Humanity Is The Problem

Mr. Hitchens spends a lot of time resting problems at religion's door. In one section, he lists out atrocities made against children: The passing of genital herpes to newborn boys in a circumcision rite, the molestation of children by Catholic priests and female circumcision. He also mentions various wars and religious-based enmities.

I love the joke he mentioned at one point:
An atheist is walking down a street in Belfast, when a group of young men approach him and threateningly say, "Are you a Catholic or a Protestant?" The man explains that he is neither, but an atheist. Unfazed, they respond, "So. Are you a Catholic atheist or a Protestant atheist?"

But the joke hints at the weakness of his argument. He is putting all of these faults at religion's door, as if were religion not there, these issues would never have happened. However, the problem is not religion, but humanity.

The fight between the Catholics and the Protestants in Ireland have little to do with religion, per se, but with a cultural clash in which religion is simply the label. Hitchens mentions that the fight between the Serbian "ethnic cleansing" should better be termed "religious cleansing"-- but that is clearly not true. The clash is one of worldview, of which religious beliefs are only a part. There are values that have nothing to do with religion, and beliefs that are not taught in churches or a mosque.

Female circumcision is not a religious practice, but a tribal one, based on tribal values that have nothing to do with orthodox Islam. The molestation of children in the Catholic Church is in opposition to the practice of the church, not in accord with it. And while we can say that their practice to cease this practice was inadequate at best, the records show that they did try to stop the practice. (I'll put a post in my personally named thread about the actions at a later time) Certainly mentally ill people have used religion to further their own damaged minds, but they are not using it in an orthodox way or a proper way.

Let us suppose that religion was eradicated a thousand years ago. No one believed in God or that values come from religion. Do you think that any of these practices would have not happened? On the contrary, because they are cultural practices, not necessarily religious ones, they would have happened anyway. Women would still be oppressed in Muslim countries because it is a traditional society, not because it is a religious one. The wars that occurred would have still happened-- all except possibly the 30 years war in Europe-- because there was much more happening to cause these wars than simply religion.

Six million Jews would have been slaughtered even if religion did not exist.
The Rwandan genocide would have happened even if religion did not exist.
Slavery would have happened even if religion did not exist.
9/11 would have happened even if religion did not exist.

Perhaps there are a few things you could rest at religion's door, such as the 30 years war. Children dying because of lack of medical care. Suicide cults. The massacre at Waco. However, it could also be said that if people were able to understand these sectarian groups and talk to them on their level, then perhaps some of these tragedies could have been averted.

It is my firm belief that religion is rarely the problem for the world's ills. Lack of understanding and communication between cultures causes much more harm.