Would that it were so.
Alchemy unceremoniously pushed into the garbage bin of useless knowledge by chemistry. Astrology reduced to cheap entertainment by the science of astronomy. Phrenology relegated to a passing curiosity with the advent of the neurosciences.
Would that it were so for religion.
But persist religion does and is likely to do so for quite some time. What puzzles me most, however, is that these Bronze Age myths live on not only among the poor, ignorant, desperate and hopeless but also in the minds of many of the intelligent and highly educated. It amazes me to no end when I meet individuals who in their professional lives use, demand and expect critical thinking and precise analysis but who profess to have faith. Trained to scrutinize and question and taught to be skeptical and leave no stone unturned, these well educated and successful men and women thrive in a world where the foolish and gullible do not survive. Yet, it would appear that these same individuals are able to switch-off these precious cerebral functions at will. Explain to me how an icon of business savvy will not eat meat unless a holy man has first anointed it or how a physician can believe in a virgin giving birth. I know people like this.
There was a time when I tolerated the religious beliefs of those around me without challenge and with all the social niceties my upbringing demanded. There was a time I respected others’ religious leanings and felt that these were off-limits to serious debate. That all changed on 9/11.
The men who flew those planes into the Towers were deeply religious. Yes, I understand that they may have been motivated by strong political sentiments and some would be satisfied to label them simply as terrorists. I put to you, however, that these men were devout adherents to one of the world’s major religions and there is every reason to believe that they and their families considered their deaths martyrdom. Now, these were vicious, despicable and cowardly acts as all murders are and clear-thinking and fair-minded men and women everywhere should condemn them. However, in my view, they represent one end of a spectrum of unacceptable acts encouraged, facilitated or tolerated by organized religion. Elsewhere on that spectrum we find other moral misdeeds; non-therapeutic, ceremonial circumcision of newborns and Papal prohibition of condom use in AIDS ravaged counties immediately come to mind. Moreover, the world’s major religions have given us some of the vilest handbooks on cruelty ever written; read Directorium Inquisitorum (1376) or Malleus Maleficarum (1486) both sponsored by the Roman Catholic Church. Steven Weinberg, Nobel Prize winning physicist, said it best: “With or without [religion] you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.”
In this, the 21st century, the time has come for us to address the world’s most pressing problems of poverty, hunger, political oppression and global warming. In order to tackle these, we need a joint effort by our world leaders. In this respect, religion is divisive and obstructive to progress. As long as large segments of our population are subjugated to the authority of holy books and that the different factions believe that their holy book is the only right one, there is little hope of progress. As long as we allow churches to inculcate our children with doctrines of intolerance and unreason, the future is grim.
“It is true that the rules of civil discourse currently demand that Reason wear a veil whenever she is out in public. But the rules of discourse must change.” Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason
Joseph Froncioni
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