Secular Society, Religious Politics

A couple of things have happened recently that prompt me to think about how the place of religion in America has changed during my life.  It’s Easter, of course, so Christians are much in evidence.  One can’t help noticing that there are a lot of them.  Despite all the news about the growth of other religions and the increase in “nones,” it is still the case that a substantial majority of people in the US self-identify as Christians.

     I spent Saturday morning as I usually do, discussing politics and religion with a group of friends.  (We’re sort of like that group of old guys who gather over coffee at the local diner in every small town and have the same discussion every morning.)  One of the group said that he was “saddened” by the fact that many of the rest of us reject organized religion.  I responded that I was saddened by his commitment to it.  But that is not exactly right; what I really am is baffled.

     I could go on at length about why I am so baffled by religious belief:  the lack of any sort of compelling evidence; the improbable nature of many religious doctrines; the incoherence of same; the morally offensive nature of much of religion; and so on.  But that is the subject of another essay.  Suffice it to say here that my bafflement is not the result of lack of study or thought.  I have devoted much intellectual energy to understanding religion; the more I learn, the more baffled I am.

     Do not suppose that I am making the mistake many atheists make of supposing that believers are stupid.  I know entirely too many Christians (and Muslims and Buddhists and such), including my friend who is saddened, who are quite intelligent enough and reasonably well informed about science and the history of religion.  That is exactly what baffles me.  It is no surprise that unintelligent and/or uneducated often embrace unfounded metaphysical notions.  But intelligent, educated people?  I just don’t get it.

     I never have “gotten” it.  That is why I am happy to see the increase in the number of people who openly claim no religion.  And I am encouraged by the emergence of a diverse movement of atheists and antitheists and antifideists and agnostics and so on who are unabashedly opposed to efforts by the religious to undermine secular political and social institutions.  I doubt that human beings will ever be completely free of religion, but I am hopeful that we can mitigate its consequences.

     There is no doubt that our society, particularly the urban parts of it, is becoming more secular.  I had to drive across town yesterday to collect my mother for Sunday dinner and return her home.  I was a bit surprised by the number of stores and restaurants that were open; it was almost like a regular Sunday.  And Fast and Furious 8 opened with the largest global opening ever.  I’m a big fan of the Fast and Furious franchise, and I am not a Christian; still, it seems an odd way for Christians to celebrate Easter.

     At the same time, our politics is becoming more religious—distorted by the religious conflicts that roil our society, pressured by religious demands, infested with religious hucksters.  A secular society is a threat to those who wish to express their religious convictions in all aspects of their lives.  Witness the current conflicts over such mundane issues as wedding cakes and having a working dinner with someone.  This threat drives religious people to seek political and legal protections that are politically contentious.  And it produces such absurd outcomes as massive support for Donald Trump among evangelical Christians.

     I really don’t know how to end this screed.  I am sympathetic to the difficulties of religious people who are trying to live, and teach their children to live, a pristine religious life in a society which does not support them.  I had much the same difficulties 40 years ago trying to raise a religion-free child in a society not yet quite so secular.

     But I really do think that religion, in most of its manifestations, is one of those artifacts of our evolutionary history that we need to discard.  Like our love of violence, or our fear of anyone different from ourselves, religion is simply not serving us very well anymore.