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Written for the Freedom From Religion Foundation (http://www.ffrf.org),
Madison, Wisconsin, September 2001.
"To blame Islam for what happened in New York is like blaming Christianity for
the troubles in Northern Ireland!" Yes. Precisely. It is time to stop
pussyfooting around. Time to get angry. And not only with Islam.
Those of us who have renounced one or another of the three "great"
monotheistic religions have, until now, moderated our language for reasons of
politeness. Christians, Jews and Muslims are sincere in their beliefs and in
what they find holy. We have respected that, even as we have disagreed with
it. The late Douglas Adams put it with his customary good humor, in an
impromptu speech in 1998 (slightly abridged):
Now, the invention of the scientific method is, I'm sure we'll all agree, the
most powerful intellectual idea, the most powerful framework for thinking and
investigating and understanding and challenging the world around us that there
is, and it rests on the premise that any idea is there to be attacked. If it
withstands the attack then it lives to fight another day and if it doesn't
withstand the attack then down it goes.
Religion doesn't seem to work like
that. It has certain ideas at the heart of it which we call sacred or holy or
whatever. What it means is, "Here is an idea or a notion that you're not
allowed to say anything bad about; you're just not. Why not?--because you're
not!" If somebody votes for a party that you don't agree with, you're free to
argue about it as much as you like; everybody will have an argument but nobody
feels aggrieved by it. If somebody thinks taxes should go up or down you are
free to have an argument about it. But on the other hand if somebody says 'I
mustn't move a light switch on a Saturday,' you say, "I respect that."
The odd thing is, even as I am saying that, I am thinking "Is there an
Orthodox Jew here who is going to be offended by the fact that I just said
that?" But I wouldn't have thought "Maybe there's somebody from the left wing
or somebody from the right wing or somebody who subscribes to this view or the
other in economics" when I was making the other points. I just think "Fine, we
have different opinions." But, the moment I say something that has something
to do with somebody's (I'm going to stick my neck out here and say irrational)
beliefs, then we all become terribly protective and terribly defensive and say "No, we don't attack that; that's an irrational belief but no, we respect it."
Why should it be that it's perfectly legitimate to support the Labor party or
the Conservative party, Republicans or Democrats, this model of economics
versus that, Macintosh instead of Windows--but to have an opinion about how
the Universe began, about who created the Universe . . . no, that's holy? What
does that mean? Why do we ring-fence that for any other reason other than that
we've just got used to doing so? There's no other reason at all, it's just one
of those things that crept into being and once that loop gets going it's very,
very powerful. So, we are used to not challenging religious ideas but it's
very interesting how much of a furor Richard creates when he does it!
Everybody gets absolutely frantic about it because you're not allowed to say
these things. Yet when you look at it rationally there is no reason why those
ideas shouldn't be as open to debate as any other, except that we have agreed
somehow between us that they shouldn't be.
Douglas is dead, but I think he would join me in asking people now to stand up
and break this absurd taboo. My respect for the Abrahamic religions went up in
the smoke and choking dust of September 11th. The last vestige of respect for
the taboo disappeared as I watched the "Day of Prayer" in Washington
Cathedral, where people of mutually incompatible faiths united in homage to
the very force that caused the problem in the first place: religion. It is
time for people of intellect, as opposed to people of faith, to stand up and
say "Enough!" Let our tribute to the dead be a new resolve: to respect people
for what they individually think, rather than respect groups for what they
were collectively brought up to believe.
Notwithstanding bitter sectarian hatreds over the centuries (all too obviously
still going strong), Judaism, Islam and Christianity have much in common.
Despite New Testament watering down and other reformist tendencies, all three
pay historic allegiance to the same violent and vindictive God of Battles,
memorably summed up by Gore Vidal in 1998:
The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism. From
a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human
religions have evolved--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. These are sky-god
religions. They are, literally, patriarchal--God is the Omnipotent
Father--hence the loathing of women for 2,000 years in those countries
afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly male delegates. The sky-god is a
jealous god, of course. He requires total obedience from everyone on earth, as
he is not just in place for one tribe, but for all creation. Those who would
reject him must be converted or killed for their own good.
In The Guardian of 15th September, I named belief in an afterlife as the key
weapon that made the New York atrocity possible. Of prior significance is
religion's deep responsibility for the underlying hatreds that motivated
people to use that weapon in the first place. To breathe such a suggestion,
even with the most gentlemanly restraint, is to invite an onslaught of
patronizing abuse, as Douglas Adams noted. But the insane cruelty of the
suicide attacks, and the equally vicious though numerically less catastrophic
'revenge' attacks on hapless Muslims living in America and Britain, push me
beyond ordinary caution.
How can I say that religion is to blame? Do I really imagine that, when a
terrorist kills, he is motivated by a theological disagreement with his
victim? Do I really think the Northern Ireland pub bomber says to himself "Take that, Tridentine Transubstantiationist bastards!" Of course I don't
think anything of the kind. Theology is the last thing on the minds of such
people. They are not killing because of religion itself, but because of
political grievances, often justified. They are killing because the other lot
killed their fathers. Or because the other lot drove their great grandfathers
off their land. Or because the other lot oppressed our lot economically for
centuries.
My point is not that religion itself is the motivation for wars, murders and
terrorist attacks, but that religion is the principal label, and the most
dangerous one, by which a "they" as opposed to a "we" can be identified at
all. I am not even claiming that religion is the only label by which we
identify the victims of our prejudice. There's also skin color, language, and
social class. But often, as in Northern Ireland, these don't apply and
religion is the only divisive label around. Even when it is not alone,
religion is nearly always an incendiary ingredient in the mix as well.
It is not an exaggeration to say that religion is the most inflammatory
enemy-labelling device in history. Who killed your father? Not the individuals
you are about to kill in 'revenge.' The culprits themselves have vanished over
the border. The people who stole your great grandfather's land have died of
old age. You aim your vendetta at those who belong to the same religion as the
original perpetrators. It wasn't Seamus who killed your brother, but it was
Catholics, so Seamus deserves to die "in return." Next, it was Protestants who
killed Seamus so let's go out and kill some Protestants "in revenge." It was
Muslims who destroyed the World Trade Center so let's set upon the turbaned
driver of a London taxi and leave him paralyzed from the neck down.
The bitter hatreds that now poison Middle Eastern politics are rooted in the
real or perceived wrong of the setting up of a Jewish State in an Islamic
region. In view of all that the Jews had been through, it must have seemed a
fair and humane solution. Probably deep familiarity with the Old Testament had
given the European and American decision-makers some sort of idea that this
really was the 'historic homeland' of the Jews (though the horrific stories of
how Joshua and others conquered their Lebensraum might have made them wonder).
Even if it wasn't justifiable at the time, no doubt a good case can be made
that, since Israel exists now, to try to reverse the status quo would be a
worse wrong.
I do not intend to get into that argument. But if it had not been for
religion, the very concept of a Jewish state would have had no meaning in the
first place. Nor would the very concept of Islamic lands, as something to be
invaded and desecrated. In a world without religion, there would have been no
Crusades; no Inquisition; no anti-Semitic pogroms (the people of the diaspora
would long ago have intermarried and become indistinguishable from their host
populations); no Northern Ireland Troubles (no label by which to distinguish
the two 'communities,' and no sectarian schools to teach the children historic
hatreds--they would simply be one community).
It is a spade we have here, let's call it a spade. The Emperor has no clothes.
It is time to stop the mealy-mouthed euphemisms: 'Nationalists,' 'Loyalists,'
'Communities,' 'Ethnic Groups.' Religions is the word you need. Religion is
the word you are struggling hypocritically to avoid.
Parenthetically, religion is unusual among divisive labels in being
spectacularly unnecessary. If religious beliefs had any evidence going for
them, we might have to respect them in spite of their concomitant
unpleasantness. But there is no such evidence. To label people as
death-deserving enemies because of disagreements about real world politics is
bad enough. To do the same for disagreements about a delusional world
inhabited by archangels, demons and imaginary friends is ludicrously tragic.
The resilience of this form of hereditary delusion is as astonishing as its
lack of realism. It seems that control of the plane which crashed near
Pittsburgh was probably wrestled out of the hands of the terrorists by a group
of brave passengers. The wife of one of these valiant and heroic men, after
she took the telephone call in which he announced their intention, said that
God had placed her husband on the plane as His instrument to prevent the plane
crashing on the White House. I have the greatest sympathy for this poor woman
in her tragic loss, but just think about it! As my (also understandably
overwrought) American correspondent who sent me this piece of news said:
"Couldn't God have just given the hijackers a heart attack or something
instead of killing all those nice people on the plane? I guess he didn't give
a flying fuck about the Trade Center, didn't bother to come up with a plan for
them." (I apologize for my friend's intemperate language but, in the
circumstances, who can blame her?)
Is there no catastrophe terrible enough to shake the faith of people, on both
sides, in God's goodness and power? No glimmering realization that he might
not be there at all: that we just might be on our own, needing to cope with
the real world like grown-ups?
Billy Graham, Mr. Bush's spiritual advisor, said in Washington Cathedral:
But how do we understand something like this? Why does God allow evil like
this to take place? Perhaps that is what you are asking now. You may even be
angry at God. I want to assure you that God understands those feelings that
you may have.
Well, that's big of God, I must say. I'm sure that makes the bereaved feel a
whole lot better (the pathetic thing is, it probably does!). Mr. Graham went
on:
I have been asked hundreds of times in my life why God allows tragedy and
suffering. I have to confess that I really do not know the answer totally,
even to my own satisfaction. I have to accept, by faith, that God is
sovereign, and He is a God of love and mercy and compassion in the midst of
suffering. The Bible says God is not the author of evil. It speaks of evil as
a "mystery."
Less baffled by this deep theological mystery were two of America's best-known
televangelists, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. In a conversation on
Robertson's lucrative television show (religion is tax-exempt), they knew
exactly where to put the blame. The whole thing was obviously caused by
America's sin. Falwell said that God had protected America wonderfully for 225
years, but now, what with abortion and gays and lesbians and the ACLU, "all of
them who have tried to secularize America . I point the finger in their
face and say you helped this happen." "Well, I totally concur," responded
Robertson. Bush, to his credit, swiftly disowned this characteristic example
of the religious mind at work.
The United States is the most religiose country in the Western world, and its
born-again Christian leader is eyeball to eyeball with the most religiose
people on Earth. Both sides believe that the Bronze Age God of Battles is on
their side. Both take risks with the world's future in unshakeable,
fundamentalist faith that He will grant them the victory. Incidentally, people
speak of Islamic Fundamentalists, but the customary genteel distinction
between fundamentalist and moderate Islam has been convincingly demolished by
Ibn Warraq in his well-informed book, Why I Am Not a Muslim.
The human psyche has two great sicknesses: the urge to carry vendetta across
generations, and the tendency to fasten group labels on people rather than see
them as individuals. Abrahamic religion gives strong sanction to both--and
mixes explosively with both. Only the wilfully blind could fail to implicate
the divisive force of religion in most, if not all, of the violent enmities in
the world today. Without a doubt it is the prime aggravator of the Middle
East. Those of us who have for years politely concealed our contempt for the
dangerous collective delusion of religion need to stand up and speak out.
Things are different now. "All is changed, changed utterly."
Richard Dawkins is professor of the Public Understanding of Science,
University of Oxford, and author of The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker and
Unweaving the Rainbow.
TEXTUAL EXCERPTS FROM 9/15/01 GUARDIAN ARTICLE:
"Could we get some otherwise normal humans and somehow persuade them that they
are not going to die as a consequence of flying a plane smack into a
skyscraper? . . . Offer them a fast track to a Great Oasis in the Sky, cooled
by everlasting fountains. Harps and wings wouldn't appeal to the sort of young
men we need, so tell them there's a special martyr's reward of 72 virgin
brides, guaranteed eager and exclusive. "Would they fall for it? Yes, testosterone-sodden young men too unattractive
to get a woman in this world might be desperate enough to go for 72 private
virgins in the next. . . .
"Give them a holy book and make them learn it by heart. . . . As luck would
have it, we have just the thing to hand: a ready-made system of mind-control
which has been honed over centuries, handed down through generations. Millions
of people have been brought up in it. It is called religion. . . Now all we
need is to round up a few of these faith-heads and give them flying lessons.
". . . I am trying to call attention to the elephant in the room that
everybody is too polite--or too devout--to notice: religion, and specifically
the devaluing effect that religion has on human life. . . . Religion teaches
the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end. . . .
"There is no doubt that the afterlife-obsessed suicidal brain really is a
weapon of immense power and danger. . . .
"Religion is also, of course, the underlying source of the divisiveness in the
Middle East which motivated the use of this deadly weapon in the first place.
.. . . To fill a world with religion, or religions of the Abrahamic kind, is
like littering the streets with loaded guns. Do not be surprised if they are
used." --Richard Dawkins, The Guardian, Sept. 15, 2001
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