Reason and Religion

So the Pope went on record discussing religion and reason during a speech in Germany. He is quoted in the NY Times as saying:

he devoted the rest to a long examination of how Western science and philosophy had divorced themselves from faith — leading to the secularization of European society that is at the heart of Benedict’s worries.

This, he said, has closed off the West from a full understanding of reality, making it also impossible to talk with cultures for whom faith is fundamental.

“The world’s profoundly religious cultures see this exclusion from the divine, from the universality of reason as an attack on their most profound convictions,” he said. “A reason which is deaf to the divine and which relegates religion into the realm of subcultures is incapable of entering into the dialogue of cultures.”...

“Today, when we have learned to recognize the pathologies and life-threatening diseases associated with religion and reason, and the ways that God’s image can be destroyed by hatred and fanaticism, it is important to state clearly the God in whom we believe,” the pope said.

“Only this can free us from being afraid of God — which is ultimately at the root of modern atheism,” he said. “Only this God saves us from being afraid of the world and from anxiety before the emptiness of life.”.

Though the speech got press because of his quotation about Islam, I think the issue he discusses above is far more relevant. A while back I wrote a post discussing the origins of religion and the possibility that there is no God. There I said:


It is highly likely that the answer to why we are here will simple be: we are the result of a whole mess of accidents, coincidences and extremely good luck. We happen to be alive and we have no purpose greater than or less than any other living thing on the planet. None whatsoever. We simply are born and die. Our matter is returned to the Earth where it is recycled to sustain future life of various forms. Our "consciouness" which artificial intelligence will soon show, is the result of very high level brain function. WHen the brain ceases to function that unique energy that we call "consciousness" will simply do like all other energy does, obey the laws of thermodynamics and dissipate as it seeks more stable forms.

For many people of faith and indeed many people period. The idea that we are here by accident is very scary. That the Pope would state that God can "save" us "from being afraid of the world and from anxiety before the emptiness of life.”

I find this statement interesting given that a Muslim blogger over at Planet Grenada made a similar comment:

I think the talk captures a lot of what I find so compelling in Islam. It isn't about blind faith and emotional displays. It is more about a calm certainty which comes from unvarnished realism; knowing who you are in relation to God and the world.

he says that he didn't mean it the way I have it framed here, but I think that his mind is letting on to the same thing the Pope is saying. Namely his religion is a tool for the believers to find meaning in their lives. In essence the existence of God allows the believer to situate himself in a hierarchy with a loving but demanding authority figure either implicitly or explicitly male in the case of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, who has given us a life map in the way of scriptures and prophets and whome will ultimately make those who are "evil" pay for their misdeed which makes the believers relatively "plain" life worth the effort.

Now I know that sounds harsh and deconstructive but ultimately that is what the Pope is saying. Religion and God exists to comfort mankind. The question I have been asking for a while is can one have a fulfilling life act in a moral manner and not believe? I say the answer is yes as evidenced by the numerous, though minority, people that are atheists who act in a more moral and upright manner than many religious people do. The reason we can make this observation is because many of the reasons for religion and belief in God: the inability to understand physical phenomenon such as thunder, lightning, rain, etc. as well as the need to confront the fear of survival that early humans had to endure, have been removed by reason and science. When it rains God isn't crying. God isn't walking around or angry when there is thunder and lightning. And no, the earth is not the center of the universe and yes there is a universe.

Hence religions that are dogmatic and fundamentalist are threatened by such science and reasoning because such reasoning threatens not only the individual belief but also the men who are in positions of power based on those beliefs. I came to know this before I left the Seventh Day Adventist church. I was under the assumption that the pastor of the church was unfamiliar with the Book of the Dead and related material. It turned out that he was but he would not present this material to his congregation because it would cost him his job. Ultimately truth, which I thought was central to religion was not as important as position.

This ultimately is the reason for why there are conflicts between people and cultures that put belief before reason. Indeed even as far back as the Egyptians, reason was the basis of religion. A religious precept that did not conform with reason was not acceptible. In the case of Khemet we find that upon creation Maat and Maa (order) was the first thing created and formed the foundation of all subsequent things. What is more problematic is when certain fundamentalists fail to even properly understand the origins of their own religions. For example the idea that humanity was made in the image of God is taken very literally by many Christians but the Judaic concept is not literal at all, nor is the Khemetic one. Thus it is not the rational person who is the problem but rather the believer who puts potentially false beliefs ahead of reason and then attempts to impose that on other people. The fundamentalist of any religious stripe is the logical extension of such belief systems which is why I think that the most dangerous belief systems are those that attempt to convert. Most rational people see this. Apparently the Pope does not.

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