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Does Religion Deserve A Bad Rap?

Introduction: To say religion is getting a bad rap is to state the obvious. While there is the occasional praise to God, most of the attention religion gets is when something bad is happening. The trial of a Mormon arranging marriages involving underage girls was getting national headlines last month. The term "extreme religious right" or "religious conservatives" has been used to catalog Bible believers into a radical political group. Television programs, movies, talk shows, politics, all continue to portray religion as mere superstition, greatly harming mankind. The Humanist Manifesto states: "Promises of immortal salvation or fear of eternal damnation are both illusory and harmful."

Last month Newsweek Magazine ran and edition with the subject of politics and religion. One man they asked to write on the subject was Sam Harris. Sam Harris is an atheist, this article "A Dissent: The Case Against Faith."

Let me give you some samples of what Mr. Harris wrote:

*It is, of course, taboo to criticize a person's religious beliefs. The problem, however, is that much of what people believe in the name of religion is intrinsically divisive, unreasonable and incompatible with genuine morality.

**Religion is the one area of our discourse in which people are systematically protected from the demand to give good evidence and valid arguments in defense of their strongly held beliefs. And yet these beliefs regularly determine what they live for, what they will die for and--all too often--what they will kill for. Consequently, we are living in a world in which millions of grown men and women can rationalize the violent sacri-fice of their own children by recourse to fairy tales. We are living in a world in which millions of Muslims believe that there is nothing better than to be killed in defense of Islam. We are living in a world in which millions of Christians hope to soon be raptured into the stratosphere by Jesus so that they can safely enjoy a sacred genocide that will inaugurate the end of human history. In a world brimming with increasingly destructive technology, our infatuation with religious myths now poses a tremendous danger.

We want to look at the question: Is religion getting a bad rap? The answer may surprise you.

1. Religion is a system of social coherence based on a common group of beliefs or attitudes concerning an object, person, unseen being, or system of thought considered to be supernatural, sacred, divine or highest truth, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, traditions, and rituals associated with such belief or system of thought. It is sometimes used interchangeably with "faith" or "belief system"[1], but is more socially defined than that of personal convictions. (Dictionary.com)

2. (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance 2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices (Webster’s Online Dictionary)

3. Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, give the following definition for religion: (1) concern over what exists beyond the visible world, differentiated from philosophy in that it operates through faith or intuition rather than reason

B) In its broadest sense religion is any belief system or value system a person or group of people may hold to.

1. The Religion of Humanism

2. John Dewey described Humanism as our "common faith." Julian Huxley called it "Religion without Revelation." The first Humanist Manifesto spoke openly of Humanism as a religion. Many other Humanists could be cited who have acknowledged that Humanism is a religion. In fact, claiming that Humanism was "the new religion" was trendy for at least 100 years, perhaps beginning in 1875 with the publication of The Religion of Humanity by Octavius Brooks Frothingham (1822-1895), son of the distinguished Unitarian clergyman, Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham (1793-1870), pastor of the First Unitarian Church of Boston, 1815- 1850. In the 1950's, Humanists sought and obtained tax-exempt status as religious organizations. Even the Supreme Court of the United States spoke in 1961 of Secular Humanism as a religion. It was a struggle to get atheism accepted as a religion, but it happened. From 1962-1980 this was not a controversial issue.

Dictionary .com

    a. John Dumphy in The Humanist wrote: I am convinced that the battle for humankind’s future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by the teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith…These teachers must embody the same selfish dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preacher, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of the educational level – preschool day care or large state university. "A New Religion For A New Age", The Humanist, Jan/Feb. 1983 page 26.

    b. James Curry, past president of the AHA (1939) said, "Humanism is a polite term for atheism." It is a godless religion built on the premise that man is the totality of all there is.

3. One can speak of religions in the sense of "Christian Religions", "Muslim Religions", Hindu, Communism, Humanism, etc. There are many different forms of religions.

A) Religion contradicts science – creation vs. evolution, Hebrews 11.3

1. There is not one scientific law that contradicts what the Bible says.

2. Often the Bible revealed things science later discovered as being right.

    a. The earth being round, Isaiah 40.22 (1400’s accepted)

    b. Stars emit sound, Job 38.7 (November 1, 1963 discovered)

    c. The universe is decaying, Isaiah 51.6 (Second Law of Thermodynamics)

    d. Other facts: the water vapor cycle, currents in the ocean, lighting causes rain, etc (God Has Spoken, A.O Schnabel)

B) Dinosaurs and man could not co-exist at the same time

1. Fossil record says both did exist at the same time

C) Religionist believe Jesus will return to earth in the next 50 years is believed by 44%

1. Bible says no one knows the day or the hour, Mark 13.32

D) Human life begins at conception

1. Religion is hindering stem cell research resulting in delaying cures for aliments

2. What is in the womb? Psalm 139.13-14; Luke 1.41

3. That in the womb is alive

4. That in the womb is human

5. That in the womb is human life (If it’s not a baby, you are not pregnant)

E) Religion is responsible for much of the human suffering going on today and in times past.

1. Crusades in the Middle Ages

2. Catholic Church persecution of Galileo

3. Mormon Church, Warren Jeffs arranging marriages with underage girls, polygamy

4. Muslims – killing innocent people in the name of Allah, polygamy, treating of women as pieces of property, advocating the rape of women in certain cases.

**Jesus with the Samaritan woman at the well, John 4.20-24. We must know who we worship, how, why, when, and where.

III) True Religion Verses False Religion, John 4.20-24; 1 Corinthians 14.33

A) Must compare the doctrines of religions to what the Bible teaches

1. Matthew 7.21-23; Matthew 15.8-9

2. Book of Mormon, Jehovah Witnesses, Atheism, Koran, etc

    a. Anybody can claim to be speaking for God, Galatians 1.6-9

B) Some religions claiming to be based on the Bible or a belief in God practice that which is not authorized in the Bible

1. Cases of idolatry in the Old Testament

    a. Example 2 Kings 17.31 with human sacrifices

    b. The people did a lot of things that did not come to the mind of God, Jeremiah 19.5

2. People in New Testament did things without God’s approval

    a. Jezebel, Revelation 2.20

    b. Church at Corinth dividing up into factions, 1 Corinthians 1.11-12

3. Some religions are not more than superstitions, Acts 17.22

C) The Difference between What People Do and What The Bible Teaches

1. Love your neighbor as your self, Matthew 22.39 would preclude harming others including your enemies, Matthew 5.44

2. Honesty would stop lying, stealing, cheating- Galatians 3.9

3. Moral purity would stop fornication and adultery, 2 Timothy 2.22

4. Patience would require us to control our anger, etc. 1 Timothy 6.11

D) Some Religions Are Evil and Harm Others

1. Give permission to evil people to do evil "God told me to do it"; bigotry, Romans 6.1-2; Psalm 19.7-9

2. Prey upon the weak and ignorant

3. Many suffering in India are doing so because of the cast system in place due to their religio

A) Have proven to be intolerant of other religions

B) Advocates situation ethics

1. Lying, stealing, even murder is permissible given the right circumstances

2. "For nothing can of itself always be labeled as ‘wrong.’ …for the only intrinsic evil is lack of love" John A.T. Robinson, Honest to God, page 118. What about incest, men using young boys or girls, pornography?

C) Does Not Recognize Human Life as Sacred

1. Advocates euthanasia to relieve human suffering

2. Abortion outside the mother’s womb, allow babies to die from starvation or lack of medical treatment

3. Survival of the fittest becomes the rule of law and not love or morality. Some of the cruelest countries on the earth are practicing the doctrine of humanism: China to name one.

A) Based on the Bible as the word of God, 2 Timothy 3.16

1. Starts with God and not man, Genesis 1.1

2. The moral compass is based on God’s definition of love and not man’s, John 3.16

B) Is aimed at pleasing God not man, Galatians 1.10

1. Not at pleasing ourselves or being selfish

2. To think of others more than ourselves

C) Makes us better spiritually

1. To be conformed to the image of Christ, Romans 12.1-2

D) Makes us better people

1. Better husbands/wives; fathers/mothers; children/brothers/sisters. Etc.

2. Sadly what humanism promises are those things just listed but it has delivered just the opposite.

A) Idolatry leaves man worshipping the creator rather than the creator, Romans 1

B) Religion has been used to mislead people into following false teachers for their personal gain, 2 Peter 2.1-3

1 Jim Jones, David Koresh’s, and others

C) Religion has been used to contradict what the Bible says

1. Many Christians do not try to justify their actions based on the Bible but on their feelings.

2. We are told to study, 2 Timothy 2.15; Test the spirits, 1 John 4.1; have book, chapter and verse answers for what we believe and do 1 Peter 4.11

3. As Christians we do not have the luxury of being closed minded, ignorant, and selfish

Conclusion: In many cases religion does deserve a "Bad Rap." With idolatry the people worshipped that which they did not know. One religion is not as good as another. False religions hurt people spiritually, at times emotionally, and physically. That is why we advocate people opening their Bible to see what is says and only do what the Bible says. John 8.32

D.T. @ Westside Church of Christ 12.17.06