this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2024
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Religion
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Religions are intolerant of people that don't believe/follow it's teachings. A tolerant society that tolerates intolerance becomes an intolerant society
American evangelicalism is like that, radical Islamism is like that, a few other religious schools are like that. But the common religious form is not specially intolerant, not much than a philosophical school or a political party. Do you want to fight all people who have opinions in the name of tolerance?
There are several aspects in which religion can harm the society.
The most pressing issue, currently, is that the moderate believers, who are in it mainly for the traditions and cultural identity tend to support the fundamentalists seeking power, because at the end of the day, they do believe in the same set of rules and laws. The moderates are just not making a big deal out of breaking them.
The other, rarely discussed topic, is the normalization of disinformation. Every new generation is being indoctrinated to believe fantastical statements, by the power of authority, yet when they grow up and replicate the behavior in form of alternative medicine, political propaganda, tendency to believe in fictitious conspiracies, we're surprised. Because every religion shares the one fundamental property. It's based on a believe in what is not true.
It's not q question of moderate or fundamentalist. I'm an extremist. An extremist of love, acceptance and solidarity because that's what I understand when I read the Bible. I fight the fundamentalists, both in the outside and in the inside. And I'm far from alone.
Religion is not based on belief in the untrue. It's based on belief in the unknowable. Used rightly, religion is on the opposite a way to fight superstition as it helps people thinking rationally on these subjects. I emphasize “used rightly”: of course what you said is true of fundamentalisms.
Even if we accept that religion is not fundamentally based in "untrue", it certainly glorifies the blind faith. At least the christianity does.
One of the verses that made me doubt the whole thing was john 20:29:
I've been listening to that verse sunday after sunday after sunday... and it felt more wrong every week.
I wouldn't say “blind”, but yes it's about acting on ideas that may be wrong. But you do that when you marry someone (does they actually love you? You can't know), or everytime you trust someone. Life is taking decisions without knowing. It's the same with the existence of a God: the only purely rational position is agnosticism. But for me, to be agnostic is like refusing to accept the love of someone because they may betray you. It's a rational decision, it may be enough for you and it's okay, but for me it's not enough.
When we take decisions without knowing, ignorant decisions, we not only hurt ourselves, but those close to us. It's simple statistics.
I wouldn't betray a love of my family or friends by willingly endangering them for my religious believes. See, the love argument goes both ways. :P
But you can't act only when you know all the parameters, that was the sense of my love metaphor.
Some people are more happy without religion. Some other are more happy with a good religion. I do not live in America, I live in a country where religions, all religions combined, are followed by a minority of the population. So most children has no religious ties and teachings at all. A lot are happy like that, but others suffer without knowing why. Religion should be a freedom.