Reasonable Dissent

The Critical Thought Black Hole of Christianity

Let’s face it, the United States is dominated by Christianity. It’s a powerful group that reaches all aspects of our country, in one way or another. And they continue to add important social issues to their black hole of mindless following, stuff that had no bearing on any kind of religious debate until they made it so.

I think that this is a very large group of misguided individuals, but I don’t usually subscribe to the idea that the religion in itself is evil. Many atheist themed forums tend to get post after post about “This religious person did that terrible thing”.  While this can occasionally be informative and thought provoking (say, for example, parents praying while their sick child dies instead of going to a hospital, or a school teacher having his career threatened because he didn’t share the beliefs of his superiors), I’m not usually the one to push the story around just because it casts religion in a negative light. In general, I think that there are bad people in all parts of society who can do bad things with or without religion.

But to me there is one part of organized religion in general, and Christianity in specific, that makes me worry for my future: they continue to drag non-religious issues into the religious debate ring. Now, any of these issues can be a book of subject matter and debate on its own, so I have no intention of starting that kind of thing in this post. But let me illustrate the problem with a few examples. Let’s start with the big one: Evolution. Why is this such a debate between (some, not all, I understand that) Christians and atheists? It’s because it was made a religious issue by Christians. Let’s look from the point of view of an atheist for a moment. This is a scientific theory which attempts to explain phenomena that we have observed. It’s no different than the theory of gravity in that sense.

(Side note, I cringe every time I hear someone talk about the Law of gravity as if it has some greater proof than merely a “theory” of evolution. First, Newton’s Law of Gravity has been shown to be incorrect. Second, you are misunderstanding the use of the words in a scientific setting. Do the research.)

Now, consider what is motivating the Christian side of the argument. As science continues its steady march of gathering information, it appears to encroach on a more literal interpretation of their holy book. Science itself has no care about any religion. When we understood what lightning really was, and Zeus became a little less plausible, there was no intent from science to detract from that belief, only evidence. There is no significant difference here.  It’s a religious issue only because the early writers of Christianity tried to explain something they didn’t understand, and the modern followers have trouble resolving that with what we learn by exploring the world.

While always controversial, that was a relatively gentle example. How about this: Abortion. There are few debates that can get as heated as this one, and I think it separates Christians from atheists even more strongly. Why is this a religious issue? Because there are some cryptic passages in the bible that can be interpreted to have an opinion on this issue. In no way do I pretend that even without religion that this is a simple issue with a cut and dry answer. However, I do contend that religion needs to kindly butt out. Why? Because the people using religion as backup for their opinion aren’t actually thinking. Perhaps someone argues, “Before 5 weeks, there isn’t even a heartbeat, so I am ok with the morning-after pill.” And what if the response comes back, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. [Jeremiah 1:5]” It’s a non-sequitur that blocks any exchange of ideas. It says “My religion commands this, and no amount of debate will change the words that I’m told to believe.”

Don’t get me wrong, there are Christians who see shades of gray and exceptions to the rule, and there are atheists who may not. But they got to that point by drawing their own conclusions, by thinking for themselves.

There will always be nutjobs around us, doing terrible things, and they’ll find some reason to do them whether we have religion or not. The danger of Christianity in this country isn’t from pedophile priests. They would commit the same crimes however they could. The danger is that 75% of the country is being told exactly what to think on a growing number of very important social issues.  It destroys democracy, and the more issues that Christian leaders decide to pull under their umbrella the worse it gets.

And it isn’t just dangers from Christianity that worry me in this topic, it affects atheists as well. If we can’t separate these issues from the debate over religious truth, more people will actively resist free thought. The debate over abortion is a perfect example.  I know people who are religious, but have strong feelings about abortion for their own reasons as well. To them, this issue is so mixed up with religion, however, that the word “atheist” might as well mean “baby killer”.  They won’t open up to the idea of questioning their religious beliefs because they think that there is a similar atheist dogma that they would be accepting by default. Atheism isn’t about evolution or abortion or gay marriage, but religion has so clouded these issues that it’s become that way in the minds of these people.

Sure, everyone has an opinion about these issues, but they are not critical to the ideas of atheism. You can reject belief in God and still form your own conclusions on other issues.

Tags: Abortion, atheism, Christianity, evolution, science