I can only hope that, very much like myself, any atheist who read the article entitled, “True religious morality” in last week’s Comment couldn’t help but think that the worst atheism has to offer has once again reared its ugly head. If only such commentators could realise how deeply discrediting both their arrogance and ignorance is to the atheist and humanist movements with regards to the role of religion in society, then hopefully they would cease making such glib pronouncements about how awful and destructive systems of religious morality are to the world.
I think, like many, I would quite happily join Tom Maksymiw and other secularists in a movement against religious extremism, whether it be the disgusting theocracies of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the genital mutilation of millions of women in the Islamic world or the more local outrage of the bishop of Carlisle who publically pronounced that the 2007 floods in Cumbria were God’s punishment against homosexuals. However, I have very little time for atheists who think that they are smarter and morally superior to religious people.
Not only do I think it is good manners to keep these kinds of thoughts to myself but I also cannot see any constructive use in doing so either. This is because, as easy as it is to thumb through the Old Testament and find both strange and horrific verses giving divine sanction to rape and genocide, it is disingenuous to then claim that these are beliefs and morals upheld by anyone except Christian fringe groups. In reality the vast majority of Christians don’t even know of the existence of such verses and, instead, believe in and practise a set of perfectly praiseworthy moral guidelines.
Admittedly this might sound to many like an absurd hypocrisy of cherry-picking from biblical verses but, if it makes people think about their actions and give generously to charity, then it seems like a hypocrisy worth having and certainly not worth disturbing. It is a hypocrisy which has inspired and empowered people to do great things, a favourite example of mine being Lech Walesa telling the Polish police that he did not fear them because the only person he feared was God.
History and contemporary experiences tells us that human beings are metaphysical animals in desperate need of a greater purpose and position in the universe. For many people it is understandably comforting to think that they are at the centre of a divine plan and it is a wonderful way to escape what can be the unnerving uncertainty of existence.
Even those who pertain to be non-believers reveal similar fears when they indulge in UFO stories, pay through the nose for homeopathy and spiritual medicine or align themselves with conspiracy groups such as the “9/11 truth movement.” Mr. Maksymiw quite boldly tells us that it is questionable if Christianity’s objective morality “is a basis on which a free society can function” but what he does not realise is that the society he wishes to create says and offers very little to human beings. Karl Marx once described religion as the flowers which mask and sit between the links in the chain of what is human misery and oppression and he subsequently called for man to remove the flowers in order to unmask and then break the chain.
However, it seems more sensible to say that in a liberal society we should hold out to people the opportunity and freedom to remove the flowers and break the chain but crucially we should not force them to do so as some people behave better with the flowers in place and some will find more absurd and harmful chains to wrap themselves
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