LETTER

Religion and its uses

 

I do get tired of people like John Audette (letter to the editor) making the unsupported claim that nothing good ever happened without religion. If they were to examine history and human nature with a more objective eye, they might realize that religion has been used to commit as much evil as good over the millennia. While religion maybe a wonderful way for people of similar faith to find a sense of community, and to work together to perform good deeds, it has been used just as often as a tool for control, repression, and the dissemination of evil. It has never been a barrier to, and has often been used as a tool to promote the worst aspects of humanity, including greed, superstition, war, genocide, slavery, elitism and misogyny. The simple reality is that enlightened, thinking, compassionate people bring those qualities to their religions while ignorant, irrational, hateful people bring those qualities to theirs. In other words, religion is neither bad nor good; it is simply irrelevant. Without a higher being at least clearing His/Her/Its throat occasionally to say, “You’re misrepresenting me here, and there will be consequences.” Human beings have used and will continue to use religion to create a cornucopia of beliefs and belief systems that embody their individual conceptions of heaven and hell on Earth.

However, as unsupported as Mr. Audette’s arguments were, they were at least comprehensible, unlike those of Neven Humphry (apparently, having an high IQ is not the only requirement for formulating an intelligible argument). It would seem (although I could be wrong) that Humphry automatically equates skepticism with atheism, and any skepticism with idiocy, regardless of the subject matter. As a result, he can embrace Bigfoot and UFO’s while sneering at anyone who doesn’t share his beliefs (which makes you wonder what else he believes in: The Easter Bunny? A flat Earth? Elvis lives?). As for skeptics not taking him up on his challenge in relation to evolution because “they don’t have the guts,” I hereby raise my hand and offer my first challenge: Evolutionary science teaches us that, while giving birth has always had an inherent risk for mammals, it became especially dangerous for humans when they began to walk upright, altering the shape of their pelvises. If, on the other hand, you believe that we were created that way, then I have to ask: What kind of sadistic god tells women to go forth and procreate, and then sentences uncounted millions of them and their children to horrible deaths for doing what they’re told?

By the way, I have no problem with people of true faith, just the religious arrogant who believe that they have all the answers.

David Desjardins
Aylmer