Many atheists claim that without religion our society could be perfect. They claim that religion stifles creativity, science, and government. Ironically, they are right in some degree. Religious belief prohibits certain types of art, certain classes of experimentation, and some government practices. Some of the idea is that without religion people will be more united in belief (or disbelief, in this case) and that is probably true in some degree also. So, besides hope, what does religion really give us?
First, religion gives us freedom. Without religion, the concept of 'human rights' is subject to interpretation. Without religion good and evil are concepts that can change at a whim and depend entirely on whom you are speaking to and who is in power. Without religion murder can easily be justified as 'survival of the fittest', dangerous experiments on unwilling human subjects become 'trying to improve the race', and moral convictions become 'fanatical beliefs'. Ultimately, without religion, the only law is 'survival of the fittest' and 'might makes right'. Without religion human rights do not even exist. Without religion the only true goal is reproduction.
Religion gives us rights. If a right is not given by God, or some other supreme being, it is given by man and is subject to the whims of men. A right that is given by man can be taken away by man, but a right given by a supreme being is eternal and can only be taken away by that same being. This means that without religion, the right to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' can be taken away by the same government that granted it, without so much as a seconds notice. With religion we have the right to rebel against a government that becomes oppressive, even if we have sworn loyalty to it, because loyalty to our deity and our family trump our loyalty to government. Without religion, not only do we not have a deity to be loyal to, we have no moral reason to be loyal to our family besides making sure our own genetics are carried on.
Religion is not a crutch to give people hope; even if it is not true, religion is what gives people rights. Religion is what makes all men equal. Without it the claim that 'all men are created equal' is invalid. This means, that without religion, slavery is only bad because we think it is bad. Without religion slavery would be a philosophical issue, rather than an issue of rights. In reality, without religion, slavery is entirely justifiable. Without slaves the Greeks would never have had the time to develop the advanced mathematics that allow us to have the technology that I am using to write this and you are using to read it (their time would have been spent working to grow their food). The lasting effects of slavery in Greece are very positive. Without religion to proclaim that all men should be treated equally it is simple to show that slavery is actually good and results in only positive consequences. Of course, we know that this is not true, but if religion is bad, then it must be true and can easily be justified as true.
I am not going to condemn people that choose not to believe in religion; it is their right to choose how to believe. Even most religions agree that each person has the right to choose their beliefs. I am condemning those who condemn religion. Religion protects us from tyranny and gives us human rights. Without it we are subject to whomever has the most power and we have no rights besides those that are given to us or that we take by force. Without religion The Constitution is meaningless and powerless. A document cannot give rights and it cannot record rights unless they are inherent rights, and without religion there are no inherent rights. Without religion The Constitution is a document recording the rights a group of men believed everyone should have, not a document recording the rights that should be had by all men by divine edict.
The right for each person to believe as they choose is granted by most religions. There have in the past been religions that believed that people should be forced to believe what that religion taught. Notice that these religions either no longer exist, or have changed so materially that this belief no longer exists within the religion (with the exception of small groups of terrorists that occasionally try to resurrect those beliefs). This belief has been condemned by nearly all modern religions as infringing on the inherent rights granted by deity. So why do many atheists preach that religion should be extinguished, by force if necessary? If it is permissible that any set of beliefs should be enforced, why should it not be a more ancient religion that believed in enforced religion long before atheism ever thought of it?
Ultimately, it is inherently wrong to enforce any set of beliefs on people, whether it be Paganism, Islam, Christianity, or Atheism. This is why theft, vandalism, assault, rape, and murder are wrong. This is why democratic forms of government are better than others. Religion is the foundation of civilization. Whether it is right or wrong, religion is what keeps civilization civilized. Without it we are just animals that should be aggressively fighting each other for survival in an effort to continue to evolve to the next level.
Lack of religion gives us an entirely different set of moral guidelines and principals. For instance, the medical profession is entirely at odds with atheism, because without religion we should be letting the weak die in an effort to strengthen the species. Besides that we should also kill (or sterilize) everyone who is a descendant of someone with an especially bad genetic disease. Highly intelligent people should be breading like crazy, in an effort to out reproduce stupid people (interesting that those who believe themselves to be intelligent often choose not to reproduce). There should be experiments in evolution that involve the use of animal husbandry techniques upon humans, in an effort to improve the species. Dangerous experimentation upon humans should not only be legal, but should be funded by the government, again in an effort to improve the species. Slavery should be re-instituted to help fund this and to give smart people the time to make new inventions and discoveries that might help to ensure the continued survival of the species. (Slaves should be composed entirely of people with lower IQs, since the smart people are needed for inventing things or doing research. Race should not be a factor. A smart black guy, a smart Asian guy, and a smart white guy are equally as likely to come up with something that will benefit the species and as such all three should be given equal opportunity to do so.) Stupid people or people with serious genetic problems should be sterilized as soon as the problem is evident, again in an effort to improve the species.
Anyway, it should be obvious that all of these things bring up severe human rights issues. Without religion, the most important goal should be the continued survival and evolutionary improvement of the species. The only moral question should be 'will this improve the race as a whole?'. If the answer is 'yes', then anything is justifiable. Religion is our shield against this. Religion is what says that slavery is immoral. Religion is what says that it is wrong to experiment on human test subjects, unless the risk is extremely low. Religion is what says we should be kind to animals and to our planet. Even if we do not believe in religion, we should continue to fight for our right to believe as we choose. Without this right, we do not have any rights.
Lord Rybec
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