|
 Peg's
Polemic
Every
month, philosopher Peg Tittle casts off the calm, measured and qualified
style of her profession to deliver her opinionated and impassioned
column, exclusively for the TPM philosophy café...
Number
15. Religion
- Superstition and Habit
I
find it amazing that so many people still believe in God. I can
only conclude that, in most cases, they just haven't thought about
it. Because thinking about religion is the surest way to atheism.
(Which is probably why so many religions discourage thought: be
like a child--whose intellectual faculties are quite insufficient
for the task; trust in me, listen to me, I speak for God--you don't
need to worry your little head about it.)
There
are several classic arguments for the existence of God. But as Bertrand
Russell, B.C.Johnson, George H. Smith, and so many others have pointed
out, their flaws have been, in the last few centuries, uncovered.
Consider
the first cause argument: everything must be caused by something
(nothing can come from nothing), therefore, God exists--God is the
something that created everything, or at least that created everything
that caused everything else. But who created God? No one: God is
self-caused. Then why couldn't everything else, or even some of
everything else, also be self-caused? You can't have your cake and
eat it too: you can't say everything needs a cause in order to get
to God and then suddenly change your mind and say no, not everything
needs a cause.
Consider
the argument from design: when we observe the world, we see how
everything fits together so nicely, it's obvious it was created,
by design, by God. Well, one, you must be looking at different stuff
than I'm looking at: I observe that I don't have earlids; and I
observe that children often suffer horribly. And two, even if I
grant that everything does fit together very nicely, it's not obvious
that it does so from design: it could be from adaptation--and what
didn't fit together with everything else simply died.
There
are many more, and equally poor, arguments for a God, but anyone
who really wants to examine his/her faith can look them up. In short,
there's no reason, no basis, for such belief.
But even if you do accept one of the arguments supporting belief
in God, you still have to find a reason for believing in the Christian
God (or the Jewish God, or the Muslim God, etc.). Let's consider,
for example, belief in the Christian God.
The
most common reason for believing in Jesus Christ et al is that 'it
says so in The Bible and The Bible is the word of God'. This is
circular; it's like saying you know that Santa Claus exists because
he said he did in a letter he wrote to you. Even a ten year old
can see through that one.
Quite
apart from the invalidity, let's consider consistency: it says a
lot of other stuff in The Bible too--for example, that if you do
something wrong with your hand, you should cut it off (Matt 5:29-30),
that you shouldn't plan for the future (Matt 6:34), and that you
shouldn't work to obtain food (John 6:27) -- but my guess is you
don't believe any of that. So if you're just going to pick and choose
and believe only what you want to believe, why involve The Bible
at all--why not just start from scratch?
Then
there are those who believe because they had a vision, because God
appeared to them. I can't deny personal experience. I can, however,
point out that such a person's interpretation of a personal experience
is unlikely and/or is inconsistent with a lot of other stuff (not
the least of which is other people's personal experiences). And
I can direct such people to a study of psychology and physiology,
which would provide alternative explanations worth considering.
(Ever wonder why such visions and conversions usually occur to people
who already believe in God, or who are in a state of extreme stress
or weakness?)
Let's
face it: Christianity is a superstitious cult just like any other
we so quickly condemn and then rush to save our children from. Unfortunately,
because it's a cult that has brainwashed entire societies, from
birth, it's safe from such criticism (and therefore more dangerous).
Haven't you ever thought how coincidental it is that most people
believe in the religion they were raised in? Doesn't that spell
'brainwash' to you? If people freely chose Christianity from among
half a dozen others, at the age of maturity, with none having had
a headstart, well, that would be different--in that case, I doubt
there would be so many Christians around.
And
actually, I doubt that there are. Except for fundamentalists, fanatics,
and a few others who do choose in adulthood, who are 'born again',
religion is less a belief than a habit. And habits are hard to break.
Especially life-long habits which have become security blankets
(if only because familiarity is comforting). Saying 'I believe in
God' is such a life-long habit.
It's
especially hard to break a habit if you think you need it; and most
people mistakenly think religious belief is a prerequisite for morality.
I think this explains the outrage at atheists: to say 'I don't believe
in God' is thought to mean 'I'm immoral' or at least 'I'm amoral'.
But let's be clear here. One, to be Christian entails a lot more
than being good; and if Christians had the honesty to recognize
that, frankly, they'd be acting differently--they would be cutting
off their hands, or they'd be doing anything they want because all
is forgiven, or they'd be in a deep depression because they did
everything they wanted and are now damned to hell (did I mention
that Christianity is full of contradictions?), etc.
Two,
being good does not require that you be Christian; it just requires
that you have an ethical system. And there are several, in addition
to Christian ethics, to choose from: Nicomachean ethics, Kantian
ethics, rule utilitarianism, act utilitarianism, virtue ethics,
etc. (And the key word there is choose--make a conscious decision.)
Next
time you cross yourself, or chant a prayer, consider the nature
of superstition, and habit.
Peg's
Polemic will next be updated late-March 2002
Previous
polemics
14.
13.
12.
11.
10.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
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