McGivern - Freedom from Religion

FREEDOM FROM
RELIGION

Noel McGivern

Copyright 2013 by Noel McGivern.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 10/03/2013

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris LLC

800-056-3182

www.Xlibrispublishing.co.uk

307316

Contents

Two Gods, Four Authors,
And An Editor

Thou Shalt Have No False
Dogs Before Me

I would like to thank Dr Paul Willis, Director of the Royal of Institution of Australia (RIAUS), for his advice on my chapter on evolution and his encouragement. Im very grateful to Melissa Robson for producing such a striking cover. I have gained greatly from those who have engaged with me on Twitter, with courtesy (though not the trolls), and thank them for inspiration. Id like to thank my wife, Carole, for reading and advising on my text and for her forbearance. And finally, Id like to thank my New Zealand Huntaway dog, Becky, who plays her own special part in this book.

What you Atheists dont understand is that religion is about experience, it goes beyond rational arguments, and it is deeper than thought. This sums up the case often made for religion. It claims to appeal to an authority beyond mere thought, declares itself as the gatekeeper to the eternal, and often thinks those claims give it rights over, at least, a section of humanity. Worse than that, religious believers often see those who dont conform to their doctrines, dogmas, or philosophies as ill-fated, evil, or damned, or in many cases all three.

Most arguments between believers and non-believers come down to a clash between, on one side, a rational argument and, on the other, an argument which seeks to counter with a rational approach but ultimately relies on the experiential or assertions of faith or belief, a distinction which is questionable.

This book goes beyond the normal intellectual territory of New Atheism. It both explains the rational arguments against religion and examines the harm it does but, also, goes deep into the heart of the experiential claims often made for religion. It uses experience to directly question the validity of the spiritual claims of faith and how that experience is used as a source of authority in human society. Not least, amongst those claims, is the assertion that religion is the source of morality.

The falsity of the assumption that religion makes people good is explained, explored, and exposed. The excuses religions make are laid bare. Prominent among these is the answer to why religions have no grounds to claim that the violence, found in intercommunal conflicts, and other acts of violence, where religious identity plays a part, have nothing to do with religion. This book does not just examine these beliefs. It addresses the nature of religious identity itself and why it is the source of so much conflict.

It would be bad enough if terrible conflicts were the only harms of religion, but there is more to address, some of which is so very dark and distressing. There has been the Catholic Churchs reckless and culpable irresponsibility over child abuse and the rapprochement between it and the Nazis. That is a reason to reflect on the wider responsibility Christianity, as a whole, shares for encouraging the anti-Semitic attitudes of those directly responsible for the atrocities, carried into concentration camps. My argument would not be enhanced by graphic details on any of these issues. The case against religion is strong enough without them.

The question of religious harm is not confined to the harms of Christianity. How Islam is used to oppress women, in Saudi Arabia, and how jurisdictions use it as an excuse to persecute Atheists are also addressed. The role of Christopher Hitchens, in the row over The Satanic Verses, is contrasted to the attitudes of Christian leaders who sided with those who put faith before freedom.

This book is addressed to those who have no personal experience of religion but wish to be equipped with clear arguments against it, to those who have already left religion and are seeking arguments that demonstrate the wisdom of having done so, and to those who are still within religion but are questioning its value. This book draws on a long journey through religion and spirituality and explains how seeking deep self-honesty led to a rejection of those ideas and beliefs.

I have, on a number of occasions, been indignantly asked by believers why I think anyone would need freedom from religion. They react as if I was suggesting that people needed freedom from health or happiness. They are convinced that the only true health and happiness can be found in spirituality. The recipe they often insist is necessary is often remarkably in accord with their specific brand of religiosity. Yet they often see no contradiction in asserting that religion is a universal need, while quite happily believing in a God or religion that excludes the great majority of humanity from the true health and happiness their brand of spirituality supposedly offers.

The logic of their position is that it is a persons own fault if they are careless enough to be born into the wrong religion or if they are so enthralled by reason that they reach a mental position where they can no longer believe in God. This attitude is by no means limited to the big theistic faiths of Christianity and Islam. It also appears to be very careless if you have allowed yourself to be born without the right karma for enlightenment or in families with the wrong moral character, as in many Eastern religions. The assumption of those horrified by the idea of freedom from religion, from these various religions, is that religion is essential, not just for your eternal destiny but also for moral character.

If, by the time you have read this book, you still think religion is mostly a force for good, you will either be someone with an extraordinary capacity for ignoring facts or simply not care about the harm religion does. Not only does this book test religions claim to be the source of morality, but it demonstrates how, in many ways, it can and often does distort human morality.

This book examines why religious identity has a role in so many conflicts. It examines why religion is often the source of the darkest of human emotions. It looks at how the interests of religion have been put before needs and rights, while it has increased rather than diminished suffering.

It is also important to show that the claims of religion simply dont make sense. There are those who still believe in Adam and Eve, and in Noahs Ark. They deserve to have the problems with those beliefs laid out before them. How else can they walk away from them? The same goes for evolution and claims of a young Earth. These topics are more fully addressed elsewhere, but this book would not fulfil its remit if it failed to address them.

Some of you, who read this book, will have first encountered me on Twitter. I am aware that this world can be busy. I love Gibbons Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (well, he is wonderfully critical of Christianity), but my edition runs to eight volumes (I think the original may have been six). Anyway, the point is he does go on a bit. Twitter has taught me to be succinct. I imagine you reading this book on a train or tube or snatching a few minutes at lunchtime or between appointments, before classes, at last when the children have gone to sleep or at some other convenient juxtaposition, between the demands of your social, personal, or work life. So I have not allowed this work to ramble on too much.