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HomeBeliefsAsk An Atheist: Do you value the roles other religions have played?

Ask An Atheist: Do you value the roles other religions have played?

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What do you want to Ask an Atheist? Submit your questions online or fill out the form below.

As an atheist, do you value the role(s) major world mythologies and/or religions have played in the evolution of human society? (Why/why not, how/how not?)

SPO_House-ad_Ask-an-atheist_0425133As someone who thinks historically, of course I pay attention to what people believe now or have in the past in order to make sense of their actions. You can’t hope to understand any historical process without understanding what was going on in their heads along with the debris they may have left behind in cities or temples, and all this is independent of whether or not any of those beliefs were true.

If the questioner is asking do I value them in the sense that I think those beliefs are/were playing positive roles in society, that is a mixed bag. The mystery cults of the ancient world infused the culture in many ways, but more recent religious systems had an all-embracing “way of living” scope that allowed them to spread across cultural boundaries in ways that had their bigger ups and downs. The devout Alexandrian Greek who paid homage to Zeus would give way to the no more (or less) devout Christian who in turn would bow to the fervor of the new Islamic mandate — and maybe a few of their descendents today in Egypt who would declare themselves atheists if only they felt they wouldn’t get beaten up by their neighbors if they did.

The duty of the sound historian is to do justice to the historical reality, as near as one can determine it. As I have mentioned regarding Christianity, for example, Christianity did genuinely introduce the concept of compassion into the Roman world (who did not value it as a virtue, thinking solely in terms of the power relationship of mercy or clemency, where “I spare your life and you owe me one”). But all too many Christians would honor that virtue in the breach (the pious folk burning heretics at the stake come to mind). Christianity was also initially an egalitarian faith (open to women and slaves as much as the male patriarchy) and spread among people distanced from the “priest doing some sort of rite behind the curtain” mystery cults that were proliferating as the Roman Empire neared its expiration date. But that’s a long way from the 99 percent today operating in a market economy owing very little to the logic of Deuteronomy, however much some Christian apologists today may like to think capitalism is an intrinsically Christian product.

Sections of the Christian world also spawned the Scientific Revolution in part by conceptualizing God as a craftsman whose works could be studied piece by piece (as opposed to their counterparts in the Chinese world where Taoism conceived of nature as a unified totality that could never be comprehended piecemeal), but as time wore on it became increasingly less necessary to plop god down as divine string puller when working out the mechanisms of nature and that has become a point of tension in how modern scientists are perceived.

I approach the religious influence on the world in exactly the same way I do the ideologically secular/atheist cultures of the French Revolution or Soviet Union, where “blank slate” conceptions of humanity as molded solely by their environment slammed into some very grim realities in the end. Those revolutions in turn colored all the events of their times. Pious geologist James Hutton was castigated for his “revolutionary” expansion of the age of the Earth because it felt too much like the social upheaval going on across the channel in revolutionary France, and Unitarian Joseph Priestly (who discovered oxygen but misidentified it as phlogiston) was hounded out of Britain (barely escaping literally being tarred and feathered and settling in the fledgling American republic), while over in France Lavoisier (the guy who recognized the nature of oxygen) was guillotined (though not for scientific misdemeanors but for his activity as the king’s tax collector).

1930s Communism similarly tinted all the culture, from gay leftist academics attracted to spying for the USSR in Britain (never mind that Marxist-Leninism was just as homophobic in the end), to right wingers in Europe and America snuggling up to vicious fascists because they were fighting those godless Communists. All of them were attracted to an end justifying means mentality that lost sight of what it means to be the cog in the grand machine, oh so expendable.  In the “lets see how many people we can kill” competition of the 20th century, Hitler came out only third (though hardly for dint of effort), with Stalin’s gulags beating out Hitler by several tens of millions, but Mao’s assorted persecutions surpassing them all in the end, if only due to having a larger population on hand to stomp on.

Sorry if this sounds too much like a litany of woe, since I am actually quite the optimist when it comes to thinking our species isn’t down for the count yet. But the bitter truth is that our human species is prone to a variety of dangerous convictions (“making a nuisance” as I more gently tend put it), of which religious (or anti-religious) beliefs can (but do not inevitably) play a part. Understanding the why of all that is critical. The role of religion (or lack of it) in this process has been in a way peripheral, merely the outer garb of a deeper philosophical lapse whereby beliefs get recruited in service of a deeper and more sinister conviction: the moment a society decides that it is OK to kill someone because you don’t like what they believe, you are in for trouble.

What helps keep the kids from running too fast with their scissors is a secular democratic society that cherishes the sanctity (and I think that’s the best term to use here) of individual conscience, and always heeds the advice of the High Lama in James Hilton’s “Lost Horizon”: Be kind.

 

Jim Downard
Jim Downard
Jim Downard is a Spokane native (with a sojourn in Southern California back in the early 1960s) who was raised in a secular family, so says had no personal faith to lose. He's always been a history and science buff (getting a bachelor's in the former area at what was then Eastern Washington University in the early 1970s).

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RIFF MATTRE
10 years ago

You reduce the historical role of religion to the consequences of its foundations being perverted and hijacked by the philosophically bereft in order to commandeer the masses? This seems a minuscule take on a realm that traverses the infinite meaning of life. Evolution of “religious” practices around the globe is not just an historical account of political manipulation, but of humanity’s successes and failures in recognizing our true relationship to one another. Apparently, due to the lack of one unified idea for “God,” you throw the bath water out with the baby, even considering the word “sanctity” is in our dictionary for your use due to the revelations of our religious fore bearers?

As a Jew, Jesus (whether historical figure or imagined fiction) shook up the status quo from within the functioning constructs of his community. These constructs were formed upon scripture to be guideposts for self-realization and human interaction. Words attributed to Jesus became new scripture upon which new constructs formed. The story of Jesus represents an individual of small means within a greater society who took the teachings of his contemporaries to task and challenged them from within. These teachings dealt deeply with the inner-personal labyrinths of moral, ethical and philosophical consternations and the words of Jesus expound great revelation in just such regard.

We each require instruction in order to develop an individual conscience fundamental to governance of internal passions throughout complex relationships of colliding interests. THIS has been our challenge throughout all of human history. “Be kind” is a fundamental edict seriously lacking in necessary practical device for developing minds and hearts of all different neurological make ups and cultural perspectives.

Much as children model the behavior of elders in dealing with emotionally challenging circumstances, religion and mythology have been guiding pillars for millions upon millions of our ancestors seeking the way to peace in their hearts and service to humanity. (Many of these hearts and minds have been the very ones responsible for expanding the boundaries of human governance into the secular construct you now enjoy.)

Belief in something larger than oneself has been the driving force of humanity’s greatest achievements. What that something is or is not means less than believing or not believing.

Religion is so very much more than a mere identical belief in authority.

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