I Ain’t Done Being Done with Religious Dogmatism
Some beliefs actually are a danger to human flourishing
Recently I was listening to a random podcast called If Books Could Kill, hosted by Michael Hobbes and Peter Samshiri. Hobbes I know from two other podcasts – Maintenance Phase and You’re Wrong About – both of which are dedicated to analyzing the nuance of cultural moments about which we, collectively, have somewhat simplistic narratives; they bring context to stories that were reported without context. They’re good – insightful, thoughtful, interesting and often funny.
So I tried If Books Could Kill because one of the books they covered was The End of Faith by Sam Harris and I wanted to hear a reasoned critique of the book. Before we go much further, I need to acknowledge that Sam Harris is a somewhat divisive cultural figure. He seems to be equally revered and despised somewhat equally by people on the left and the right. Revered for his clinical analysis of big subjects like mind/body dualism, religion, and AI and despised for his antipathy towards Islam, Trump, Wokeism and more. There’s more to it obviously, but those are the broad strokes.
Personally, I like him because he helps me question some of my own unexamined assumptions and because the way he thinks and explains his thinking speaks to me. I’m attracted to his self-assured eloquence. That said, I acknowledge that he’s often smug, often hyperbolic, and often overly convinced that his own intelligence makes him an expert on subjects where he lacks expertise. There are topics of his that I find difficult to listen to (Israel/Palestine being the prime example), but even when I disagree with him, I find him to at least be an honest interlocutor. He reminds me of Jon Stewart in that I think he’s really trying to understand whatever subject matter he’s covering and analyze it in accordance with his values. This open curiosity is too rare in our polemicized media world and I find it refreshing – even when I disagree with his conclusions. All to say - if you hate him, I'm sure you have good reasons, but I don’t think he’s entirely dismissable.
Okay, preamble over. I listened to the podcast, or most of it, If Books Could Kill ruthlessly attacks The End of Faith. Much of the critique is on point, eviscerating logical fallacies and cherry picked statistics. No complaints. What did cause me to blanch was the claim (which I’m paraphrasing) that strident atheism is a phase that most people mature out of and once they’ve matured out of it they realize how sophomoric anti-theism really is. Like what’s the big deal, bro?
Blanch indeed!
As any regular reader knows, I have yet to mature out of my strident atheist phase, and my ego was pricked to be told that such a stance is a sign of arrested development. In the idiom of the 90s, I was butt hurt. The basic argument put forth by If Books Could Kill was that worrying about what other people believe about god or spiritualism is unnecessary and, often, mean spirited. I have had numerous discussions with my brother that lean into the same argument. This live and let live notion that religious beliefs are mostly benign and therefore not worthy of interrogation, skepticism, or, when necessary, derision.
And I acknowledge that the majority of people’s spiritual beliefs are innocuous. Spirituality can provide comfort and meaning at a very deep, very human level. It can create community and charity and loving kindness. It can help stave off depression and self harm and moral turpitude. It can give us ritual and daily practices that boost mindfulness, powers of concentration, stress reduction, and, in extreme cases, the glorious state of ego-death. It can connect us to those we’ve lost and provide hope beyond the veil of death. It can help us feel connected to all of creation – but small insignificant beings in the great totality made significant by the mere fact of our participation in the great totality. Finally, the potential nihilism inherent in a godless cosmos may just not be for everyone.
So I get it. Most people’s religiosity is a personal and/or communal experience that helps them and their communities live good, intention-filled lives. Not gonna argue and not gonna judge.
Ahem…But!!!!
But religion does indeed have some downsides, particularly at its extremes. And its extremes are not particularly extreme, which is to say, if you simply take the great religion’s books seriously and act as if they provide divine guidance and factual truths, then you get into some murky cesspools almost instantly.
Let’s look at a practical example: Our incoming Commander-in-Chief, Donald Trump, selected Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel. Mike Huckabee is, purportedly, a believer in Dispensational Millennialism and is a Christian Zionist. For those who don’t know, here’s a brief description of that line of thinking:
“Dispensational premillennialists hold that the second coming of Christ, and subsequent establishment of the millennial kingdom, is to be preceded by a seven-year-long period known as the “Tribulation,” the earthly activity of the Antichrist as well as the outpouring of God’s wrath on mankind. [They] hold that the nation of Israel will be saved and restored to a place of preeminence in the millennium. Thus, Israel will have a special function of service in the millennium that is different from that of the Church.” [link here]
Read the book of Revelation in the Bible to understand where this belief system arises from. Basically, its author, John of Patmos, prophesied an end times scenario in which there’s a rapture whereby all true and good Christians are instantly taken up into heaven, leaving the less faithful behind. Then the Antichrist comes to power and armageddon commences and Christ returns and anyone who doesn’t accept him as lord and savior is cast into hell to suffer for eternity (this would include all the Israeli Jews who don’t renounce their Judaism) and then Christ rules as king on earth for 1,000 years (hence “millenialism”) in peace and harmony surrounded by his worshipping minions. It’s utter fucking lunacy and it’s what Huckabee thinks is about to happen to us all. LITERALLY!!! And in order for all those events to come to pass, the biblical Israel (from the river to the sea) must be brought back and the Jewish Temple must again be erected on the Temple Mount (where the Al-Aqsa Mosque currently sits).
As Huckabee himself said about his first visit to Israel in 1973: “This is a place I’d never been, but I felt at home. I felt an overwhelming spiritual reality of understanding this is the land that God has given to the Jews.”
What else has Huckabee said about modern Israel?
How about: ““I never use the term West Bank. I find it offensive. We are talking about Judea and Samaria … We need to use the biblical language.” And, he had said that he doesn’t see the West Bank, “as occupied, that makes it appear as if someone is illegally taking land.”
So, to regroup, the future US Ambassador to Israel wants Palestine eradicated so Jews can control their “biblical” homeland and rebuild their temple in order to kick off Armageddon in which God and Satan have their final showdown and all non-christians will be forever tossed into a lake of fire. He doesn’t just believe in redemption through Christ and turning the other cheek and that God admonishes us to love our neighbors as ourselves. He believes in the end times and that US foreign policy can help make those end times possible. And he’s positioned in a seat of power from which he can act on those beliefs which will, at minimum, lead to the further suffering of the Palestinian people.
Religious beliefs matter. They impact how we vote and how we govern and how we view the world and the people in it. So while many believers may have anodyne notions of a higher power and cosmological mysteries and take comfort in them, other believers are actively trying to bring about the end of human civilization for the “greater” good. I refuse to let those people off the hook and I refuse to let their ahistorical mythologies drive policies that impact my life and the lives of others who don’t share their unverifiable beliefs.
Finally, I’ve found that many of my left-leaning friends and family don’t take such religious beliefs very seriously. This is mostly because many of those beliefs are so outrageous as to be unbelievable. But people do believe them. People believe Hollywood is demonic and by demonic they literally mean run by demons - like Satan’s army demons. People believe in miracles and witches and reincarnation and blood sacrifice and zombies and hellfire and angels and voodoo dolls. They don’t simply entertain their possibility. They fervently believe in their material reality.
And that is why my butt-hurt ego has not moved beyond my strident atheism and why I demand we approach truth claims with skepticism until we receive verifiable material facts that back up the claim’s assertions. It is dogmatic of me. But it is a dogmatism with a proven track record for improving human well being and one that doesn’t lead us to genocide in the name of bronze age fever dreams.
Internets of the Day
– Quotes of the Week:
“A mob can only judge, never forgive.” – FrigidWind, random substack commenter
“We love a bubble.” - Ala Bishop, on media consumption
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
The Good
– Hemingway: So my uncle and I are committed to a one-time book club. We’re reading six Hemingway short stories and then we will meet to discuss them over scotch and sodas. It’s an equally manly and scholarly pursuit and I’m enjoying Ol’ Papa’s prose. Dude could write a sentence.
The Bad:
– Hemingway: So my uncle and I are committed to a one-time book club. We’re reading six Hemingway short stories and the colonialist and patriarchal tropes around masculinity in Hemingway’s stories are so transparent, so front and center as to be almost laughable. Yo, Hem, stop trying to prove you’re a man’s man, man.
The Ugly:
– Luigi: A lot more is going to come out about Luigi Mangione in the next few weeks and I already find him fascinating for a number of reasons which I may cover in the future. For now, I will say I don’t condone murder as a solution to any problem. I do not support Mangione’s actions or choices. But let us acknowledge that denying people medical coverage in the name of shareholder profit is morally reprehensible and an action that ruins lives. Both Mangione and United Healthcare can be put on blast and anyone who pushes an either/or narrative here is doing it wrong.
Finally:
As usual , I am enjoying your writing. I actually agree with most of this work. Never liked Harris . Simon
You point out spirituality's benefits and then attack religion. I think those are two different things that you are conflating, no?