The danger of religion to the modern world

June 10, 2009 | Filed underEditorial | Posted by Chris St. Marie

One of the most incredibly dangerous practices a society can tolerate within itself is allowing religion any input or power over the society. This is not a new theory, an untested one, or even truly debatable. In the numerous unfortunate examples we have of religious leaders being allowed legal powers and precedents, an invariable trend is their immediate use of this power towards undeniably harmful acts. When Christians were able to follow up on the Bible’s commandment of “thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus 22:18), they did so with glee and nothing resembling fair democratic process. This sort of thing doubtlessly would have continued were it not for government intervention. The Spanish Inquisition and its penchant for burning human beings alive lasted over 350 years. This is not simply ancient foreign history, however. Mormons had to have their funds taken and their religion greatly restricted before they ended their polygamous practices, yet breakaway groups mainly centered in Utah still regularly gain notoriety on cable news networks for their polygamy and sexual liaisons with underage girls. They are only able to accomplish this with the help of local law enforcement tolerance.
Even more obvious examples emerge from the Middle East, in which religiously controlled governments have free reign to execute homosexuals and restrict the rights of women to unbelievable degrees. Though our American government is protected somewhat by the principle of separation of church and state, the Christian influence still presents a very real danger.
As history continues to show us, if religions are given power, they will not use that authority to force through bills demanding things such as universal health care, as one would imagine after hearing so much about Christian love and compassion. The moderate Christian majority is instead far more concerned with furthering the bigotry and intolerance against the homosexual minority espoused by their barbaric holy book.
One of the most despicable and sickening aspects of the American social conscience is how denying a harmless minority group fundamental rights such as marriage is seen as an acceptable political position in the 21st century among mainstream politicians and the American majority.
This is not the work solely of home-schooled fundamentalists as might be imagined; this is the average, moderate Christian leading the Crusade-esque fight against basic civil rights, lifesaving medical procedures such as stem cell research, women’s rights over undeveloped life forms dependent upon them, euthanasia, and the teaching of established scientific facts about how our universe and human race came into being. They have no choice, of course, since religions have ever been terrified of science: every fossil we uncover pushes Adam and Eve out of our collective histories and every advance in aeronautics shoves God out of our clouds.
These same people are at the forefront of support for the increasingly genocidal state of Israel, though of course both sides of that conflict have committed innumerable religiously motivated atrocities. Their ideals have no limit to how they will invade and intrude upon the lives of others. Thanks to some kind of perceived magical difference between premarital and postmarital sex, a teenage girl who acts upon healthy and natural urges does so at the risk of being labeled a “slut” or any various other creative and imaginative terms fueled by that classic Christian love and compassion. One needs only to look at the countless abuse scandals and cover-ups by the Catholic clergy to see the true dangers of sexual repression. It is almost unimaginable to think of the easily preventable disease, suffering, and death that will come as a result of the Pope’s recent ban on condoms.
How hard will religion need to fight against reason, rationality, and science before the sight of students praying in a circle around our school’s flagpole becomes unbearably horrifying? How much oppression, harm, and ignorance will the American populace fund and endure before it admits that religion has no place in our modern society? Do not debate the answer long. These people are already destroying the fabric of our society. Give them enough time, and they will destroy us all.