Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon

In a democracy with freedom of religion, people are entitled to declare their religion to be the only true religion, and then to refuse all invitations to defend their declaration. In a democracy, we also let people be conscientious objectors, but we don’t thereby give or imply any endorsement whatever to their claims. If you decline to put your beliefs on the line, then your beliefs, whatever they are, really cannot be given any consideration in the ongoing investigation, which has no use for one-sided declarations that will not be subjected to rigorous scrutiny and cross-examination. We’ll definitely consider your (apparent) beliefs as data—there are people, and you are one of them, who make various avowals but cannot be enticed to place those avowals in the arena of investigation—but we will not make the mistake of counting your declaration as an opinion offered as a contribution to our inquiry.

It is sometimes held that such a refusal to submit one’s creed to inquisitive probing is a commendable act of loyalty to one’s religious group, an honorable declaration of faith. You may be among the many people who proudly assert that their religion is more important to them than their loyalty to family or friends or nation—or anything else. “Don’t even think about alternatives!” could be your motto, except that its very articulation would be a self-violation. As we saw in chapter 1, that is one thing you could mean by saying your religion is sacred to you.

I want to put this attitude in a larger context. Even if you are convinced that your religion is a unique path to truth, you must be curious about why all the other religions are so popular around the world. And if you think it would be a good thing to bring these people—who constitute a majority of the world’s people, whatever religion is yours—to see the truth as you do, then you should see the point of looking intently, as an outsider, at these religions, to “see what makes them tick.” Considering how your own religion looks to an outsider would also be a valuable exercise, wouldn’t it, since understanding how outsiders react to what they discover when they encounter you could hardly fail to improve your effectiveness in carrying your message to others.

As we look around the troubled world today, we see failed states, ethnic violence, and grotesque injustice arising on all sides, and a question we all have to face is which lifeboats we should strive to keep afloat. Some people believe that the world’s democratic nations are the best hope of the world, that they provide the most secure and reliable—though hardly foolproof—platforms on the planet for improving human welfare and staving off nuclear chaos and genocide. If they capsize, we’re all in deep trouble. Others believe that their transnational religions make better lifeboats, and if they had to choose between the welfare of their religion and the welfare of the nation of which they are citizens, they would unhesitatingly opt in favor of their religion. Perhaps you are among them. Since—if you are reading this book—you almost certainly live in a democratic nation with a principle of freedom of religion, you are then in a delicate position: you are enjoying the security of the democratic lifeboat while withholding your ultimate allegiance to it.

By availing yourself of the freedom granted you by a nation that honors the freedom of religion, you excuse yourself—as is your right (it’s like “taking the Fifth Amendment” when called to testify in court)—from helping your fellow citizens explore a problem of national and international security of the utmost urgency. You are a free rider, putting your loyalty to your religion ahead of your duty to your fellow citizens. Fortunately for you, there are enough public-spirited citizens to make up the loss and keep the nation intact while you indulge yourself in your faith-based stand “on principle.” In this regard, you are no different from the Shiite or Sunni who says in his heart: Let Iraq perish, if need be, so long as my religious tribe prospers. The main difference (and it is huge) is that the shaky state of Iraq is not (currently) anybody’s idea of a seaworthy lifeboat, whereas the free society in which you live is manifestly the guarantor of such security and freedom as we now enjoy. So you have fewer grounds for withholding your allegiance to the nation and its laws than the Iraqis do.