The following discussion, as I called it, I considered to be my master argument against atheists and agnostics who attacked Christianity. It was posted on September 9, 2007; a time when I had probably already walked off the cliff and philosophically left Christianity, but still clung to it nominally. As the comments of an astute friend pointed out, if I really believed everything in this discussion, I could not be a Christian, but I still hoped at the time that he was wrong.
I plan to debunk each of my arguments in individual posts, hopefully without drawing out this process. As I have already said, my arguments in this discussion were fundamentally flawed. This effort may thus be somewhat unnecessary, but it will only serve as a beginning.
"in defense of religion."
There are several arguments that disappoint me every time I hear them used, for they only illustrate a misunderstanding of religion in my eyes. The only valid arguments I see against religion are due to the fact that religions must inherently be made up of imperfect people, and while that is disappointing, it is the reason we have religion in the first place; to try to become more enlightened and aware of the world around us, and our impact on it. In our foolishness, at the least, we have the initiative to admit in our sin we are not perfect, and by our faith we do not know all the answers.
These are the arguments against religion I will try to dispute.
1) Holy books are are meaningless because they are factually incorrect.
2) Religion is sexually repressive.
3) Religion supports fanaticism and extremism.
4) Religion causes wars.
5) Religion is about heaven and hell.
6) Religion implies submission.
7) Faith implies ignorance.
To set the context of this discussion, when I speak of religion, I speak of any divinely inspired faith, which involves a spiritual connection, an interest in the betterment of mankind, and the pursuit of enlightenment in whatever form. I make the assumption, in which I may not agree with the majority, that all religions stem from the same central spiritual centrality of the world and the universe. I do not limit this to any list of religions.
1) Holy books are meaningless because they are factually incorrect.
This first argument fails to recognize the purpose of religious literature altogether. I have heard it all too often that one can either believe in the Bible (or their respective holy book), or in evolution, one or the other. I continue to fail to understand where the Bible rules out evolution as a manner of creation. You see, in reading a holy book, there is a key that people forget again and again; context is EVERYTHING. If any holy book was written in the first century with a Darwinian description of sea creatures becoming land creatures becoming apes becoming humans, it would have been thrown out! It would have been burned! It would have been useless and completely forgotten in days, and we would not know a thing about it in this century.
We were made into curious creatures, not to be told everything about how the world works in our youth as a species. We are meant to discover. Holy books were never meant as a factual references to the way the world works; they are spiritual guides. To call a holy book meaningless due to factual inaccuracy is to call "Romeo and Juliet" meaningless simply because it is fictional, and to call "Starry Night" worthless because it does not assist in supporting the wall on which it hangs.
The Bible is not a textbook.
2) Religion is sexually repressive.
First, to anyone who would make this argument, I say read Song of Solomon in the Bible. An entire book of the Bible is devoted to describing the intimate exploration of love and sexuality of a couple. Having read this book, it is hard to understand the sexual repression the church has enforced in the past. The problem the church has faced is that sex is always a dangerous topic; it can be the source of great beauty or great pain. In the past, the response of religion has been restrictions, rules, limitations, to protect its people. Unfortunately, the misinterpretation of these guidelines have ironically caused much pain, and only of late are we beginning to understand this and become more tolerant.
What we forgot in creating these rules was that whatever spiritual being created or guided the creation of the world, created sex. It depressed me greatly to once hear a fellow Christian simply say "sex is sinful." To me, it is no sin, it is a gift to us; it is a glimpse of the joy He had in creating us. To create life is sacred; the purpose of religious guidelines is to preserve the holiness of sex. Sexual repression is only a misguided attempt to protect the sanctity of intercourse, and does not represent the true interest of religion.
He who created the world, created sex.
3) Religion supports fanaticism and extremism.
This is another case in which the views of the few do not represent the views of the many. There are those persons who need a strict set of rules to live by, and cling to religion as the answer to exactly what is wrong and exactly what is right. These persons bend religion to justify their own beliefs and opinions, and often do their best to force these opinions onto others' in God's name.
I cannot stress the word opinion enough. Fanatics have strayed far away from the spiritual connection and pursuit of enlightenment of which I have spoken, and stepped into the realm of playing God and telling others how they should live, even harming or killing others in the name of God. Religion does its best to guide our lives, to lead us to enlightenment, and to make us lights unto the world. It is nothing but unfortunate that these guidelines can be made into rules and regulations on what is good and what is evil.
Religious fanatics have forgotten mercy, compassion, and forgiveness.
4) Religion causes wars.
Religion has been used by many for purposes that are not in the interest of the religious. As far as I know, no divinely inspired religion condones war; in fact, the majority, if not all, speak specifically against killing. Religious wars occur when a person believes that their God wishes to destroy those of another faith. If it is the case, though, that all divinely inspired religions stem from the same spiritual centrality, then this is simply nonsense.
Religious wars therefore come from the belief that one religion is better or more right than another. This is a commonly held perception; that one's religion is correct and all others are incorrect; but it simply cannot be the case. If only one religion is correct, then there would be no spiritual connection, no meaning, no fulfilment in any others. And yet, any religion which lacks this meaning dies out. To kill in the name of one's religion is to give up on humanity. If one is truly faithful to one's religion, they have faith that their spiritual guide will speak to members of other religions and guide them on the path to enlightenment, through whatever journey He deems appropriate.
To kill in the name of religion is to lack faith in one's religion and the wisdom of one's spiritual guide.
5) Religion is about heaven and hell.
Many see the primary goal of religion as simply to make into heaven, or whatever equivalent. Even more sadly, others see the goal of religion as to avoid going to hell. Fortunately, religion is more complicated than that. Many simplify religion into something along the lines of "do this, this, and don't do this and this, and you're safely in heaven." What they fail to realize is that God understands us; He created us, and for Christians, He even became human. He knows there is more to life than black and white, good and evil. He created us with minds of our own, so that we could learn from life and come to truly understand what good and evil mean.
The ultimate goal of religion is not to get into heaven or avoid going to hell. It is, as I have said more than once now, enlightenment, the betterment of humanity, and spirituality. Heaven should not be the focus of life, any more than the focus of a journey should be its end. A journey creates a destination, not vice versa, and the focus of religion is on how we live, not how we die. Heaven is a reward, but we should not focus all our actions on just trying to make it there.
Religion is about life.
6) Religion implies submission.
The church is to many an authoritarian regime, deciding what is wrong and what is right, deciding how we should live, deciding our lives for us. This assumption forgets that, when humanity was created, we were given freedom of choice and freedom of thought. Alongside the assumption that religion is all about getting into heaven, many believe that it is about following rules that limit our freedom and choice. Religion is not a limitation of choice, though, but a celebration of it! If we were created to follow rules, we would never have been given free minds. The very fact that we are able to think for ourselves shows us that we are meant to discover our own truths.
In many cases governments have misused religion to repress and control the people, but this is not the true purpose of religion. It is another corruption that has led many to lose faith, but religion in its true form does not demand submission. In its true form, religion gives us choice, and when we choose poorly, gives us forgiveness and love. It is about understanding the infinite love we are offered, and reflecting that love to those around us. And so, those who seek to oppress the people through religion are not divinely inspred at all.
Religion implies freedom.
7) Faith implies ignorance.
Perhaps the greatest misunderstanding of religion is that of "blind faith." Humanity does not like the idea of being blind. Perhaps it is the result of too many religious persons responding to questions regarding their religion with the simple response "I have faith," but it seems to have come to represent ignorance. There are those who, when questioned, avoid thinking for fear that they will be proven wrong, but thesepeople do not represent the faithful; this only proves they lack faith in the truth of their religion. The truly faithful are quick to question their religion, with great confidence that it will be proven true.
Faith does not say that, what we don't know, we don't care about. Faith says that we as humans DO NOT KNOW EVERYTHING. We do not have all the answers. In our search for knowledge, we seem to see the pattern that, the more we know, the more we realize we know nothing at all. Quantum physics has completely blown our world apart. In this way, the more we learn about the world, the more faith we need. We need faith that, somehow, something is holding everything together. Faith is not about ignoring science or contemporary knowledge, it is the belief that there is always something more.
Faith is our admittance that we do not know everything.
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