In 2010, sociologist Phil Zuckerman published Society Without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment. Zuckerman lined up evidence that the least religious societies also tend to be the most peaceful, prosperous and equitable, with public policies that help people to flourish while decreasing both desperation and economic gluttony. We can debate whether prosperity and peace lead people to be less religious or vice versa. Indeed evidence supports the view that religion thrives on existential anxiety. But even if this is the case, there’s good reason to suspect that the connection between religion and malfunctioning societies goes both ways.
It feels as if it should be counter-intuitive, but evidence shows the most restive and contentious societies tend to also be the most religious. For whatever reason, a majority belief in the culturally approved Imaginary Friend isn’t just an article of faith, it’s the Minimum Daily Requirement to be considered a good citizen. From the Crusades to the Inquisition to Northern Ireland to modern day Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and yes…America, religious belief isn’t just a personal matter of faith and spirituality, it’s taken as a measure of a person’s worth to society…and in some cases of the worthiness of their continued existence. The idea of killing for your flavor of God seems prima facie absurd, yet all one need do is to look at the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and the growing ISIS/ISIL threat in the Middle East to grasp the size and severity of the problem. If God (however He/She/It might be defined) is a loving and compassionate deity (and in most iterations that’s the case), how could anyone justify killing in the name of that God?
The truth, of course, is that there IS no compassionate, loving theological justification for taking the life of another. If you believe that someone is unworthy of living because they choose to believe in a different Imaginary Friend (or none at all)…well, YOU’RE the problem, and you might just want to take some time to read whatever holy book governs your religion.
Therein lies the problem with modern religion. In too many cases, it’s not a device for achieving peace and understanding; it’s a recipe for conquering and domination. In fact, an argument can be made that religion is what brings out the worst in mankind- bigotry, hatred, divisiveness, intolerance…etc., ad infinitum, ad nauseum. Turns out that religion, in theory a good thing, is a wedge used to divide us one from another. After the jump you’ll find six ways that religion is used to make peace and prosperity harder to realize:
1) Religion promotes tribalism. Infidel, heathen, heretic. Religion divides insiders from outsiders. Rather than assuming the best, religion is used to justify assuming the worst of those who don’t share a particular faith tradition. That tribalism promotes conflict…and it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to figure out the damage religious conflict can do (Just ask your average man in the street for their opinion of Islam and Muslims. Or Google “the Crusades.”)
“Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers,” says the Christian Bible. “They wish that you disbelieve as they disbelieve, and then you would be equal; therefore take not to yourselves friends of them,” says the Koran (Sura 4:91).
2) Religion anchors believers to the Iron Age. Concubines, magical incantations, chosen people, stonings….The Iron Age was a time of rampant superstition, ignorance, inequality, racism, misogyny, and violence. The nature of faith is that it requires the willing suspension of disbelief. Virgin birth? Rising from the dead? Believer being sucked up into Heaven during the Rapture? Nowhere is the gap between belief and empirical reality wider than it is with religion.
Slavery had God’s sanction. Women and children were literally possessions of men. Warlords practiced scorched-earth warfare. Desperate people sacrificed living animals, agricultural products and enemy soldiers as burnt offerings intended to appease dangerous gods.
3) Religion diverts generous impulses and good intentions. Feeling sad about Haiti? Give to our mega-church. If you’ve ever watched a televagelist- Luis Pulau, Jimmy Swaggart, Pat Robertson, Joel Osteen, etc.- working their magic, you understand just how true this is. Money and time that could be donated to legitimately charitable work too often ends up lining the pockets and funding the lavish lifestyles of the godly and charismatic. In other walks of life, we just call it what it is- corruption.
[R]eligion does routinely redirect generosity in order to perpetuate religion itself. Generous people are encouraged to give till it hurts to promote the church itself rather than the general welfare.
5) Religion teaches helplessness. Que sera, sera—what will be will be. Let go and let God. Taking personal responsibility for your life is hard. It means realizing that you and you alone control the decisions you make and with it the direction your life takes. It’s SO much easier when you can turn control over to an unseen force, secure in the knowledge that it will intuitively look out for your best interests. Why do the heavy lifting of living your life when you don’t have to?
[S]ometimes we don’t recognize the deep relationship between religiosity and resignation. In the most conservative sects of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, women are seen as more virtuous if they let God manage their family planning. Droughts, poverty and cancer get attributed to the will of God rather than bad decisions, bad systems, or misfortune; believers too often wait for God to solve problems they could solve themselves.
6) Religions seek power. Think corporate personhood. Religions are man-made institutions, just like for-profit corporations[.] If you’ve ever studied business, you understand the idea the theory that if a business isn’t growing, it’s dying. Like any organism or organization, a religion must always be searching for new sources of adherents and income. Religion may not seem as if it should be burdened with such mundane, worldly concerns as profit, but it still has to pay the bills.
[L]ike any corporation, to survive and grow a religion must find a way to build power and wealth and compete for market share. Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity—any large enduring religious institution is as expert at this as Coca-Cola or Chevron. And just like for-profit behemoths, they are willing to wield their power and wealth in the service of self-perpetuation, even it harms society at large.
Of course, religion as a concept isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but to paraphrase Gandhi, God isn’t the problem; it’s his fan club. At its most basic, religion is largely about tolerance, acceptance, peace, understanding, and just getting along. Unfortunately, mankind has never been good at leaving well enough alone. Now we’re in a situation in which religion has been used to justify killing, destroying, and conquering in the name of an Imaginary Friend. I can’t help but wonder what that Imaginary Friend might think if He/She/It walked among us and witnessed what was being done in their name.
We really don’t play well with one another….
