Googling “religion anti-intellectual” returns about 3.6 million hits, most of them on the anti-religion side of the argument. In fact, the only article on the first page countering the assertion that religion is inherently anti-intellectual is from The Gospel Coalition, which, though a fine site, is not exactly the Brookings Institution. Combing through the results reveals further anti-religious sentiment. One eye-catching headline even reads, “GOP Insider: Religion destroyed my party.”
Naturally, the groups with the most vested interest in a positive public perception of religion would be religious groups. Nevertheless, it’s a shame that religion seems to have lost almost all backing from mainstream intelligentsia. Even the word “religion” conjures images of old books and dusty seminaries with arthritic priests standing watch.
It’s not surprising there has been such a shift in perception. A cursory glance at your Facebook news feed or the BBC home page on any given day will provide enough examples of religious hatred and its effects that I don’t need to list them here, but suffice it to say that many religious leaders have declared a war on any ideas that don’t fit their particular narratives and might threaten their hold on power.
We’re at Brown — we know and understand this phenomenon. But we have to be careful not to let a healthy skepticism about religious authority become a fear and hatred of religion itself. I’ll be the first to admit religion can bring out many of humanity’s worst traits, among them a blind adherence to authority, intolerance and even hatred for those who think differently or are simply different, as well as a pathological fear of anything that upsets the social order.
But we can’t let religion’s shortcomings eclipse the enormous good it facilitates, good that extends beyond the considerable charity and social action initiatives in which religious organizations have always participated. To use a personal example, what speaks most to me about my faith — Reform Judaism — is the premium it places on finding one’s own personal truth. The word “Yisrael” itself literally means “He who wrestles with God.” Even the strictest Orthodox Jews are encouraged not to study by themselves in case their opinions about and interpretations of the law go unchecked — a positively Socratic precept.
The problems of religion don’t stem from the abstract idea of believing in a higher power and a universal truth. The evils of religion continue to be carried out by people — both those in positions of authority and those on the ground who carry out their commands. The Muslim Brotherhood terrifies me. I have considerable problems with the Vatican. The Chief Rabbinate of Israel is backward and corrupt. Yet, when practiced with the intention of seeking answers for the unanswerable, Islam, Christianity and Judaism are beautiful faiths that can engender human connection and empathy. God isn’t the problem — human beings are the problem. If we, as educated people, continue to turn up our noses at any sort of organized religion, we will only push its practitioners farther away from centers of learning and into the waiting arms of the very institutions we wish to change. After all, 73 percent of Americans identify as Christian — you can’t simply wish them away. If we want their views to change, we have to start with acceptance and understanding, as distasteful as that may seem.
I’m not asking you to accept God or Jesus or Satan or any other being into your heart. What I am asking is that you honestly assess the assumptions you make about people when they profess any sort of belief in a higher power, vague as it may be. It does not mean they believe the planet is 6,000 years old, or women should be subordinate to their husbands at all times or homosexuality is immoral. I’m talking about a simple belief in God. Turning to religion as part of one’s internal struggle for meaning is not a sign of mental weakness.
Author and essayist David Foster Wallace was undeniably a man of extraordinary brainpower — he even received a MacArthur Fellowship, also known as a “genius grant.” He also frequently attended church services. Not everyone wants or needs religion to be a part of their life. But if someone as brilliant as Wallace felt that he benefited from it, it’s worth considering that religion isn’t solely the pastime of the ignorant and faith does not have to be the enemy of reason.
Adam Asher ’15 is concentrating in Classics. He can be reached at
adam_asher@brown.edu, and followed on Twitter (@asheradams).
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