Does America Need More Religion?
Well, it’s an election year and the Conservatives seem to have a decent lock on the hardcore Christian population, ready to retake the power base by storm if there’s even the slightest problem with the Obama Administration. So I wasn’t too surprised to see a giant article in the WSJ recently on the subject of religion. OK let’s talk.
On or around the three-day President’s Day weekend in the US there was an interesting article in the Review Section of the Wall Street Journal headlined; “Religion for all” with a subtitle of; “The decline of religion in the West brought with it a decline in community spirit. Could the secular world draw useful lessons from religious life? Alain de Botton offers new ways to find shared meaning.” In the article the author raises this thought:
“We can all learn something from the ways religion promotes morality, inspires travel, trains minds, and encourages gratitude for the beauty of life.”
So, US? Does America Need More Religion Today? Well, this is what I say; “Like a hole in the head does.” We don’t need more religion in America, it’s a crutch frankly, and I can remember the kind of community working under pressure from religious fundamentalism, should I mention the Salem witch trials? Sure, something like that would certainly inspire me to travel too, to get out of there. It’s really not the kind of community I’m looking for, thank you very much.
In fact, according to the Salem Witch Trials page on WikiPedia, which you may not consider a viable source, but it sure is, it’s close enough to show you the point of contention; “The two courts convicted twenty-nine people of the capital offense of witchcraft. Nineteen of the defendants, fourteen women and five men, were executed by hanging. One man, who refused to plead guilty, was crushed to death under heavy stones in an attempt to force him to do it, and at least 5 more died in prison,” so I’m not so sure we need more of that.
How about some of the more fundamental sects of Islam? After all Christians have done some not-so-great things with religion, well, have you heard of Sharia Law lately? It’s that your idea of a ‘sense of community’ because I sure as hell wouldn’t be mine. What about Catholicism? Sure, lots of Catholics in the US, but what about those weird challenges with priests, bishops, and, well, kids? Well, even with my critique here, most of the world’s religions have decent architecture, which is decent.
A decline in community is not necessarily due to a lack of religion, nor has the decline of community spirit caused the slow death of religion. It could well be the passing of an agrarian culture, better education, bigger cities, advanced science, fewer people in the family, and the realization that most religions are nothing more than stories, therefore smarter humans tend to to take it all in. a grain of salt, that could easily explain it too. However, the author of “Religion for Atheists: A Guide to Religion for Non-Believers” by Alan de Botton sounds like an interesting read. Therefore, consider all this and think about it.