Religion and Tolerance
by Joseph Rowlands

I recently heard stories of atheists living in deeply religious communities. They were having problems being open about their disbelief because of the probable backlash. One mentioned telling his family that he was an atheist, and they were horrified and demanded that he not tell anyone else, since they might all be ostracized. There were many different variants, but each of the atheists had to live with religious intolerance.

One of the suggestions offered by family members was for the atheist to lie and say he believed some other religion. It turns out their religion is highly intolerant of atheism, but quite tolerant with respect to other religions. Why the intolerance of atheism?

One of the strongest rationales for intolerance is based on the idea that only religious people have reason to be moral. It's wrapped up in their belief that morality comes from god, and is only properly motivated by appeals to an afterlife. An atheist rejects both of these religious beliefs, and therefore it is difficult to imagine a reason why the atheist would be moral.

This is nonsense. It may be true that certain sacrificial moralities require a claim of rewards in the afterlife, but not all moral systems are sacrificial. If morality is viewed more broadly in terms of behaviors compatible with a peaceful and cooperative society, it makes more sense that an atheist would be moral. An atheists sees this life as all there is, and so places a higher value on it than religious people do. Consequently, an atheist will be more motivated to act in a way to promote a positive life here on earth.

A different reason for religion to be intolerant of atheism is that the biggest threat to religion is disbelief. Religious ideas are not rational, scientific, or evidence-based. Consequently, it is very difficult to persuade someone to believe one particular set of irrational beliefs over another. The religion people are born to is usually religion they stick with throughout life. That's simply because the absurd is disguised by being commonplace. The particular religious ideas don't seem bizarre to someone who was raised to believe it is the truth.

Different religious beliefs, on the other hand, will often still be recognizable as absurd. You don't have the familiarity with them. The beliefs you were raised with were introduced before you had the knowledge and reasoning skills to question them. But religious beliefs observed later in life don't have that advantage.

This means that religions tend not to fear other religions. There's little or no threat that they the members of one religion will become persuaded by another and convert.

Note that this isn't true when one religion branches off from another. Heretics are considered a very serious threat to a religion. That's because they tend to share most of the supernatural and strange views. The heretical thoughts may be in the form of which beliefs are more important than others, or who should be the authority on these matters.   Heretics are opposed violently when possible.

It's important to note that atheism is also perfectly reasonable. Instead of having to accept some strange belief system that is absurd and unreasonable, atheism is simply giving up your own weird religious beliefs and accepting only what you can prove. This fact makes it as scary as heretical views. It is a threat in the sense that it is a very reasonable view that members might be attracted to. That alone would make atheism a source of intolerance.

However, atheism poses a unique threat to religion. Religious belief is not based on evidence, but on faith. So what sustains the faith? Religion couples supernatural beliefs with moral requirements. They tell you the stories about an afterlife in order to tell you how you should behave. And one of the major moral requirements in any religion is to resist doubt and affirm your faith in the religion.

This is circular. You belief supernatural ideas on faith. Based on those ideas, you are told you have to act in a certain way to be moral. And the most important way you required to act is to maintain your faith in the supernatural ideas. It's a nice, self-supporting belief system.

It should be obvious that faith must have a central moral role in religious morality. That's why other religions are often treated with more tolerance than atheism. Atheism doesn't just reject the particular supernatural beliefs that make up the religious belief system. Atheism also rejects the foundation of the moral system. It rejects faith.

And that's why atheism is a unique threat to religion. Not only is it a reasonable belief system, but it undermines religion in a way that no other religion can. It questions the validity of faith itself, which is the only thing keeping the religious belief going at all. Without faith, the rest of the religious system would collapse under its own weight.

It makes sense for a religion to treat other religions with more tolerance. Each of them accepts the validity of faith, and creates the impression of a universal acceptance of this one idea. If the absurd can be disguised by the commonplace, then this is clearly beneficial for those who want to secure faith. Even when religions disagree, they know that they share this one crucial element.

And so intolerance towards atheism should be expected. If religious people were willing to tolerate atheism, and tolerate a lack of faith, they might grow to accept that it is perfectly fine to live without faith. So the religious narrative must be that anyone who gives up faith is wicked, cruel, immoral, and destructive. Atheists need to be punished or others might join them. This lends further support to religious belief. Anyone who dares question faith itself should be punished so that others fear to tread the same ground.

Atheists might think that religions should be more tolerant. Religions often claim to promote love, compassion, and understanding. And religious people shouldn't be that surprised that some people won't accept their belief system. After all, they know it takes faith. So there are good reasons to expect that religious people would be tolerant of disbelief.

Unfortunately, it is usually not the case. Brotherly love gives way to hatred and fear. Atheists are attacked. They are called immoral, threatened with eternal hell, and told that they can never be trusted. The worst slanders and assumptions are made against them. But this should all be expected.

If atheists were accepted, others might join them. If there was nothing lost from giving up religion, it would become an attractive offer to many.

Discuss this Article (18 messages)