{"id":97,"date":"2013-06-18T22:06:43","date_gmt":"2013-06-18T16:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/?p=97"},"modified":"2013-06-18T22:06:43","modified_gmt":"2013-06-18T16:06:43","slug":"nothing-requires-religion-except-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/2013\/06\/18\/nothing-requires-religion-except-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing requires religion, except religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"atheist\"<\/a>Until recently, I said stuff like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI am a religious atheist.\u00a0 I\u2019m a recovering Christian and open to God; I just can\u2019t find one worth following.\u00a0\u00a0I share the ultimate concerns of religious people, but my search for God has led me away from gods.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

My views have evolved. \u00a0Now,\u00a0I’d put it more like this:<\/span><\/p>\n

I am an atheist. \u00a0I’m a recovering Christian, and if God were possible and real, I would be very interested. \u00a0I simply have no reason to think he is. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m dropping the term ‘religious atheist’. \u00a0I’m doing so because it finally has occurred to me how this must sound to my atheist friends. \u00a0If I\u2019m a religious atheist, what does that make them? \u00a0‘Mere’ atheists? \u00a0Atheists who are missing some kind of depth, fervor or devotion? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

No. \u00a0Fervor and devotion don’t require religion. \u00a0Nothing requires religion, except religion. \u00a0Religion has always been a hijacker, a parasite of what is best about being human, and so is, at best, unnecessary. \u00a0All the good things in life can be had without it, including all the subjective mystical experiences many call religious. \u00a0Calling them ‘religious’ has an exclusionary effect, as if they are only available to people with connections. \u00a0They’re not.\u00a0 Such experiences are everyone’s natural heritage as human beings.\u00a0 If an afterlife were real, it, too, would belong to everyone. \u00a0Using ‘religious’ as an adjective adds nothing apart from marking something in a caste system I\u2019d like to outgrow.<\/p>\n

I have kept the word \u2018religion\u2019 around this long because there is much good in what we call religion. \u00a0But that is only because religion absorbed those things.\u00a0 Religion is an ancient impulse, sort of the first science.\u00a0 As a religious atheist, I worked to get it back from the supernaturalists.\u00a0 The first religions were likely some form of nature-worship. \u00a0Then, relatively recently, kings and other politicians hijacked religion by inserting their favorite deity. \u00a0This happened so long ago that everyone thinks religion is about pleasing gods.<\/p>\n

But the good things in religion aren\u2019t good because they\u2019re religious.\u00a0 They\u2019re just good.\u00a0 That\u2019s why religion claims them.<\/span><\/p>\n

For years now, I’ve been trying to remind people, especially atheists, that religion doesn’t rely on gods. \u00a0I have also clarified that what is best about humanity precedes religion, that religion works by \u00a0planting its flag on the best stuff, stuff that belongs to everyone, and then charging admission. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But if that\u2019s all religion is, an imperial move to claim humanity\u2019s best, why keep it around at all?<\/span><\/p>\n

So now, I’ve changed my mind. \u00a0The historical point that religion doesn’t require gods or faith means little if the general public thinks it does. \u00a0We have to start from where we are, which is today. \u00a0And today, to most people, religion means God.<\/p>\n

I’m done with religion, even liberal religion. \u00a0But little else will change.\u00a0 I will still work with people who call themselves religious.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll still lend my efforts to my UU church.\u00a0 I just won\u2019t try to set them apart by calling them religious.\u00a0 It\u2019s an empty word.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until recently, I said stuff like this: \u201cI am a religious atheist.\u00a0 I\u2019m a recovering Christian and open to God; I just can\u2019t find one worth following.\u00a0\u00a0I share the ultimate concerns of religious people, but my search for God has led me away from gods.\u201d\u00a0 My views have evolved. \u00a0Now,\u00a0I’d put it more like this: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/enoughsenough\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}