
In the past few days, I have taken part in a long and tedious online discussion about religion. Normally I enjoy discussions of this sort, but this one was pointless and destructive from the start as a number of Christians ganged up on me and distorted everything I said. When I made the case that religion is no private matter since faith tends to affect the judgement, I was dismissed as arrogant. When I challenged the claim that prayer works by asking my opponents if they thought prayers meant to cause harm are as effective as those with good intentions, I was dismissed as meddlesome. Repeatedly, I tried to explain why religion is no private matter and why it affects me personally although I’m not a Christian myself. I shared some personal experiences involving religiously motivated hate crimes against gay friends. This was met by patronizing remarks. One of the Christians was even quick to disavow the link between Christianity and homophobia. It’s all in my head, apparently.
I don’t mind people being religious. In fact, I have been known to defend freedom of religion when many don’t: I’m opposed to any legal restriction on so-called hate speech, I defend the right of Jews and Muslims to circumcise their newborn sons, and I’m in favour of private-run confessional schools and home schooling. But my respect of religion-based cultures doesn’t stop me from criticizing the very basis of religious claims—the myths and the irrationalism. But instead of a sincere discussion, my overly sensitive opponents preferred to play the underdog card and reacted with hostility to every suggestion of religious ideas not being altogether sound. Even the established—and by most theologians recognized—distinction between religion and rationalism was interpreted as an offensive attack on the sacred inner life of Christians, as if questioning the scientific soundness of prayer and divine intervention had anything to do with the gratifying feeling faith can give a person.
I have said it on this blog before, and I will say it again: Of the three Abrahamic religions, only Judaism seems able to handle intellectual reasoning. My guess is that it has something to do with Jews actually having experienced real bigotry, arrogance, and vicious meddling. They can take a tough debate. Christians, on the other hand, have had no such experience since the Edict of Milan in 313. I think that is why Christianity is so badly equipped for secular challenges. The shock caused by the Enlightenment has not settled yet.
(Seen in the picture above is the definition of “rationalism” according to Oxford Dictionaries.)