Musings on the value of religion

[tagryn]

One thing I think the anti-theist movement has a blind spot for is how religion acts as a means to build community among strangers. Case in point: in the recent Haiti disaster, much of the relief efforts were provided by religious organizations such as Catholic Relief Services, Lutheran World Relief, the Latter-Day Saints, the Salvation Army, etc. To be sure, non-religious organizations such as the Red Cross were also major providers of relief...but, I think there's tremendous value in forces that remind us that we are connected to and responsible for one another, especially in the West where we are more individualistic than is the case in other cultures. And religion is one of the major, if not the major, connecting forces in the world today.

Perhaps it shouldn't be this way, ideally, but I know I've grown more sympathetic to things like the plight of the Haitian people, the difficulties of unauthorized immigrants in the U.S., etc. because I know that many of those are Catholics just like me, and that we share a common faith. It breaks down the tendency to see others as a "them" and turns them into an "us," which like it or not does make it harder to ignore. We are tribal creatures, something I think we underappreciate in Western countries as the traditional tribal structures such as the extended family have declined in importance.

Heinlein (through his Lazarus Long character) once wrote that:
Moving parts in rubbing contact require lubrication to avoid excessive wear. Honorifics and formal politeness provide lubrication where people rub together. Often the very young, the untraveled, the naïve, the unsophisticated deplore these formalities as "empty," "meaningless," or "dishonest," and scorn to use them. No matter how "pure" their motives, they thereby throw sand into machinery that does not work too well at best.
...which feeds into this criticism of the anti-theist movement: it is throwing sand into something which is one of the great means by which humanity gets connected to one another. The anti-theists may like to believe that it shouldn't have to be this way, that other social structures will come along to take religion's place which aren't burdened with what they see as "lies." Maybe...but I'm dubious that would be so. More likely, the replacements would be much weaker and less able to overcome our natural tendency towards selfishness, or alternatively would tend to narrow the tribal instinct to only a very select group.

Comments

[erikred.livejournal.com]

Since my upbringing was as a Navy brat in the Enlisted-folks quarters, and since my education was, mostly, public (and across four states and a military base), I suggest to you that those elements are if not common, at least a common cross-section of experiences. However, this seems to be drifting toward an assumption that people, if left to their own devices, are withdrawn, xenophobic, and paranoid that others may be getting what they're not. I don't know that I buy that. Do people need help and support to rise above circumstances? Sure, that I'll sign on for. But if left to their own devices _and_ not subjected to crushing poverty, I submit to you that people will generally play nice. Gordon Geckos excepted.

The Atlantic story you were trying to point to has a much more sensationalist headline than its material supports. In broadest strokes, it's pointing out the greed-and-superstition message of "prosperity gospel" churches; note that this sentiment was just as ridiculed before you and I could walk as it is now.

I think the most honest and self-reflective piece Hitchens has written in over a decade was his recanting of his position that waterboarding is not torture.

[tagryn]

Erik, I think we're talking different reference groups. Your experience (and mine) may not be that unique in the U.S. or in the developed world in general.

However:
* Globally illiteracy is still at 20%.
* Only about 27% of the world population lived in countries ranked as "very high" or "high" on the UNDP's Human Development Index (table L).
* Global enrollment in tertiary (college) education is only 26%, compared to 71% in N. America and western Europe.

Does education help expand one's horizons and perspective? Almost certainly. Lack of education doesn't doom one automatically to a Hobbesian perspective on life, but considering it tends to go along with lack of other basic resources, it will tend to narrow one's focus. Despite it's shortcomings, I think Maslow's triangle is still basically valid for this: if you are constantly trying to scrounge out a living, higher-level goals such as overcoming prejudice and creativity will take a back seat.

This leads into macro issues of whether rising education corresponds with declining religiousity, whether greater education tends to increase societal isolation and individualism, and whether increased individualism can coexist with strong tribal/familial/religious ties. One could devote a life's work to trying to answer any one of those, and I won't pretend to have simple answers to those questions.