A (Hopefully) Thoughtful Response to Angry Atheists

So I recently was perusing facebook, cause it’s summer and I don’t really have anything to do, and while I was on facebook I saw a post that made me an odd mixture of angry, sad, and aroused (Not sexually! My gosh, in like an ‘I want to do something about that’ kind of way - you people and your sexual deviancies.) Anyway the post was one of those really long essay posts entitled Why Atheists are Angry. Rather than directly quoting it or screen capping it, I’ll just summarize in order to save space. The essay-post lists several really tragic occurrences, such as the pregnancy of a young girl due to her father’s sexual abuse (and the church’s subsequent excommunication of her due to her abortion of the child, even though she would have likely died had she gone through with the birth), the Catholic Church’s money laundering, the criminalization of atheism in foreign countries, the one that makes me the saddest: the persecution of a girl trying to separate church and state by a group of children and adults who call themselves Christians, as well as many others.

The reason I had such a strong emotional reaction to this particular post wasn’t because it demonized Christians, because far too often those who call themselves followers of Christ have earned their own demonization. No I was so profoundly affected by this tirade because it missed the major problem consistent throughout these issues: the fault of man. All of the problems listed in the essay-post are absolutely tragic. And they make me angry too. However, this is not an issue inherent in the religion itself, just like how terrorism is not a problem inherent in Islam and immorality is not a problem inherent in atheists and agnostics. The problem here stems from a human tendency to value rules and preconceived definitions as a constant more than we do the situation or the person rules are meant to protect. This is a tendency known as legalism. It is why certain laws persist even though they’re silly and it is why often times conservative Christians are cold and careless. It is horrible and it assumes that everyone can live a perfect life, even though no evidence has ever existed that suggests humans can live mistakeless lives. I do not defend what these people do and in fact condemn them just as much as the person who posted the essay-post.

However, to blame such problems on religion excuses them as results of religion exclusively and not on human fault. These problems stem from a human failure to be consistently compassionate to those who need it. And the only way to improve such a failure is to make the decision yourself to stop. To stand up for what is right and work towards a better world. To suggest that horrible travesties such as these, which are admittedly performed in the name of religion, are caused by religion supposes two things detrimental to the improvement of our world. The first supposition is that without religion these things would not happen. This shows a fundamental lack of knowledge as to the horrible things that have been done in the name of things completely separate from religion, such as greed (which though often experienced by religious people is not a requirement for religion, see Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, etc). If it were not for our human penchant for greed we wouldn’t even be in the war in which we are currently participating. The second supposition is that all religious people perform these atrocities or ignore them happening. There have been a number of religious people have done very little other than improve this world, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Theresa to name just a couple. Many effective charities, such as Jewish World Watch and Islamic Relief, were founded by religious people or operate based on religious beliefs.

In conclusion my point with this post isn’t to defend religious people over nonreligious people. But just to warn that blaming religion for many of the atrocities committed across the world is missing the problem. The problem isn’t in religion. It’s in us. And the only way it can be stopped is if those of us who see these atrocities and get angry actual do something about it. Improving our world isn’t dependent on abolishing belief systems that have both guided people towards evil acts and towards good acts, but in we as humans fighting these atrocities and actual focusing on something greater than ourselves. Think about it. 

Do you agree? Disagree? Have questions? Tell me or ask them in the comments!

(Oh yeah and by the far less solemn way, I wrote a review of The Five Year Engagement for SidewalkOnline Magazine right here)