Chris Allen: "Does Religion Have Value?"

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Hi,
    I took the potato quiz for the first time yesterday. Boy, I was embarrassed at how many of those I missed. My education is getting rusty.

    I really skewed things on one question, "Does religion have value?". I answered YES.   My perspective may be a bit different from a lot of atheists. It doesn't have any value TO ME either as a guide to truth or even as an adequate "moral" guide for society, which I guess is the way most people would look at the question, whether they are religious or atheists. But if religion didn't have some value to people generally, it wouldn't exist, in an evolutionary sense, in the environment of social ideas.

    This is pretty much the thought that led me to atheism in the first place in 1969. Ideas commonly exist because they are in some way a good model or reflection of reality. This leads to the argument that, if religious belief is so widespread throughout the world, there must be some truth to it, or there must be a god. I didn't see any way to answer this argument, short of a personal encounter with God, until I came to realize that religion had other values to people that were so strong that it exists IN SPITE of being a bad model of reality.

    One important value is illustrated by the old saying, "Religion is regarded by the common folk as true, by the educated as false, and by the rulers as useful." Religion is very useful to every type of dictator and tyrant, grand or petty, from Bill Clinton and Pat Robertson, down to your classic Mormon patriarch next door.

    Another important value is hinted at by another old saying, "If God didn't exist, we would have to invent Him." In one sense, religion is entertainment. In another it is crude psychotherapy, providing illusions that allow people to function in spite of their fears. Afraid of dying? Come to Jesus and you will live again after you die. Is the world too complex for you? Lean on the Bible and forget all that difficult school and education stuff. Is the world too unfair, too oppressive? Forget all that risky revolution and democracy stuff, and just believe that God will provide justice in the afterlife, punishing the wicked and rewarding the "good" but oppressed. In this sense religion really is, "the opiate of the masses."

    This is why I try to discourage atheists from believing that science will triumph over religion in the end, because "truth will eventually triumph." We can't be so sure and complacent about that. Religion has a lot of "value" to people, so we can't just wait for religion to die.
We will have to come out and kill it, and then stand guard over its grave, doing our best to inoculate society against its resurgence.

-Chris

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HOME	email Chris Allen If it works for you...? A Petition
Hi, I took the potato quiz for the first time yesterday. Boy, I was embarrassed at how many of those I missed. My education is getting rusty. I really skewed things on one question, "Does religion have value?". I answered YES. My perspective may be a bit different from a lot of atheists. It doesn't have any value TO ME either as a guide to truth or even as an adequate "moral" guide for society, which I guess is the way most people would look at the question, whether they are religious or atheists. But if religion didn't have some value to people generally, it wouldn't exist, in an evolutionary sense, in the environment of social ideas. This is pretty much the thought that led me to atheism in the first place in 1969. Ideas commonly exist because they are in some way a good model or reflection of reality. This leads to the argument that, if religious belief is so widespread throughout the world, there must be some truth to it, or there must be a god. I didn't see any way to answer this argument, short of a personal encounter with God, until I came to realize that religion had other values to people that were so strong that it exists IN SPITE of being a bad model of reality. One important value is illustrated by the old saying, "Religion is regarded by the common folk as true, by the educated as false, and by the rulers as useful." Religion is very useful to every type of dictator and tyrant, grand or petty, from Bill Clinton and Pat Robertson, down to your classic Mormon patriarch next door. Another important value is hinted at by another old saying, "If God didn't exist, we would have to invent Him." In one sense, religion is entertainment. In another it is crude psychotherapy, providing illusions that allow people to function in spite of their fears. Afraid of dying? Come to Jesus and you will live again after you die. Is the world too complex for you? Lean on the Bible and forget all that difficult school and education stuff. Is the world too unfair, too oppressive? Forget all that risky revolution and democracy stuff, and just believe that God will provide justice in the afterlife, punishing the wicked and rewarding the "good" but oppressed. In this sense religion really is, "the opiate of the masses." This is why I try to discourage atheists from believing that science will triumph over religion in the end, because "truth will eventually triumph." We can't be so sure and complacent about that. Religion has a lot of "value" to people, so we can't just wait for religion to die. We will have to come out and kill it, and then stand guard over its grave, doing our best to inoculate society against its resurgence. -Chris
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