Anti-Religion in the 21st Cenutry

"More people have died under the ageis of religious piety than under any other circumstance" read one letter to the editor of a national newspaper. Another letter in response quoted one of my favourite quotes, quite appropriately, by Benjamin Franklin who asked Thomas Paine "If men are so wicked with religion, what would they be without it?"

Much has been written about the religion of the men of genius behind the American Constitution - one of mankind's greatest and most enlightened documents. Whatever their religious stripes, Franklin's quote reveals the wisdom they possessed.

Much has been written about religion. Most of it stems strictly from a secular post-modern ethos. In this manner, the attacks heaped on religion, specifically Christianity in the West, has been unfair if not outright misunderstood. Religion of any kind in the world is a force of good. Its principle tenets are meant to ensure that humans stay clear of their vices as maintaining virtue is a much more difficult path to follow. Morality is not a product of religion but a child of evolution. Humans built their moral and ethical codes thousands of years before organized religion. What religion did, as an institution, was codify these ethical and moral codes.

With the arrival of the secular* humanist outlook and subsequent philosophical movements (some hostile to religion) most notably The Enlightenment, meant that the Church was no longer the single institution that bound European Christendom together. The separation of church and state is regarded as a major achievement in Western culture. The modern anti-religion position is borne out of secularism.

The Church has indeed engaged in many dubious actions. It has been corrupted, engaged in war and sought to preserve its power through the centuries with torture and murder.

Does this mean organized religion is inherently irrelevant? Worse, the true root of all evil? The answer is a resounding no, minority self-interest notwithstanding.

The reality is that humans have been killing each other for thousands of years before and after religion under different circumstances. The assertion that more people have died under the auspices of religion is not only unfair but inaccurate. What to make of all those killed by successive ancient Empires be it under Alexander the Great, the Egyptians or Romans? During middle ages, pagan Germanic tribes and Vikings raped and pillaged their way through Europe. During the Renaissance, Italian republics were in a constant state of war. So much so that it produced one of world literature's darkest Prince, Macchiavelli and his brilliant works. It does not stop there.

What to make of Eastern empires? Genghis and Kublai Khan were not religious. Neither was Tamerlane. Napoleon did not act in the interest of the Catholic church. More recently, right here in the 20th century, we have witnessed some of the most remarkable cruel madmen in world history and all were either anti-religious or secular. Hitler, Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Castro, Pol Pot, Big Daddy Amin, Hussein, Trujillo, Duvalier and Mugabe but to name a precious few were hardly religious.

Add up how many people these ethnic racists, thugs and dictators killed. Religion pales in numbers in comparison to the murders committed by human nature driven by a lust for power and in the name of ideology. In this light, religion is a misguided scapegoat. Humans go to war for many reasons including honor, fear and greed.

At its core, when one reads the texts of major religions, the message is inherently good. How we interpret it says more about contemporary societies who interpret them than the books themselves. The books do not have any subliminal messages for us except but to do good and serve God. Yes, many have claimed to serve God in their justification for murder (see terrorists), but they are the exception to the rule. True, there are extremists in all religions but what to make of the majority of people who pray in peace? Any reasonable person who listens to mass or a sermon can derive the good in its message. Personally, I can see how people find hope and guidance through religion.

My point here without getting into the deep complexities of religion regarding its etymology, structure, sources of authority, its approaches and practices, its political stances, among others, was to show that once again we tend to distort history to satisfy our preconceived notions. There has been much evil heaped on mankind and we would like nothing more than to find a neat explanation for this. Unfortunately, there isn't one and using organized religion as a scapegoat will do little to assuage the fact that humanity holds a thin dark line within it.

Religion has helped to keep the line lit with a beacon of light.

*Loosely, a process of understanding the universe through rational means rather than supernatural concepts.