On Moderate Religions
Posted on May 3rd, 2008 by blue collar scientistOne of my favorite authors, writerdd on the Skepchick blog, has a post on the topic of moderate Christianity and whether it is the authentic voice of religion. She raises many interesting points and I thought I’d offer my perspective here.
The media features fundamentalists or extreme conservative believers every time a topic regarding morality comes up, as if these are the only people who can speak for believers, as if they have authority to speak for all people of faith on these issues. Not only are atheists and agnostics left out of the conversation, but moderate and liberal believers often are as well…. When journalists act this way, they are echoing the fundamentalist point of view.
I think writerdd is missing the bigger perspective here. The mainstream media is useless, or worse, in part because their function is not (as we are led to think) covering the story, but gaining ratings. They include religious extremists in stories involving morality because:
- Such people are available to the media - they promote themselves as sources, so every reporter and producer knows how to call them up and get them on the air.
- Such people create controversy and drama when they appear, which improves ratings.
- Media producers are generally very socially savvy, even to the point of knowing how to manipulate people and being willing to do it to get what they want; but they are not, in general, critical thinkers, or even knowledgeable about the topics that they cover.
When journalists bring religious extremists to the airwaves, they are giving them a voice, but they are not (in my opinion) necessarily echoing religiously extreme points of view - unless they take the trouble to agree with their source, pitch them softball questions, and so forth. There’s certainly no shortage of religious extremists in the ‘librul media.’
Sam Harris and many others often claim that moderate religious groups give cover to fundamentalists by honoring the holy books that they use to build their walls of doctrine. I used to agree, but now I’m not so sure that’s true.
I think Sam Harris is right, and wrong. He’s right that moderate religious groups give cover to fundamentalists. He’s wrong to say that they do it by honoring their holy books. They do it by failing to oppose exremists. By failing to denounce the destructive religious behaviors of those who claim to be co-religionists, they do indeed provide protection.
I’ve said in the past that one way to distinguish a non-extremist religious group is to see if they oppose (through excommunication, political opposition, etc) those who take their beliefs too far. Take a quick look at religiously motivated terrorism, and you will see very few of their co-religionist leaders taking the trouble to denounce their violent extremists.
A very similar situation holds true today, in America, where Christians who look forward to the destruction of the Jews as the precursor to Christ’s return, want total war in the mideast to accelerate that event, and who adopt a variety of political positions and personal behaviors that harm their neighbors - opposing evidence-based medicine, depriving minorities of basic civil rights, molesting children, and so on - go almost entirely unopposed or remarked upon by mainstream Christians.
That’s enabling behavior. At times it seems the only thing the moderates aren’t doing is buying the extremists bombs and beer.
I don’t know about you, but I, for one, would rather encourage a moderate, liberal kind of faith where people are free to cherry pick what they want to believe while they conform to modern, secular values and use skepticism to make decisions in daily life. I think I’d like to befriend people with this type of faith and work together with them to keep fundamentalism in check, to preserve the separation of church and state, and to protect the benefits of a scientific and secular society.
I agree. And I’m putting my money where my mouth is: For three years, I’ve had a relationship with a private religious school that brings me into the classroom frequently to teach science and critical thinking. I work with religious teachers and religious school administrators in that context, and while I would say they are moderate, rather than extremist, religionists, we still have our disagreements. But we all understand that our disagreements constitute an argument among friends, nothing more.
So what is everybody else doing about their opinions on this issue?
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:16 pm
i used to believe in a god, even although i was scientific and scientifically oriented. my search took me all over the place, even through a conversion to a new faith. all faiths had problems. despite some of their claims of being rational, they all have a point where they stop questioning their own past and history and accept what they want to hear. if they cannot deal honestly with their own history, i can’t expect them to deal with any question more difficult.
besides, nothing helped the yearning. my greatest peace came when i stopped looking, and embraced a random, “pointless” universe, and went back to the core of how i saw things, through science and mathematics, jettisoning the spiritual in any of its forms. because of the practices of some people who called themselves atheists, i am not comfortable calling myself that. i refer to myself as a materialist, as that about places me correctly.
as for moderate religions, i think they should be just ignored, and people should be encouraged to ignore them. i mean, they oughtn’t be “saved” and their people oughtn’t be “saved”, nor should anyone try. if people want to know about mathematics or science or statistics, fine, teach them. IMO, questions of religion and the sort oughtn’t be dealt with. trying to do so achieves nothing. people don’t even look at their macroeconomy objectively, and they can’t be saved from the consequences of their decisions. if this or some other country makes decisions based upon ideology or reading tea leaves, they are responsible adults, they are choosing their future that way. eventually, a bad choice will be made, and i’ll suffer from it, my kids will suffer from it. you can point it out, but as soon as they bring up these values, they’ve stopped listening.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Hi & thanks. Glad you enjoy my stuff.
I agree with this 100%. And, thankfully, some Christian authors and churches are starting to oppose extremists. I’m working on a post about this very topic, and I must say I’m relieved to see it happening. Alas the media does not give these people enough exposure. Which leads to…
BTW, I didn’t say “mainstream media,” I just said “media.” The things I mentioned happen on blogs and the internet and in ‘zines and many places that I would not consider MSM. That said, your 3 points are completely valid and I agree with them. At least in the US, mainstream media has turned largely into what I call “infotainment” and whatever is the most sensational, outlandish, and ridiculous gets air time, even when it is not representative of reality.
May 3rd, 2008 at 8:22 pm
For the past ten years, I’ve worked exclusively in religious schools. As an atheist, demonstrating a non-aggressive, non-dogmatic model of what an atheist is, working with teachers of the faith. Islamic, Anglican, Catholic, Methodist and Presbyterian schools. I graduated from a Catholic university, returned there to gain my M.Ed.
For the past eight years, I’ve worked on promoting and investigating ‘philosophy for children’, the international program that is more recently being tested for gains in IQ and behavioral improvements.
Now I write for the overarching body for education, with a philosophy and ethics course, having co-written the model for the compulsory program which introduces students to skepticism. I help train teachers in both non-profit and education department courses in how to deliver such programs. I use skeptical material in my materials, based upon an awards project but using it in non-science classes, to demonstrate cross-curricular application.
My dissertation and future research is on anomalistic beliefs in the younger years. Ascertaining to what part influence of the media plays in this is a part of my research.
Never heard of me, huh? ;)
May 3rd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
“So what is everybody else doing about their opinions on this issue?”
Typing. (I can afford no other level of involvement, since I’m doing nothing but treading water for the foreseeable future.)
May 5th, 2008 at 6:31 am
What am I doing about my opinions on the matter? Nada. Not sure what I would do either. I’m buddhist, white as it gets, and most don’t even take me seriously if I mention it. I’m pretty sure everyone assumes I’m some form of protestant christian no matter what I tell them. Furthermore I’m not really out to push it; I’m happy where I’m at, and when some bit of dharmacakra would benefit a friend I mention it to them (with no mention if its sources, because they might think it’s some “pagan” crazy if they thought it came from a non-christian religion).
I guess science I treat pretty casually too- if someone is having a conversation about it (such as some creationist hit-piece) I present the facts to them in a reasoned and logical way. I’m guessing as a result most of them don’t bring up the topic around me, but little I can do about that.