The Root Of All Evil

[poliphilo]

It's refreshing that militant Darwinist Richard Dawkins has been given the opportunity to attack religion- all religion- in his new TV series The Root Of All Evil.

On the other hand there's something a bit stringy and gristly about his case.

While it's quite true that the worldwide revival of fundamentalist religion- Islamic, Christian, Hindu- is one of the scariest developments of recent years, it's quite false to argue that religion has been behind all that is bad in human history.

The greatest atrocities of the 20th century were committed by atheist or areligious regimes- Nazi Germany, Communist Russia, Communist China, Communist Cambodia. The First World War had little to do with religion and everything to do with nationalism.

Human beings like to believe. They like to believe en masse. It keeps them warm. But they don't particularly need to believe in God. Any ideology will do.

And Dawkins igonores the good that religion can accomplish. It was evangelical Christians, as I wrote the other day, who broke the slave trade. And- on a different tack- recent research has shown that, as a matter of statistics, believers are more likely to be happy and fulfilled than unbelievers.

Religion is a stalk, a branch, a tendril- not a root.

Comments

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

I forget the individual who posited that religion has the capacity to inspire both the angelic and the demonic in man. All too true. As you and your commenters have pointed out, religion is responsible for both atrocity and benificence throughout history - any attempt to ignore either aspect is to cling to a naive perspective. I appreciate your nuance here. People like to throw out examples like the Inquisition and the Crusades because they're bloody and dramatic, and require little thought to convey an emotional impact. It's often little more than a justification for self-serving rage.

You failed to mention, however, another system of belief that is as responsible for causing just as much misery to humanity, all the more so because it is less direct and more devious: capitalist consumerism. Think of third world poverty and the destruction of the environment, both of which are largely perpetuated by the drive for corporate profit and, more individually, by our individual desires for cheap consumer goods. Those nasty, evil corporations we like to condemn would cease to exist, or would at least be forced to radically transform their MO, if en masse we simply refused to buy. But we don't. Much easier to impotently shake our fists at business suits and clergy while driving the SUV to Starbucks for our morning latte.

I would argue that many who rail against organized religion fail to recognize that it is often a mere smokescreen and puppet for capitalist interests. Does anyone out there truly believe that the lunacy of Pat Robertson is inspired entirely by religion? The man is as much a worshipper of cash as Christ, and the former is just as responsible for his behavior as Christianity, if not more so. We are all heavily invested in the capitalist system, whether we realize it or not. The truly devious aspect of it is I'm not sure there is a better option out there, and my own consumerist tendencies might not want it even if were.

*steps off soapbox*

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Yes, Capitalism.

And the insidious thing about Capitalism is that its victims are so hard to quantify. They don't get stood up against the wall and shot (at least most of them don't); they fall victim to circumstances that the markets have engineered- and which we are encouraged to regard as unavoidable and natural.

Many ideologies have used religion as a smokescreen. 19th century nationalism for example.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

Indeed, I think what is forgotten is that human beings have an innate need to draw boundaries, a discomfort with amibiguity and it is this that causes terror and religion being one of the biggest boundaries of them all is an extreme manifestation. I feel nationalism to be a far worse ideology which is why I'm an anarchist.
I am also somewhat Durkheimian in that I agree with the glib statement 'religion is society worshipping itself'. Tolstoy was excommunicated by actually living according the the precepts of Jesus and saying the Russian church did not!

Fear is no doubt a sensible evolutionary device to protect the species but it is the real cause of all the world's ills IMHO. Religion might be a manifestation of it but it is as you say not the root.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the Durkheim quote. It's new to me. I love it!

We all want to shut ourselves up in a nice cosy pen with the people who agree with us and string razor wire along the boundaries. As you say, it's fear of the "other" that's the root of all evil.

I agree with you about Nationalism. Religion gives rise to great art. Nationalism produces only dreck.