Bill Maher’s movie Religulous had a brief stay here in Bozeman, and I and a few others had a good laugh. It’s meant to be funny, but Maher is very serious in making fun of religious people.
Maher was raised by a Catholic father and a Jewish mother. (His first confession: “Bless me father for I have sinned. This is my first confession…. and this is my attorney, Mr. Coen.) His father eventually left the church over the birth control issue, but his reaction was much the same as mine when I left the church in 1988 – “Free at last!” Sunday services were very boring, and ruined a day that should otherwise be devoted to football, picnics and the mountains.
Maher paints with a broad brush, lumping together Scientologists and Jews, Catholics and Muslims, evangelicals and normal people. He doesn’t understand how normal and mentally healthy people can cling to strange beliefs like virgin births and secret friends.
I’ve wrestled with that too. For myself, the beliefs were implanted in my fragile young brain from infancy forward, along with the notion that if I gave them up, I would burn in hell. That’s a pretty high hurdle to jump, but jump it I did. Most don’t. Religious faith is shielded from reality by that incredible scam – people are inculcated from youth forward that religious belief is not only necessary, but that lack of walking away from it is fatal.
That’s most of us, I think. Imagine a wolf-boy – a kid raised by wolves all by himself coming to the revelation that a man who (might have) lived 2000 years ago was born of a virgin and should be his personal secret friend. It is only by societal custom that these strange ancient beliefs are handed down.
There’s another handle that religion had on us – it is the notion that without it, we will not be good people. Not so – goodness precedes the bible and religion. All societies have laws against theft, murder, incest and adultery. The bible merely gathered them (and a whole boatload of other really weird stuff) in one place. Without the bible, we’d still have the precepts. They come from within us. They are probably the result of our evolutionary need to survive. Intra-species carnage is not conducive to our long term prospects.
So what’s the big deal about religion? We’re weird, not always rational. Religion provides comfort in times of pain and loss, and makes a very complicated and uncertain existence simple and certain. It’s mostly a good thing. Since abandoning it, I’ve spent too much time resenting the way they invaded my young brain, took control of me before I had the ability to resist them. I forgive. I started out doing the same thing to my kids, and stopped. They’re OK now, my kids – none of them are believers, but they are good people.
So my only hangup with religion at this point is the political one – certain people in our society are not content to live their own lives by their own precepts, and leave the rest of us alone. No – they want all of us under their thumb. The beating heart at the center of the political fundamentalist Christian movement is abortion. If it were to go away, so would they. But they are also hosing us with their other beliefs on homosexuality, oppression of women and end times. All of that is dangerous to the body politic.
It is in that sense that I find religion to be a negative in our lives. These people and their strange behaviors ebb and flow, and will eventually ebb once more. But for the time being, they are really a pain in the ass, and a threat to our basic freedoms.
Oh yeah – one other small matter: If religions did not indoctrinate youth before they reached the age of reason, there would be no religion. Their very survival depends on abuse of children.
Piece of Mindful 
I haven’t seen it yet, but I intend to. From what I hear, it has a very short stint in Tucson, as well.
Now, as a pagan, I have all my own little nonsensical beliefs. It helps give a sense of order and control in the light of circumstances beyond ourselves. One belief governs my actions: “Do nothing you’ll regret.”
It seems to work for me and keep me out of trouble, for the most part. Live and let live. If your beliefs work for you, fine… but please do not subjugate my own to fit in your little schematic of the world.
While not having children yet, myself, I intend to teach them my religion. Nothing except basic overtones and things that cannot otherwise be hidden until age 5. Basic precepts until 10. And, at 10, I start showing them other religions. Find your own path, one that works for you. How can we teach a two year old all the precepts of our religion and scare them into believing their entire lives? A choice should not be made out of fear. Look at politics… nothing good for the people comes out of fear-mongering. It is the same with religion.
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Did the “Wolf Boy” grow up and start a blog?
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I agree. At this point in time, religion in America, especially the influence of conservative evangelicals, is a negative. But religion has always been a tool that allowed cunning personalities to carve out a following amongst the naive minded for political gain. It’s humerous that faiths grounded in good principles can be hijacked to suppress nonlike-minded people and perpetrate attrocities in the name of God. Not giving same-sex couples equal rights under the law as heterosexual married couples and the Crusades of our mid-evil past are two examples of this.
Mark, I have to disagree with you on your last point, though. Despite what we might think about what effect indoctrination of youth might have, there will always be religion in the world. Science and sound reasoning can no more disprove the existance of God then the faith-filled can prove that He does exist. There will always be room for God.
I am still hopeful that organized religion can inspire more good than bad because the underlying principles of most world faiths are grounded in compassion and tolerance, two things often forgotten by the vocal minority of our church leaders.
But here’s to Hope.
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In the movie, Maher interviews two Catholic priests, and they come off quite well. One has scientific training, and believes in evolution, and the other pooh-poohed miracles and such, saying that the people needed them.
Frank – saying that there will always be religion is fine, but my point i that it would be far less relevant if people were not indoctrinated as youths. George Carlin went to a Catholic school where they believed that kids should reach the age of reason before they were hit with religious indoctrination. So he missed it as a kid, and grew up agnostic or atheist. I don’t know which. Religious people know that if you don’t get them when they are young, you don’t get them.
Carlin’s impression of god, as I remember it – an old man with a beard who sits on a throne and is always broke.
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Why do birds, bees, trees, deer, elk, grizzly bears, etc., not reverence or worship their dead? Or do they?
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My computer went to sleep or died mid-thought:
Why do birds, bees, trees, deer, elk, grizzly bears, etc., not reverence or worship their dead? Or do they? Would human culture invent “religion” if homo sapiens did not fear/revere death and/or dying?
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I was once sitting on a rock at Pine Creek Lake, passing the time. Below me, an ant was trying to carry some seed matter up the side of the rock. I watched as he tried several times, each time falling off. Finally, I reached down, pick up the ant and his load, and placed him on top the rock.
I suspect that I am now God to that ant colony, and that they light candles and hold vigils for me. I performed a miracle!
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Myth of Sisyphus redux, maybe?
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I just got back from Googling that. Well done!
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Excellent post. I’m looking forward to the movie also. I’m an acknowledged atheist, or Atheist. I can’t help but think that everyone that truly believes this stuff is crazy and the people that don’t really believe it but still say they’re christian only perpetuate the craziness. The children are their only hope and that’s why they indoctrinate them early. Watch the movie, Jesus Camp, if you want to truly be horrified. Little children are talking about god’s war and how they are soldiers for god. Freaky!
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I saw it a few weeks ago. I think the first weekend it was here. I was pleasantly surprised at how many people were there. It was entertaining, but a little over the top at the end.
My current opinion of the effect of religion is that people will shape it justify what they want it to justify and most people don’t want to live by the strictures of conservative religion, so its effect will be limited inside our society. That’s not to say it won’t cause problems, but I don’t think it’ll win out in any sense. The bigger problem comes when societies come into conflict and differing religious beliefs solidify and enhance the animosity between the two sides. Other attributes of a society can do that, but given most religions’ absolutist claims about the nature of existence, it’s far worse.
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>>>>I left the church in 1988
It seems to me you left the Catholic church and joined the church of Liberal material capitalism. It’s all there: a higher power, an orthodoxy, a liturgy, a creed, a priesthood.
>>>>…certain people in our society are not content to live their own lives by their own precepts, and leave the rest of us alone. No – they want all of us under their thumb.
Those Congressman. I don’t like ’em either.
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Please – I joined the church of agnosticism – the church of humility that requires that I not pretend to have answers that are not given us. The world, the universe are vast and beyond human comprehension. We can see only a little bit of it. Because of this, people are inclined to search for simple and understandable answers – hence, religion. (Denial of death is in there too.) Some of us just accept complexity as part of life. Deal with it, in other words.
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