1. Could it be that the problem with religion is that it is somehow transformed into law, because it derives from a divine authority? But God talks to man like a lord speaks to his servants; his language is imperative and obedience a matter of life and death. There is thus a difference between theocracy and humanism….and indeed human rights (HR). Marshall McLuhan’s ‘The Medium is the Message’ would seem to apply here and what seems to be just authoritarian language is the symbolic expression of an authoritarian, patriarchal mind that has caused much suffering despite its sublime message and its high aspirations. Let us not forget that women’s rights have been de-valued and their voices are seldom listened to.
1a. God demands more and the people can seldom be at the height of his (her?) demands. Consequently, God punishes the people. But God demands that people serve him with joy. There is thus a bittersweet aspect in his obedience. Therefore, the hegemonic nature of religions has not been innocuous. The political imposition of monotheism has lent support to regimes and doctrines such as the monarchy, the holy inquisition, racial supremacy, slavery, persecution of independent women, homophobia and nationalisms that have had sad HR consequences throughout history. So, one thing is to understand these caveats and another to passively accept religions’ shortcomings.
1b. In this critical time of history, religions could help creating the common good instead of serving as a rationalization and underwriting of the prevailing political and economic power. As pertinent, religions should desist of their political and hegemonic ambitions, as well as get rid of their patriarchy and their dogmatic authoritarianism, their control of spontaneity. Patriarchy has become dangerously obsolete. The patriarchal ‘contamination’ of religions has actually been a fundamental cause of the secularization of the Western world, as well as the model that has inspired its police and repressive apparatus. (Are we not these days witnessing a struggle between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ terrorists?) What we are left with is that we have to get back to preaching real altruism and HR* as an antidote to generalized selfishness in the world. (Claudio Naranjo)
*: Keep in mind that no matter whether you are of another religion, are an atheist or are an agnostic, Christianity was founded by an innocent who was condemned to death –a violation of the right to life. (Albino Gomez)
2. Consider: In the Middle Ages, the call for a crusade to conquer the Holy Land was met with cries of “Deus vult!” –God wills it. But did the crusaders really know what God wanted? Given how the venture turned out, apparently not. Now, that was a long time ago, and, in the areas I write about in the Readers, invocations of God’s presumed will are rare. You do, however, see a lot of policy crusades, and these are often justified with implicit cries of “Mercatusvult!” –the market wills it. But do those invoking the will of the market really know what markets want? Again, apparently not. (Paul Krugman)
The worst definition of religion you will probably ever come across is that of it being ‘the belief in one or many gods’
3. A religion is a set of beliefs and rituals, discourses and acts. It is associated with solemnity, emotion and solidarity –the latter relating religion to HR. (A. Testart) Furthermore, religions are distinguished by their dogmas and, let’s not forget, by very specialized institutions guardians of the faith.
4. When reflecting about major religions we, no doubt, underestimate the sub-surface effects of our ethnocentrism especially if we look at the expansion of Western religions with their monotheistic representation of a creator God. Other religions are too often, too quickly classified as supersticions. But there do exist beliefs of the sacred without gods. (Confusionism is a specific product of ancestor worship). Religion can thus only be truly understood within the greater global context of social and cultural representations. The object of religions is to exercise powers intended to produce, reproduce and impose ritual and mental habits –thus the clergy and the institutional organization that transmit a unique representation of the world. Religion covers all cultural areas –and this is proven by all aspects of religious life in history. It visibly influences all aspects of life including power relations and conflicts thus its relationship with HR. (P. Fermi)
5. Religion is a fundamental freedom. I accept that. It gives joy and pride and can provide protection in a way analogous to that of race; religion is not only an identity marker, but also a genuine and determining characteristic of a fundamental freedom. It further marks the identity of a social group that has a distinct position in the power structures of society –for example, Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, or Sunni and Shi’a in Iraq or Bahrain. I’d say HR, as nowadays widely understood, are seldom part of the identity markers of religions…
6. To continue on the path we are now-on and make no changes will leave concerned religious people just sharing a ‘meeting space’, very much like the purely spiritual exercises and retreats held for centuries by the Catholic Church while conflicts and revolutions were exploding in the outside world.** (RobertoSavio)
**: Not trying to be facetious here, but attending church services does not make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.
Would humankind on the whole be better off if it renounced religion?
-Was man happier before Middle Eastern monotheist religions came to be than after them?
7. God’s demise or passing, it is said, will come when wo/men have reached the necessary maturity to dispense of God, i.e., have learned to live without the, in some periods of history, castrating interferences of the religious powers (or the owners of the faith?) and their established morals which, as we said, are not fully congruent with the ethics of HR. (Leonardo Padura)
The other side of the coin
Is atheism a political-religion and more intolerant than other religions? (G. Leopardi)
8. As countries develop economically, more of their citizens are moving away from religious affiliation, as has been seen in Europe. But there is little evidence of such a phenomenon in Muslim-majority countries. Moreover, in Hindu-majority India, religious affiliation is still nearly universal despite rapid economic and social change. China, with its large population and lack of reliable data on religious switching, is something of a wild card when it comes to the future of world religion. This is especially true for the religiously unaffiliated population; more than half of the world’s people who do not identify with any religion live in China (roughly 700 million). (http://wwrn.org/articles/44313/)
9. We tend to understand atheism as a war between religion and science. Atheism can be seen as an evangelical creed not unlike Christianity. An atheist, we tend to assume, is someone who thinks science should be the basis of our beliefs and tries to convert others to this view of things. An atheist is anybody who doesn’t rely on an idea of God. Of course there are different ideas of God, but in several cultures the deity is understood as a divine mind that is all-knowing, all-powerful and all-loving. Atheists reject this idea, or simply do not have any need for it.
10. The questions we are left with here are: Is religion a response to the fact of our mortality? Is religion a primitive theory of how the world works? Is religion ‘the best available illusion’? Can we throw out the more passive religion-based morality in which we have been reared (and replace it with a more tolerant and action-oriented HR ethics)? (J. Gray)
…the surface is everything; what is underneath –too little? (L. Powys)
Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
cschuftan@phmovement.org