Doc Ott’s Apologia Blog

Let me first start by saying that I am not against any particular religion. I think religion has and still does provide a solid moral framework for our society. I have friends in many different religions. In almost all cases, their religious beliefs guide them in a moral and upstanding way. If your religion teaches you to be nice to your neighbor and you are, respecting other opinions and values, more power to you. As soon as you go over the line and say that your religion is more ‘correct’ than any other religion, then prepare yourself for my retort.

All religion is based on some faith system. Now, I don’t want to get into the difference between faith and truth (whole books exist on the topic) but when I lived in Wyoming for a time, surrounded by Mormons, I started to try to understand why they walk around all brainwashed regarding their version of the world. We are all born into some religious belief system (or lack thereof) and like most things, we learn it from our parents. Sure, we might rebel, but if our parents are loving and non-abusive, we hang onto those same belief systems for a while. If we surround ourselves with like minded people and other families as we grow up, we might even continue such teachings to our own children. The Mormon faith is a good example of this ‘It Takes a Village’ type of mentality. When you are firmly ensconced in such a belief system, you accept almost anything said to you by your elders. You believe it with all your heart and all your soul. The Earth as created in six days. God flooded the world because he was mad. If I die for my god, I will receive 100 virgins in the afterlife. When we die we will get our own planet in the afterlife. The holocaust never happened. These are all true examples of information that people accept because someone they trust told them.

When I was teaching in Wyoming, there was one class that had only a handful of people. On the Monday morning after Easter, only two students made it to class. One woman was a non traditional student going back to school. She was in her mid 30’s, and had 2 kids. She was born and raised Catholic and did the standard Catholic mom things. She was very nice, and everyone respected her. She was not overt in her beliefs at all, just a sweet garden variety Catholic. The other student was an 18 young woman who was the star of the college’s basketball team, a straight A student, involved in lots of organizations, and had bunches of friends. Everyone knew her and everyone liked her. She was a garden variety Mormon. (http://www.mormon.org/ ) So the three of us (remember, I am a cradle Episcopalian, also heavily involved in my local church) decide to blow off the lecture for that day and we start talking about our respective religions in regards to the celebration of Easter, Good Friday, etc.. The Catholic and I talk about how similar our religions are, and our Mormon colleague explains that Good Friday is not really celebrated and Easter is not a huge deal. We decide to press her on her comments, and it degenerated into ‘why do you think your religion is right and our is wrong’. (Side note: Mormons believe that when us non-Mormons die, we will be given one last opportunity to become a Mormon before we move on. A last chance stand for salvation, if you will) What was most interesting was that this poor young woman for the first time in her life had been told by someone she trusted and respected, that her religious beliefs might not be as solid as she thought. All her life she had been surrounded by like minded people. When we questioned her and asked her why she believed that. She became very uncomfortable, because in her mind, she was so right, how could anyone she respected believe otherwise? She was a fish out of water, feeling very out of place. We had fun with her that day. In a few days she was back to ‘normal’. I had heard that she spend some long hours with her usual friends and they pulled her back into the fold. Oh well, we tried.

Think of everyone you know who has some set of religious values. Now think how many of them ‘changed faiths’ from the one they were taught as children. Sure, you might have started her as a certain kind of Christian, and later became a different flavor of Christian. But for the most part, we stick to what we started as, even if that means being an atheist. When do we change? Either we marry someone of another faith or some tragic/momentous/life changing event brings us quickly into a new belief system.

Why is that? Is it because your parents, who (hopefully) you trust told you one set of things, and then it becomes ‘wrong’ and you move on to something else? That is tough for a lot of people. So what is the implication? Our belief systems are never truly our own. We do not believe our faith to be correct as much as we were told what to believe and what is correct. You like to think that your freely chose that belief system, but no.

Lets think globally for a moment. We live in an American society that (by vast majority) is Christian. We seem to get along ok because of that. Yes, different flavors of Christianity, but the majority say Christ/God is our spiritual guidepost. What about all those religions who say that Christianity is just plain wrong? Those Muslims, Jews, and Buddhists whose version of the past and future are much different than ours? Do we tolerate them? As a general rule, hell no. We segregate them, exercise racial profiling, disrespect them, go to war, etc. That has been ok since the beginning of time because we never moved far from our homes. We grew up with and later lived next to our parents. Our entire community had a similar belief system, no matter how wacky it was. (Did you ever see The Village? Yikes) Now that information is so global, our kids have the opportunity to actually see (oh my, maybe even TRY) other kinds of religion. It started with women’s liberation in the 1920’s. (beating your wife is not longer ‘cool’) Then racial understanding in the 1950’s and 60’s. (Lynching seem to be down) Then sexual liberation in the 1970’s. (Homosexuals are no longer publicly flogged) We started talking, reading, opening our minds to the world outside our little safe haven of family and friends. We might have religious tolerance, but not very much.

In elementary schools, they have weeks where they study another cultures, maybe try ethnic foods, plays ethnic games, etc. Do you think there will ever be a time where when the 6th graders are studying Japan that they will have a Buddhist chanting ritual as part of the lesson? Actually try it out? Do you think that teacher’s job would last until the end of the day? The parents are probably ok with learning ABOUT other cultures, but don’t start practicing (or playtesting?) their religion, that is over the line. Remember, our parents taught us the ‘truth’ and nobody else is going to get in the way of that.

There are signs of those trying to take a step backwards even. There is a push to restrict ‘academic freedom’ in colleges and universities in an attempt to not allow college professors to teach such controversial topics. They call this movement the ‘Student Bill of Rights’. This stems from religious zealots who don’t like young 18 year old being exposed to something that they don’t deem as correct.

What about those people who use their natural charisma and societal influence to try to change the world. Recently the actor Tom Cruise (a well known and vocal scientologist) was on the Today show with Matt Lauer. They got to talking about psychiatry, medicine, treatment for depression, etc. and Tom Cruise went off on Matt. His rant was based on his scientology belief system and he was acting (!) as if he was an expert on the medical field. Sorry, being a big Hollywood movie actor gives you credibility on some things (acting, makeup, maybe even marketing) but mental health and pharmacology? Please. That ranks right up with people changing their lifestyles because Oprah told them to. Who are the kind of people that believe if they yell at you and say that what you believe to be true is actually false and that you should come over from the dark side to their belief system that you will?

It is like driving and parenting. If you tell someone that they are a bad driver, they will NEVER take it ‘nicely’ No one will say ‘oh thank you for pointing out my personal flaws. It is the same with parenting. If you tell someone that they handled a situation with their kids wrongly, you can’t tell them and expect them to be happy for you pointing it out. You cannot tell someone their religious foundation is flawed and expect them to agree and walk with you. It just doesn’t happen.

Then there are the people just trying to make a quick buck off of religious dogma and use scare tactics. Those televangelists crack me up. They seem to be playing on those who don’t have the self confidence to think for themselves. I guess if you can convince someone that you should be making choices for them, then you can have a lucrative business. Lots of money gets poured into those ‘faiths’…

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 25th, 2005 at 5:34 am and is filed under Controversial Topics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.