In Defense of Religion

By David Bodner

As atheists, we are often unfairly stereotyped by religionists-we are evil, despicable people whose every action and motive is suspect. We are not treated as individual human beings, who often come to atheism for varied and benign reasons. Rather we are part of a conspiracy of evil-doers intent on doing harm to the good folk. Religionists are guilty of a type of lazy thinking that amounts to little more than "Us, good. Them, bad." That's too bad.

What's also too bad is that we're guilty of the same destructive thought patterns. I hear too often atheists ascribing the worst motives to religionists, or blaming all destructive historical events on religion. The simple truth is that most people think they're doing the right thing. They may not have the perspective to see how they affect others, but their motives fall far short of evil. And most bad things that have happened in this world really can't be blamed solely on religion.

Yes, many wars have been fought over religion. The initial Moslem conquests, the subsequent Roman Catholic crusades, and any number of other European, and other, wars have had religious components. However, I believe these wars, or others, would have been fought for other reasons, religion regardless. Homo Sapiens is a warlike creature. We are also tribal. If we aren't organizing ourselves into alliances of religious groups-to the active exclusion of other religious groups-we are forming other tribal alliances. We coalesce into countries, tribes, clans, ethnic groups, racial groups, gangs, families, fraternities, and social cliques in active opposition to those who aren't part of our country, tribe, clan.etc. This tribal identification engenders an "us vs. them" thinking, which, I believe, makes all levels of belligerency inevitable. We can remove religion from the mix, but we'll still kill, maim, cheat, belittle, and insult each other for other "tribal" reasons. It's what we do as human beings.

My biggest problem with religion, really, is that it promotes fuzzy thinking. Faith, by its nature, is illogical; it asks us not to think critically. Any system that promotes faith encourages people to reject critical thinking. It allows them to lose their ability to view others as complicated entities. Rather they start relying on stereotyping, viewing everything in simple, black and white terms. It's unfortunate when we fall victim to the same type of thinking. We should know better. Religious people aren't evil. Religion isn't about taking advantage of the stupid followers. Rather, with a few exceptions, religious people are just like us. The only difference I see is that they're merely misguided-and in power.

Lying, cheating, stealing, making war: these aren't just religious failings, they're human failings.