Force for Good?

How anyone beholding the myriad wars, internecine civil strife, and social discord incessantly provoked, stirred up, and prosecuted by religious factions and individuals against each other, and even more against non-believers, because of their ‘supernatural’ fantasies can believe that religion is a force for good in the world beats me.

From the global clash of faiths between Christians, Muslims, and Jews which is causing incessant death, destruction, misery, and ruined lives to absurd power-plays like the current Roman Catholic posturing over homosexuals and adoption, the upholders of ‘faith’ act like global blow-flies, spreading millions of poisonous germs wherever they plant their malodorous feet.

On an earlier thread, Jose said “alas, when churchmen get embroiled in politics”. But there is no such thing as non-political religion. The whole purpose and thrust of religious groupings is to impose their pet versions of what is ‘good’ and ‘right’ upon everybody else. Ultimately, the seriously religious aspire to rule the world. There is no gainsaying that this is the case with the most vocal segments of Islam – a religion that draws no distinction between faith and state, despises democratic pluralism and free speech, and envisages a worldwide theocratic Caliphate. It is undeniable that the Roman Catholic Church aspired to a similar supremacy over temporal rulers in Europe for several centuries, until its wings were clipped by the Reformation. One pope – Pius V – even had the temerity to absolve her subjects from allegiance to the ‘heretic’ Elizabeth I. And Protestantism – especially in its Calvinistic versions – has behaved similarly whenever it has obtained a sufficient stranglehold.

It may be that we in England are exceptionally fortunate – or complacent – because our national church was created by a wilful monarch to ensure that religion did not trump his personal rule. Even so, religious disputes have endured and sometimes dominated the political scene, as in the long-running 19^th and early 20^th century disputes between Anglicans and Nonconformists about the control of education. That battle is still far from over, with a retrograde lurch towards the creation of ‘faith’ schools and academies under the auspices of a credulous prime minister.

With the air filled by increasingly shrill cries from religionists that they are under attack from immoral Godless atheists, and a bunker-like mentality developing amongst their shrinking congregations, while the great majority of sensible people simply want to get on with their day-to-day lives without all the clamour, it does look as though a political settlement will have to be imposed by parliament sooner rather than later, reaffirming the basically pluralistic, tolerant nature of our modern democracy and ensuring that the religious do not encroach further on the freedoms of others. Religions are tribal. They depend on a sense of ‘superior us’ versus ‘inferior them’ – “We’re OK, they are not OK.” This toxic stance cannot possibly be conducive to social harmony.

For myself, I think that we have reached a point in world history when religious beliefs are no longer merely outmoded – they are clearly anti-social. Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the Roman Empire's state religion was one of the worst things that happened to the West. The rise of Islam, its early conquests, the Crusades, and the constant inter-faith strife between Christians, Muslims, and Jews have not made the modern world a better or more peaceful place. Humanity would be better off without such strident, holier-than-thou religions.