[Vision2020] Religion as a Private Pursuit, Science for Everyone

[Art Deco]

   [image: G. Elijah Dann] <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/g-elijah-dann>
 G. Elijah Dann <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/g-elijah-dann>

Instructor in philosophy and religion at Simon Fraser University, and
author of 'God and the Public Square' and editor of 'Leaving Fundamentalism'
  GET UPDATES FROM G. Elijah Dann

*Religion as a Private Pursuit, Science for Everyone *

A few years ago at the University of Toronto I taught the course, The
Philosophy of Sex. During the first class I remember telling the students
that, depending on their world-view, they'd end up thinking very
differently about the subject matter.

The foundational Weltanschauung will strain the input, leading to
fundamentally different, incommensurable output.

What I had in mind was how some of them would be filtering the course
material through their understanding of evolution, and others, in
Creationism, or, as they put it these days, Intelligent Design. Certainly
Bill Nye's recent remarks, "Creationism Threatens U.S.
Science<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/bill-nye-creationism-science_n_1908926.html>,"
is another call to reflection. In my course, I used the example of
homosexuality.

For those students who accept evolution, they'll believe that
homosexuality, heterosexuality and bisexuality are perfectly natural, valid
forms of sexuality. It's prevalent throughout nature and the disposition is
a matter of genetic and biological factors. On the other hand, there are
students who believe that God had a strong hand in bringing the world into
being, and gave the Bible as an instruction manual to guide us.
Homosexuality is therefore a choice. The same contrast goes for the other
topics of the course: Marriage, hetero and homosexual. Sex before marriage.
Masturbation. What is "sexual deviance"? Prostitution.

Or, as Woody Allen remarked, "All my favorite hobbies."

As it turns out, with a strong view of religion -- especially with a
rejection of evolution -- you'll see most subjects very differently. This
is no surprise, but it's time to repeat once more that strong religion is a
detriment to our overall well-being. If you think religion is mind-blowing
(in the good sense), then you haven't been keeping up in class. As
Christopher Hitchens used to remark, if you think a burning
bush<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2uLKYBIRjc>is amazing, you should
look at pictures from the Hubble
Space Telescope <http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/>. Congressman Georgia
Rep. Paul Broun says that it's all from "the pit of
hell,<http://news.yahoo.com/congressman-calls-evolution-lie-pit-hell-175514039.html>"
- evolution, modern astronomy and the such - which, if true, would mean
that hell isn't half as bad as we might think.

With this said, religion, in some forms and for some people, is a necessary
and -- I dare say -- legitimate ingredient in their lives. That is, as long
as they keep it to themselves, as a private pursuit, with the richness it
can bring in ritual and as myth.

But strong religion -- the sort that turns the Bible into a comprehensive
textbook on science, history, philosophy, medicine, sexuality, morality and
politics -- is debilitating. Described by Joseph Campbell, it's a "little
toy-room picture of the
Bible<http://www.amazon.com/Myths-Live-Joseph-Campbell/dp/0140194614>
."

This "toy-room" picture is a powerful and popular way of interpreting the
world that still resonates with millions of people. The longer it
continues, however, the more it'll keep us from a serious encounter with
the real world. To mention a few, substantial encounters with that reality,
the past couple decades have granted truly phenomenal insights into
astronomy, quantum physics, biology, genetics and neurology. Today, the
insights and discoveries happen on a daily basis.

It's not that these respective advances in the sciences have shown that God
doesn't exist. It's rather that these, truly mind-blowing discoveries, can
be learned by everyone without losing oneself (viz., one's mind, family,
friends, money or clothes -- as is often the case in organized religion).
Secondly, the more we learn about the real world, the clearer it becomes
that the Bible isn't a book about topics that intrigue scientists. Clinging
to a forced interpretation of the Bible only strips it of its historical
nature (as a record of archaic societies) and coerces it to become
transcendental woo-woo<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-shermer/deepakese-the-woo-woo-mas_b_405114.html>(if
that isn't a pleonasm).

Religion, at least if you take its great writers seriously, like Joseph
Campbell, Mircea Eliade
<http://www.amazon.com/Mircea-Eliade/e/B000AP85TS>and Wifred
Cantwell Smith <http://www.amazon.com/Wilfred-Cantwell-Smith/e/B001HOD5XM>,
was the way primitive humanity understood its insignificant existence in
face of the awesome and often cruel powers of nature, man and
circumstances. Gazing out into the starlit sky, witnessing eclipses, the
oceans and its tides, cataclysms, seeing children suffer and die of
mysterious causes, explaining life was about myths, ritual and religion,
not a rigorous science that hadn't yet arrived.

To again quote Campbell, "myths are the mental supports of rites; rites,
the physical enactments of myths." For some of us even today, they still
our minds and emotions. In the midst of contemporary
technopoly<http://www.amazon.ca/Technopoly-The-Surrender-Culture-Technology/dp/0679745408>,
they are a legitimate and reasonable way of soothing ourselves in the
transitions and stages of life, just as other aesthetic choices.

But as an old professor of mine used to caution, "Just don't get religious
about it." If we think myth is actually an historical and scientific
happening, then it'll indeed make the New Atheists right. Religion, as
"getting religious," does poison
everything<http://www.amazon.com/God-Is-Not-Great-Everything/dp/0446579807>
.
Explaining the great mysteries of the universe is now the task of the
sciences. It's no longer about faith. It's about thinking. Don't forget
that if God exists, he/she/it should be thrilled these little brains are
starting to come out from behind the veil. St. Paul was more insightful
than he could've imagined:
"When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child,
reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish
things<http://bible.cc/1_corinthians/13-11.htm>"
(NASB)

-- 
Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)
art.deco.studios at gmail.com
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