Religion, the ultimate taboo subject?

Thinking people generally resent being presented with take-it-or-leave-it dogmatic certainties, especially when it comes to the “Ultimate Questions” of humanity’s origins and purpose. That being the case, why did I choose to present a pro-religion argument in my last post in so unqualified and in-your-face manner? It was not, contrary to certain rather spiteful suggestions advanced by certain respondents, that I was seeking to up my readership figures by being deliberately controversial. Behind it was the frustration I feel over how atheistic points of view are invariably advanced with arrogant certainty whereas theistic alternatives are invariably couched in tentative, almost apologetic language.

I remain convinced that belief in a Deity — that is of a presiding Power and Intelligence responsible for bringing our world into being — is fully compliant with objective logic, yet stating so in such bald terms given the true profundity and complexity of the issue was, in retrospect, a mistake. A certain amount of humility is called for when approaching this subject, which was distinctly lacking in my article, and — probably rightly — hacked off many readers as a result.

That being said, the often vitriolic nature of the some of the responses received was so over the top as to suggest that the barriers to discussing this particular area rationally are as much emotional as intellectual — indeed, probably more so. Disagree, by all means, but why such visceral fury? Like it or not, a great many intelligent people cannot in all honesty acquiesce in an orthodoxy that attributes our existence to the forces of blind chance. It is surely narrow-minded in the extreme to respond to their supposed heresies by automatically accusing them of being intellectually retarded. Not everyone is prepared to be jeered into silence.

Several Jewish respondents were particularly outraged. For “RG”, a “practising secular Jew” whatever that might be, religious beliefs constitute “insanity” (as if maintaining that life emerged through a gazillion series of incredible accidents is somehow the soul of rationalism). “N” took the opportunity to bewail the removal of a certain part of his anatomy without his permission. As for “J”, he was virtually apoplectic over a fellow Jew banging on like a fundamentalist Christian. Sheesh! Excuse me for daring to raise my be-yarmulked head above the ghetto walls!

The reaction reminds me of a lecture given by a certain rabbi who had become religious in the course of qualifying as a medical doctor. The rabbi recounted that when he was studying in Yeshiva (a religious seminary), he was asked to speak to a visitor who wanted answers to the evolution question. Given his background, he was well-qualified to explain the acknowledged problems of evolutionary theory that the scientific world grapples with. What was interesting was the visitor’s reaction. As the discussion progressed, he lost control of himself, to the point of his literally screaming abuse, and ended with him storming out in a rage.

For my part, I once wrote an article challenging the theory of spontaneous generation. This led to a subscriber to the Jewish historical and cultural journal that I edit — not the one in which my article had appeared, please note — sending me an insulting letter cancelling her subscription. This, too, was surely irrational (particularly as our journal almost never deals with religious or scientific subjects) — indeed, almost vindictive.

Vehement disagreement in this area is inevitable, yet all too often what one sees — if anything, more from the non-religious camp, despite its claims to epitomise cool rationality — is anger and emotionalism. The underlying psychological reasons why some people so viscerally reject religion would seem to be at least as interesting as those believed to turn them in the other direction.

Several respondents to my article suggested that since we can never know for sure what the Ultimate Truth is, it is divisive and a waste of time to even discuss it. I cannot agree with that. Questions surrounding our origins and the purpose, or lack of it, of our existence, go to our very core as thinking, reasoning beings. Rather than shutting ourselves up in our “jealously guarded comfort zones” (in the useful phrase of Lee Hall, a respondent to my article) we should at least seek to engage with one another on the subject. It is certainly not about to go away, the prevailing mood of atheistic triumphalism notwithstanding.