Friday, June 6, 2008

"Imagine"

Are religious wars really about religion, or do religious justifications simply provide a moral veneer for other less acceptable motives? Alan Jacobs thinks the enemies of religion put too much faith in the protestations of those who claim to be killing for God. From "Too Much Faith in Faith" in this morning's Wall Street Journal:
If there is one agreed-upon point in the current war of words about religion, it is that religion is a very powerful force. ....

Is it, though? Was Alan Wolfe right to emphasize, in a recent article in The Atlantic, the "unique fervor that religion inspires"? I have my doubts, and they begin with personal experience. I am by most measures a pretty deeply committed Christian. I am quite active in my church; I teach at a Christian college; I have written extensively in support of Christian ideas and belief. Yet when I ask myself how much of what I do and think is driven by my religious beliefs, the honest answer is "not so much." The books I read, the food I eat, the music I listen to, my hobbies and interests, the thoughts that occupy my mind throughout the greater part of every day - these are, if truth be told, far less indebted to my Christianity than to my status as a middle-aged, middle-class American man.

Of course, I can't universalize my own experience - but that experience does give me pause when people talk about the immense power of religion to make people do extraordinary things. When people say that they are acting out of religious conviction, I tend to be skeptical; I tend to wonder whether they're not acting as I usually do, out of motives and impulses over which I could paint a thin religious veneer but which are really not religious at all.

Most of today's leading critics of religion are remarkably trusting in these matters. ....

If Osama bin Laden claims to be carrying out his program of terrorism in the name of Allah and for the cause of Islam, then what grounds have we to doubt him? It's not like anyone would lie about something like that as a strategy for justifying the unjustifiable, is it? ....

Is religion powerful? I suppose it often is. After all, if people were not religious - or, to take a Gibbonesque view of the matter, if people did not want to be thought of as so - no one would use religious language to promote political or social or ethnic goals. That those seeking to acquire or keep power do use such language, and regularly, indicates that religion has influence. But the idea that without religion people would stop seeking power, stop manipulating, stop deceiving, is just wishful thinking of the silliest kind. Though it may seem ironic for a Christian to be saying this, it's time to talk less about the power of religion and remember instead the dark forces in all human lives that religious language is too often used to hide. [more]
Too Much Faith in Faith - WSJ.com

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