Excerpt #7 from my book, Religion, An Obstacle to Human Progress
Religion Separates Us
Primitive supernatural beliefs and belief systems emerged among humanity throughout planet Earth at different times in our history.
We have referred to these belief systems as religions.
We have had and continue to have many religions.
The effect of these unique creeds has not been to bring us together but to permanently separate us.
Religion has been the cause of countless wars.
Religion is divisive, quarrelsome, and often idiotic.
“Religion is the reason we have all this conflict in the world… If we continue to combine our ancient habits with our modern capacities, we risk totally destroying ourselves.” – Deepak Chopra (Time Magazine, January 24, 2005)
Often, religions begin as cults.
As each belief system grows, it gains power and inclusiveness.
At the core of each is typically a creation story, often a variation of an earlier story.
Mystery and supernatural events such as divine revelation and miracles are central to each belief system.
Each religion has its sacred places and rituals.
All of it is contrived out of ideas that were popular at a particular time or built upon the evolution of former ideas.
Stories grew from fiction to fact, developed into “religions”, and declared themselves sacred.
“Nearly all peoples have developed their own creation myth, and the Genesis story is just the one that happened to have been adopted by one particular tribe of Middle Eastern herders. It has no more special status than the belief of a particular West African tribe that the world was created from the excrement of ants. All these myths have in common that they depend upon the deliberate intentions of some kind of supernatural being.” – Richard Dawkins, The Blind Watchmaker