It’s tempting to try to shake religious people’s faith. After all, religion is irrational--How could anyone find comfort in a God that would allow billions of people, including infants, to die in agony of diseases like cancer. And religion has caused so much prejudice and death--from the Crusades to Radical Islam. Plus, religion often urges disempowerment: Don’t act; wait for God. Trust God above reason. For example, consider these exhortations from the Bible:
- “Be not wise in your own eyes. God shall supply all your need.” Philippians 4:19.
- “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” Proverbs 3:1.
- “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20.
Even some leading liberal lights, who otherwise urge tolerance and decry prejudice, ridicule the religious, for example, Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion and the late Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.Hitchens, for example, wrote:
- “One must state it plainly. Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody…had the smallest idea what was going on. It…is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge as well as for comfort, reassurance and other infantile needs.”
- “To choose dogma and faith over doubt and experience is to throw out the ripening vintage and to reach greedily for the Kool-Aid.”
- “We keep being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.”
Criticize the religious?
Nevertheless, it often seems wrong, even malevolent, to attempt to disabuse religious people of their faith. People need a crutch, real or not. We all have imaginary crutches. For example, many people use denial to avoid facing the inevitability of death and possibly painful dying. Should we be denied our crutches? If we shouldn’t, why should we try to take away a person’s religious faith, a strong crutch for literally billions of people?
After all, many people have turned to or returned to religious faith because their life is hard. Let’s say you can’t seem to get ahead or even hold a decent job and you’re worried that you financially can’t survive. Feeling there’s a loving God and perhaps a better hereafter can be comforting. Why would any well-meaning person try to take away that crutch?
If you continually struggle with relationships: your family, romantic partner, or lack thereof, it can feel lonely, empty. Believing that God is walking by your side can mitigate depression and even prevent suicide. Why would any well-meaning person try to take away that crutch?
A serious health problem, for example, cancer, heart disease, or diabetes, can be dispiriting. It isn’t coincidence that many people find religious faith only when facing a health crisis. Why would any well-meaning person try to take away that crutch?
And then there’s existential angst. Especially if your career and family life aren’t rewarding, one may feel that life has no purpose. For religious people, following a deity's plan and feeling awe of God’s handiwork can provide a sense of meaning. Why would any well-meaning person try to take away that crutch?
When to address religiosity
Of course, there are situations in which a person’s religion is clearly doing more harm than good. The obvious example is a religion-motivated terrorist. In such a situation, a benevolent person would at least think about whether to try to encourage the person to find a more constructive way to live their life and to improve it as well as the world. Another example: the unemployed person who is doing little to find a job in the belief that God will provide. A friend might gently encourage the person to supplement his or her faith with action.
Another example of when intervention may be appropriate. It seems unfair for an adult to inculcate religion in children, who yet have limited power to reason and question. By the time s/he does, s/he may have been so influenced by religious doctrime, for example, the Christian invoked fears of an eternity in purgatory or hell, as to be unlikely to make a fair-minded choice about whether to be religious. In The God Delusion, Dawkins agrees: "Faith can be very very dangerous, and deliberately to implant it into the vulnerable mind of an innocent child is a grievous wrong.”
But, too often, someone's attempt to shake a religious person’s faith is grounded not in altruism but in a desire to show s/he's right and smarter than the religious person. Or the critic is simply oblivious to likely hurting the person.
The takeaway
Fortunately, most religious people’s faith is well-defended enough that atheists and agnostics usually fail to disabuse them of their faith. But it may be worth asking yourself, “If I’m truly well-intentioned, should I devote my efforts to help humankind in ways other than to denigrate a person’s religiosity?”
Marty Nemko's bio is in Wikipedia.