Irreligiosity - Just Be Good for Goodness Sake

Fom today's edition of the Owen Sound Sun Times:

What is your beef with Christ, Christians and Christianity anyway? This question came up at a humanist meeting I attended last week. My response was that my biggest problem with Christianity (and religion in general) is that it amounts to a waste of time. Defenders of religion will quickly object by pointing out all of the good works which are carried out in the name of their faiths. The late Christopher Hitchens dismissed this objection when he wrote:

“Nine times out of ten, in debate with a cleric, one will be told not of some dogma of religious certitude but of some instance of charitable or humanitarian work undertaken by a religious person. Of course, this says nothing about the belief system involved: it may be true that Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam succeeds in weaning young black men off narcotics, but this would not alter the fact that [it] is a racist crackpot organization. . . . My own response has been to issue a challenge: name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer. As yet, I have had no takers. (Whereas, oddly enough, if you ask an audience to name a wicked statement or action directly attributable to religious faith, nobody has any difficulty in finding an example.)” - Introduction to The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever (De Capo Press, 2007).

Another humanist attending our meeting referred to the famous observation by physicist Steven Weinberg: "With or without [religion] you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion.” Of course, religion is not the only social phenomenon which can accomplish this. Look no further than the insane jingoistic rhetoric spewing out of candidates for the U.S. Republican presidential nomination. The sad part is that much of this rhetoric is cloaked in religiosity. Current front-runner Mitt Romney provided this gem of a quote on October 6, 2011: “God did not create this country to be a nation of followers … America is not destined to be one of several equally balanced global powers”. At least Romney can take credit for leaving an atheist like me muttering “Sweet Jesus …”.

It is taken as a given that a public announcement of non-belief in God would render a U.S. presidential candidate unelectable. On the other hand, it was considered perfectly appropriate for former President George W. Bush to suggest that God literally told him to invade Afghanistan and Iraq (source: The Guardian). One is left wondering how long Bush would have been left in charge of the nuclear launch codes if he described speaking to Zeus instead of the moral majority’s chosen Lord and Savior.

I am often asked by people why I bother to write this column. The answer is simply because the truth matters. It matters whether the miracles described in the Bible occurred and whether they will occur in the future. It matters whether prayer works or if it’s nothing but a waste of time. It matters whether diseases are caused by demonic forces or natural pathogens. It matters whether our purpose on earth is dictated by a deity or whether it is up to us (and only us) to define that purpose. It matters whether worshipping the idea of a human sacrifice is beneficial to society or not. It matters whether we need a god to be good or not. Wouldn’t you be concerned if your neighbor was more likely to steal if they didn’t think that someone was looking over their shoulders? In fact, one can define morality as that which motivates us to do the right thing when nobody is watching and we have no fear of being punished if we choose to do wrong. If anyone gives this issue serious consideration, they will realize that we don’t want people to be good because they have to be good. We all want people to “Just be good for goodness sake” - this is my favorite humanist slogan.

For those interested in learning more about humanism, the Grey Bruce Humanist Association meets monthly to discuss topics relating to the betterment of humanity without the supernatural. Information can be found on the GBHA’s website at: http://www.greybrucehumanists.org/.

Note - Special thanks to Luke Muehlhauser (creator and host of the podcast Conversations from the Pale Blue Dot) for his riff which inspired the "because the truth matters" paragraph in the above column.