By Gianna Akter ’25
British author and journalist Christopher Hitchens once said, “That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence,” essentially meaning that a claim made without support can be refuted just as easily without support, too. Hitchens made this comment in reference to religion, identifying strongly as an anti-theist, viewing all religions as harmful, false, and authoritarian. While I do not take as extreme of a view on religion as a whole, I agree with his statement regarding proof, his idea that religion is man-made, and his discussion of how it can be harmful to many groups of people. Religion does not have to be a necessity for everyone and it can be easily weaponized, inciting war, encouraging violence, or being used to oppress groups of people (such as women).
In regards to Hitchens’s statement about the evidence supporting religion (or lack thereof), the belief in a Christian God – or figures like him in other religions – is based on the consensus of faith, meaning that his existence is unable to be proved or disproved, at least in terms of modern science. The idea of God and his teachings rely entirely on his followers’ faith – their belief that he is real –as Jesus explicitly states in the Bible, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). This is where many people, myself included, are skeptical from a rationalist perspective. You cannot reasonably defend something for which you have virtually no evidence, especially when your belief in it is based solely on blind faith.
Blind faith is dangerous for a host of reasons, some of the obvious ones being that it leads to limited critical thinking, which means evaluating a subject to form an opinion/judgment. Religious extremism becomes more likely in that case, leading to violence or war as a method of spreading the beliefs and customs of the religion in question. This happens when people lack knowledge or the ability to thoroughly consider two sides of a subject or issue, thus leading them to take an extremist perspective. In some cases, blind faith results in terrorism in the name of religion. Not only do you see this demonstrated throughout history, such as in the Canadian Residential Schools for Indigenous children (where European missionaries forcibly assimilated Native Americans into white, Christian culture), but you can see it happening now in many areas of the world as well. In some countries such as Iran, there are hijab mandates for Muslim women where they are discriminated against by religious police and Islamic vigilantes who enforce laws and practices relating to divorce, dress code (hijab mandates), child custody, inheritance, travel, and more, solely based on sex. Protests rose up in early September of 2022 as stricter laws and more violence began to discriminate against Muslim women more severely.
Arguably, this is not the fault of the religion itself: it is the faithful people seen in these various examples that are establishing control and violence in the name of religion. However, that is the very issue at hand: religion is largely human-made and human-controlled, and there is no physical God or entity present to govern or rule it. Humans are inherently imperfect and flawed, having the capacity to be malicious or evil at times. In the wrong hands, a religion that could otherwise be helpful can be used to bring oppression, pain, and suffering to others.
Some argue that religion is a good thing because it promotes community service. While it is true that, statistically speaking, religious people are more likely to consistently serve their local communities and show morality/compassion for disadvantaged people such as the homeless (via their soup kitchens, etc), people who are not religious or atheist still demonstrate a moral compass and find ways to serve their communities in their own way. For instance, events/activities unassociated with religious organizations include beach clean-ups, animal shelter work, and volunteer work in libraries. There are plenty of non-religious opportunities in terms of services that atheist people can and have taken advantage of. For those who argue that you need a religious community to have outreach or provide servitude, know that there are plenty of ways to build community and serve on a local scale, from school, to work, to hobbies, and more; religion is not a necessity when it comes to service.
All in all, religion is a concept made by humans for humans, so that they (especially those in ancient times, when little was known about science or the world) could find comfort and feel a sense of purpose in this world. As Hitchens points out in his book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, “Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody…had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance and other infantile needs).” Not everything that was a mystery then is a mystery now, and humanity has come a long way in terms of science and our understanding of life. Many people find comfort, faith, and community in religion still today. While that is great, it is still essential to understand how easily it can be used for the opposite, to keep one’s blind faith in check, and to accept that it is not a necessity in everyone’s life, but rather a choice one should have the freedom to make.
The Raider Press 