The Detriment
of Religion
“Superstition is, always has been, and forever will be, the foe of progress, the enemy of education and the assassin of freedom.” -Robert Ingersoll
Preachers, Priests, “men of God” (as they call themselves), all pride themselves on having knowledge. They claim intellectual superiority in matters of theology: they have studied and graduated from schools from which they are endowed with a degree of theology. But such people grossly misuse the word “knowledge”. Knowledge is the product of free enquiry, the development of thoughtful and critical questioning concerning the world, and our selves.
Those who claim to be educated in theology are educated if by “educated” they mean educated in skewed literature and propaganda. The theologian is “educated” in the same way the English professor is educated about stories of fiction written by the superstitious or salesmen are educated about the methods of selling. But this is not what the theologian claims.
First, the theologian claims to be a historian. The sacred texts of the Judaic religions are not considered fine examples of fictional writing, but are considered the “word of God”, and as such historic documents to be analyzed and interpreted for insightful truths, and useful information. The theologian pieces together puzzles of history, writing it in accordance to their particular sacred book. It is by no means the viewpoint of the theologian to question whether those documents are true: they are true to the theologian. To such a theologian history must abide by the “truth” of his book. A theologian desecrates the title of historian to that of propagandist. The theological historian finds answers and then construes questions to fit it. But a true historian is, rather, one who asks questions and then accepts the answers that his research, his questions bring to the surface. The true historian is one who considers testimony, documentation as well as relative testimony and relative documentation, to come to a degree of truth by and by, and perhaps even lose it again. The answer is not at all clear to the true historian, so the theologian is not a true historian, but a maker of history: the theologian creates questions to fit his answer regardless if that answer is wrong or not.
Secondly, the theologian claims to be a teacher. She claims to have knowledge and the ability to give that knowledge to students. The theologian takes what she claims to have learned and enlightens others as to its truth and worth, and to the necessity of its existence. It is by no means the viewpoint of the theologian to teach her students how to think, but rather what to think. The true teacher is one who teaches students how to think. If I teach logic to a classroom of students, I teach those students how to think, not what to think. What, if anything, the students apply their knowledge of logic to is completely up to them. The point is, they can apply their knowledge of logic to anything that they see fit, and it will work: including theology. The true teacher does not have answers, but rather the knowledge to know what to ask. To claim to teach someone how to think while really teaching them what to think is simply a case of brainwashing and dishonesty.
The theologians, then, are not truly historians nor are they truly teachers. The theologian is a religious politician with a clear agenda: spread the word of God. Theology is the study of superstition, and as Mr. Ingersoll points out, “Superstition is, always has been, and forever will be, the foe of progress, the enemy of education and the assassin of freedom.” Theology is the purveyor of superstition and ignorance, and the “foe of progress”. The theologian-as-historian does not want us to learn from the past, but to accept the past as created by theology. To the theologian, history is pliable not in the sense that true history is, but in the sense that it must be corrected in such a way as to fit the agenda of theology. The theologian-as-teacher does not want us to be educated nor does he want us to be free. To the theologian, true education, learning how to think, and true freedom, the ability to be fully curious and to satisfy that curiosity, are enemies of theology. Theology is truly “the enemy of education and the assassin of freedom.”
The theologian is an artist-gone-mad, lost in the canvas he paints continuously; blurring the lines of reality with his brush and adamantly expecting the world to bend to his will. The theologian claims to be a historian and a teacher, but he is a madman bent upon the destruction of truth and wisdom. Truth and wisdom have no place in theology because they are the destroyers of superstition and ignorance: the very foundation of all theology. The theologian claims to offer hope and faith, but she offers empty promises and the acceptance of ignorance instead. For a society to survive and flourish it must have art and literature, so much is true. But theologian does not offer the world art or literature. Rather, the theologian, the religious believer, believes not only in a God, but that he offers the world a sole Truth to be accepted on unquestionable grounds. For a society to survive it must be free from superstition, free to inquire, free to ask honest questions and expect honest answers, and free to make intellectual decisions: it must be free from religion.
