Religion is at its best when it gives comfort to us in the face of grief, anxiety or despair, and at its worst when it tries to orchestrate human behavior.
Many people need religion, or at least some form of spirituality, to face a mysterious world where our mortality is ever looming, and the meaning of life is uncertain. Religion is also one of many ways for people to build community and social networks, which give us a solid base of emotional and psychic support.
Religion can also provide cultural touchpoints and traditions that are constants in a world that is often changing rapidly and sometimes becoming alien to us. Religious rites and celebrations are part of the rich cultural fabric of society and deserve to be respected, as long as they bring people together in their common humanity and strengthen bonds, and do not cause conflict and resentment.
To the extent that all religions incorporate basic moral imperatives of love, charity and kindness, then we can all embrace and support the role that religion plays in inspiring us to create a better world. But when we try to apply the details of religious dogma to political, scientific or legal systems, or even moral or ethical codes, we enter dangerous territory where more harm is caused than good. To those who maintain that religion is the guardian of civilization and the ultimate arbiter of morality, I would say look at history. The specific morality proposed by the world’s religions has been erratic at best, and downright counterproductive for much of human history.
The draconian laws and punishments of early religious life have been jettisoned in most religions over the centuries - not many burnings at the stake these days. And why has this evolution occurred? Is it because of a steady dose of epiphanies from some deity, or latter-day revelations? No, it is because human beings, who have brains and learn from experience, have slowly and painfully moved toward a more ‘humane’ point of view.
Religiously inspired people have in many cases performed great deeds in the service of our civilization, but they have also been complicit or primary in some of the worst. The same goes for agnostics, deists, atheists and all the other variants of belief.
This is not to say that there is no creator, no God or no spirit. Who can say for certain the answers to questions about the supernatural? Perhaps our very human desire for love, peace and kindness is indeed inspired by God or by some universal spirit. It is a very human trait to seek these insights and explore the spiritual realm and it may be that all of our motivations for good come out of this quest.
But religions are dangerous purveyors of morality. The ancient laws they want to foist on society were created by people who were susceptible to all the follies and the historical biases that have prejudiced human behavior – the support of slavery and conquest, the subjugation of women, the intolerance of any new thoughts or points of view. And these laws are justified by claims that they have been handed down by God in ancient texts or through other unverifiable means, thus making them impervious to the crucible of peer review that has shepherded every other human advancement.
We will never have peace and harmony in this world if we allow religions to implement their own specific versions of morality. This is the meaning of the separation of church and state. Leave religion to the spiritual realm, and let humanity work out its earthly business in a logical, practical manner that takes advantage of our knowledge, experience, science and, yes, spirit.
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