I still pop into the myriad of atheist and humanist sites and blogs around the world and found this gem in one of my favourites that I had to share.
Daylight Atheism posted this on 12th August. He started with explaining that he understood why the world’s religions existed and why people chose to believe. He ended with the very concise and powerful few paragraphs that I’ve quoted below:
“I understand, but I do not believe. No matter how comforting these faiths may be to their followers, they are still based on supernatural claims for which I see no good evidence. Worse, most of them make assertions that are plainly based on the superstitious ideas of primitive people, and are flatly contradicted by everything we’ve learned about human history and the laws by which the cosmos works. I understand the appeal of culture and tradition, but these are not good enough reasons for belief when these religions make factual claims that are so plainly untrue.
If these factual falsehoods were all that was wrong with religion, one might still argue that it’s worth believing for the sake of the comfort that belief brings. But religion has also wrought terrible evil in the world. And the unnecessary pain, suffering, and destruction that faith has caused is too high a price to pay for comfort. A total catalogue of these harms would be impossibly long, but I can list a few of the major ones: the terror of children who are taught they’ll be tortured eternally if they stray; the monstrous crimes of predatory clergy that were long concealed and abetted by their superiors; the suffering and degradation of women whose faith teaches them that they are inferior; the bloody holy wars waged in the name of God; the violent censorship of free speech and free minds; morality based on fear and obedience rather than reason and conscience; the opposition to the advance of human rights; the opposition to science and knowledge; the propping up of kings and theocracies; and most grievous, the stifling of curiosity, teaching people to be satisfied with ignorance.
Whatever comfort religion brings, whatever solace it brings, it isn’t worth it if this is the price we must pay. There are other, better ways to find comfort, ways that have just as much potential for good without so much potential for evil. There are countless philosophies that, like religion, accentuate the positive traits of humanity, but that, unlike religion, don’t intensify the negative ones.”
Tags: churches & cults, education, faith
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One cannot only comment briefly on all the “catalogue of harms” of religious beleifs listed in the article. Just consider two of them.
Regarding the terror of children being taught the dire consequencies if they do not follow of what is taught by their religion,can be looked at differently. Children are taught all kinds of lurid images in folk tails. These tales are retold by parents as an allegory. A child will not be resentful because he/she is told such stories, but will interprate it as he /she is growing up. It is the same with religious instructions.
Regarding the “bloody holy wars”, is the usual response to what seems to be a religious conflict. The causes of all violent conflicts are, essentially, economic. Where one group, or a society as a whole, is denied or excluded from social progress, then violence is likely to happen. Conflict also happens where there is an absence or the denial of the ability to access, to analyse, to synthesise and to disseminate information freely. Religion is only a red herring.
Thanks for the comments Stephen, just a couple of points in reply though. Comparing parents telling their children folk tales with them teaching them about hell isn’t the same at all. Religious parents are representing hell as a real place and what they believe to be true rather than a fairy story. While I agree that many wars are caused by other factors than religion, it’s hard to deny that many are - the crusades and persecution of witches for example. Surely religion was the major catalyst for the murderous acts committed on 9/11?
When information is supported by general perceptions, it tends towards the lowest common denominator. The perception of hell does not tally with a reasonably sensible parents’ view that hell and heaven is here and now. Both of them are concepts which the less educated population in the past would not or could not express in any detail.
As regards 9/11 - contrary to popular perceptions, the causes of it were economic, going back to the prevailing inpoverished conditions in some Islamic countries. Why are they inpoverished? In reality, their impoverishment is due to their dire educational standards. Let us remind ourselves that the illiteracy rate in Afghanistan is 64%, while female illiteracy is 90%. In Pakistan the illiteracy is slightly less. Is this the bases for the economic wellbeing of a country? When a semi-literate mullah tells an illiterate person a particular view, (that the West is to blame for everything) or tells him a particular version of a supposed text, - is that person going to challenge him? Not very likely, if he fears for his life, either literally or metaphorically.
Similarly, when an illiterate Hutu hears on the radio to kill Tutsis, he thinks that the Great Spirit is commanding him to do so. Incidentally, where was the religious divide during the Rwandan genocide?