Experiments in Living

I came across a provocative article the other day by Steve Pavlina, called 10 reasons why you should never have a religion. It probably won’t surprise anyone when I say that I’m not really big on organised religion in general, however when people bash others’ faiths I have a bit of a problem with that too  So let’s have a bit of fun deconstructing Steve’s article.

1. Spirituality for dummies

Ouch, that’s harsh. But not wrong. If you take the quest for spirituality as one of personal growth and enlightenment, following religious dogma is probably not the best way to go about it. I disagree that mythology is a bad thing in itself, stories have been used by people since time memorial to transmit history and wisdom from one generation to another and to make lessons more digestible. It doesn’t, mean that you have to take every story literally, although if you have the awareness level of a snail you may do.

Religion is the off-switch of the human mind

Or televison. Or celebrity magazines. Or excessive drinking… I could go on.

2. Loss of spiritual depth perception.

Wow that’s a bit of a mouthful. Anything that demands that you adopt one version of truth as an absolute, which is religion at a fundemental level, is a very dangerous thing. Labels are very limiting, you may be Christian, Muslim, Buddhist or whatever, but you are a human being before you are anything else. Don’t give away your ability to think. Reserve the right to change your mind and alter your beliefs as you move along the journey of life.

3. Engineered obedience training.

I just loved this one. I mean, just look at the language used by churches, “pastor”, “flock” etc. Doesn’t that say it all?

At university, I became interested in my personal development, so I tried going to church. I even went to the Christian Union. I met some interesting people through it, but there was a lot of guilt and brainwashing involved. Here I was, studying a degree which required that I examine and analyse texts, but when it came to the bible, I was just expected to accept every word without using my critical faculties. I wanted to believe, I really did. But I just couldn’t get my head round this sort of group mentality. The faith part was missing and it made me feel a failure I also got pretty tired of people who thought horoscopes were “evil” and only listened to Christian rock music pretty quickly.

4. Toilet bowl time management.

This made me howl. And I don’t know if I agree with this or not.

If you devote serious time to the practice of religion, it’s safe to say you practice toilet-bowl time management, flushing much of your precious life down the drain with little or nothing to show for it.

I guess that there are lots of ways of wasting your life away and most of them don’t involve religion. How about being addicted to your x-box or wii? Or sitting watching Glastonbury 1997 in 2008 like someone I know? I don’t know if hours spent reading holy books is a total waste of time per se, as by reading them you will learn more about people and why they act the way they do if you have some understanding of their religious background. I suppose the difference here is your attitude - are you reading these texts to memorise them and slavishly follow, or is the exercise one of interest and curiosity in your fellow earthlings?

5. Support your local p(a)edophile.

Outrageous statement. In every truck load of melons there are a few that are rotten but it’s hardly the majority. The sexual repression of Catholic clergy cannot be healthy, but come on, to say that to support your local church is to support child molesters is stretching it just a wee bit, don’t you think?

The whole thing about giving your cash to the church is a bit of an interesting one. It reminds me of people buying indulgences and the dodgy Pardoner out of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Or those TV evangelist people. There is an implicit trust - the church knows what to do with my charitable donations better than I do, and I suspect that some people are trying to buy their way into heaven. Which if they knew their scripture they would know this is impossible (thinking camels passing through the eye of a needle etc).

6. Incest is best

I have to say that it is accurate about religions promoting inbred social networks. The aforementioned Christian Union had a whole calendar of social events. It wasn’t really necessary to have any other interests or friends outside of it. There was a whole load of religious showing off, like having the courage to pray out loud in prayer circles, making a big deal about being “saved” and the like. I remember this one guy called Hywel who would re-tell his testimony at any given opportunity about how he went to the pier and wept. There was this kind of salvation one-upmanship that freaked me out.

Another way of making sure that people aren’t getting hold of subversive ideas and start questioning the church is the encouragement of large families. Now, I’m pro-choice, if you like kids and stretch marks and want your own version of the Waltons, you go on right ahead. But think about the environment, please. I digress. As far as I can see this multiplied fruitfulness benefits the church in a number of ways. Women are kept barefoot and pregnant and subservient to their menfolk and children, men are too busy working to afford to keep the brood, and the children are a source of new members for the church in the next generation. Simple and very effective.

7. Idiocy or hypocrisy - pick one.

Hey why just the one? Any dogmatic system requires that you either throw all sense of free thinking to the wind and follow like a lemming, or that you end up doing some kind of doublethink in order to be able to balance the whole mess in your poor frazzled brain.

8. Inherited falsehood

We all have baggage from our formative years. The vitriolic tone in parts of Steve’s article is probably the result of his personal disenchantment with religion, namely Roman Catholicism. It is healthy to question the values that you were brought up with, but once we’re past the rebellious teenage phase, we tend not to throw things out just because they were our parents’ values. Assess, re-assess, re-evaluate who you are and what you stand for. Keep the good stuff, upgrade the which no longer serves you. That’s maturity.

9. Compassion in chains

 The more religious a person becomes, the less compassionate s/he is. The illusion of compassion substitutes for the real thing. Religious people tend to be the most bigoted and non-accepting people on earth.

People have done some pretty non-compassionate things in the name of religion over the years. People who identify themselves with labels, religious or not, tend to have a scary either/or mentality. You’re either one of us or them. When you start seeing the world in either/or terms, you lose some of your humanity and therefore ability to feel compassion. Charity becomes a religious duty that one carries out rather than something they feel moved to do for their own reasons.

10. Faith is Fear.

How many people “Find God” after some kind of trauma in their lives? Have you noticed the corrolation between the age of congretations and those who are closest to meeting their maker? Faith is a salve and a balm that reassures people that every thing will be ok if only they do X, Y and Z. The truth is that there are no guarantees that everything wil be ok. Bad things happen to good people, not because they or sinners or due to bad karma, but just because. All you can do is do your best to handle life’s experiences as they happen, good and bad, and learn from them what you can. A life lived in fear is a waste of a life.

I have to say that this is one of the snarkiest articles on the site, along with 10 Reasons why you should never get a job. Enjoy these articles, get mad at them if you must, and then take a look at the rest of the site. Some food for thought.

Tags: christianity, religion, spirituality, Steve Pavlina