religions, are mutually incompatible. Each one claims its utter inerrancy. Logically, someone is wrong. Many people today consider themselves moderately religious, and they see no problem with that. After all, they aren’t the ones flying planes into buildings. They aren’t the ones shooting abortion doctors. These are the people who flip through their “holy” texts and cherry-pick which parts they want to believe and which lessons don’t put a crimp in their daily lives. They overlook all the writings in those texts that portray their god as a vicious, murderous, genocidal, racist, exclusionary, homophobic, megalomaniacal, woman-hating madman of a deity who would be unfit for worship even if he was real. They are not the true believers who wage holy war.
But they do provide the madmen who take the contents of their “holy” texts in a literal fashion a safe haven. They tolerate the behavior of the truly religious, and that, to me, is cause for alarm. I find it odd that there are very few Muslims who condemn the actions of the suicide bombers. I find it odd that there are very few orthodox Jewish folks speaking out against the government of Israel for their military actions that leave innocent children and women dead in the Gaza Strip and in the West Bank. And I find the lack of Christian voices condemning the murders of doctors who perform abortions to be disconcerting.
Perhaps “odd” and “disconcerting” are the wrong words. “Typical” seems more apt. It is typical of human nature to protect and condone the actions of one’s own kind, even when they are clearly in the wrong (and there are perfectly logical, Darwinian reasons for this, but I have neither the time, column space, nor the inclination to go into it here). It is typical of a young girl to take her best friend’s side in disputes, no matter how petty. It is typical for males to take up for their brother who is suddenly losing a fight he started. This behavior is commonplace but tolerable in the grand scheme of things since usually only hurt feelings and perhaps a bloody nose are the worst of the consequences. Today we find ourselves in a world where in an instant any number of us could perish over disagreements about the validity of ancient scribblings written by livestock-sacrificing primitives. Man’s unique characteristic of carrying grudges over generations is perpetuated by an irrational, unfounded set of contradictory and incompatible beliefs.
It is time for critical analysis, untouched by agenda, to affect our politics. It is time for people who do not buy into mysticism and magic to come out of their closets. It is not hyperbole to say that the fate of Mankind depends on it.
