I think the question you’re positing(in a way) is: What is the “way of men”?

Then, of course, there’s one of my favourite questions about people’s beliefs when they say that it makes them comforted or gives them a moral compass: Does that make it true? Just because one can argue for the benefits of a particular belief system does not give that system any more credence in what some people like to call Reality.

The preacher at Pleasant Valley CoC did a series called “What’s so great about Christianity?” where he often compared the moral and philosophical implications of belief(in Christianity) to those of nonbelief. But he rarely addressed the actual question: Is it true?

David, I get the feeling that almost everything is one of the things you’re thinking about right now. And that’s a good thing.

This is an interesting thing to consider. I am in the middle of reading a lot of material on religion trying to see what there is to be said about it. I would modify the issue just a little to focus it on the modern world. Instead of asking what the past 10,000 years would have been like without religion, let’s ask whether the next 10,000 would be better off with it or without it.

I am skeptical of the inherent value of religion from the outset. Part of it may be that I have a personal tendency to rebel against the conventional wisdom. Part of it is that there is no real debate unless someone argues against the conventional wisdom. It definitely deserves discussion.

I think the biggest question is how much religion actually constrains immorality. Is it because of their religious beliefs that religious people do not violate social norms, or is it because of social pressures and laws with punishments. I’m not so sure that religion adds anything to the constraint of immorality. I do think that it applies the label of “immoral” to a lot of benign things (like sex) and probably reduces their prevalence. But that doesn’t really make it social glue.

Another question is how much religion encourages immorality. Of course, by a particular religion’s definition of immorality, it probably does not. But by more universal modern standards of immorality, religion is frequently used to encourage immorality like sexism and homophobia.

The last one I will mention is the question of how much religion opposes moral progress. If we objectively look at human history over the past 200 years, we will see exponential moral progress. Abolition, child rights, religious tolerance, women’s rights, civil rights, and (the beginning of) gay rights are incredible advances in human understanding of morality. Around the tipping point for each of these advances, religion seems to have been used disproportionately to defend the old ways against progress.

I have an explanation for this last one. When we discuss religion as thoughtful philosophical people, we have a tendency to overemphasize the philosophical elements of it. But for most religious people, the philosophical elements of the religion have little bearing on their lives. For most people religion is an institution or a tradition. Institutions are inherently conservative for a lot of reasons, and will almost always seek to preserve the status quo and fight progress. And traditions are, well, traditional.

I don’t have answers for the other questions yet, but I am deeply curious about this whole notion of the value of religion in modern society.