The Once and Future Role of Religion

Saturday February 11, 2006

Many atheists would like to see religion disappear. Many atheists in the past thought that was a realistic possibility and would happen by now - but obviously it hasn't. Given how central religion has been to human culture, isn't it a bit implausible that it will disappear, or even just decline so far that it becomes irrelevant?

In the Winter 2006 issue of the Wilson Quarterly, Wilfred M. McClay writes

For better or worse, the older dream of a fully privatized religious faith and a fully secularized public realm seems to be losing its hold. Some will find this development refreshing, some frightening. Most will see a very mixed bag. But one should not underestimate its complexity.

The fact that a strongly religious American president has committed the United States to the building of a largely secular state in the Middle East as a bulwark against religious terrorism, and is doing so over the objections of largely secular elites in Europe and America, only begins to hint at the intricacy of the matter.

Like it or not, religion will remain a major player in shaping world events, and those who want to will it away are indulging in illusions of their own. John Lennon’s song “Imagine” will not be a reliable guide to the 21st century. That illusion has no future. The sooner we realize it, the better.

McClay's argument that we should simply get used to the fact that religion is here to stay is the popular one, the argument offered by most people talking about the subject. There is certainly something to this argument, but hasn't a similar argument been offered in favor of every cultural institution that people have tried to eliminate? Haven't people said similar things about slavery, segregation, racism, aristocracy, dictatorships, and so forth?

Because of how often this argument has been used, and how often it has been wrong, we should approach it with great care — and those who want to use it should exercise even greater care. Every cultural institution and tradition (if it's old enough) appears nearly invincible and impossible to overturn. The fact that something has been around for a very long time is not a reason to assume that it will never leave.

Of course, the fact that this argument has been wrong before shouldn't cause us to assume that it is necessarily wrong now. It's arguable that religion is far more deeply ingrained in culture than other institutions of the past and, therefore, that the chances of eliminating it are much lower at best. Maybe religion really is different — but, at the very least, this is something which people like McClay who make this argument should try to explain and support.

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