By Madison S. Hughes (08.29.2011)

On 08.29.2011 I posted I posted a YouTube video on my blog titled, “Janet Porter Prays for Control of Government,” below which I penned the caption, “WOW! How disturbing is this? Religion should be criminalized before we find ourselves back in the Dark Ages.” As one may imagine, some found my caption as disturbing as the video itself. What follows is my response to a comment left by a fellow blogger. “jodaph970”responded to my comment as follows:

“Sure, it’s disturbing, but I also find your comment (“Religion should be criminalized before we find ourselves back in the Dark Ages.”) to be just as disturbing. Embracing a tyrannical dictation of what others should and shouldn’t do is the very antithesis of America.”

I responded as follows:

jodaph970,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. A little intellectual pugilism is great exercise.

My intention in claiming that religion should be criminalized before we find ourselves back in the Dark Ages was that of hyperbole. It both emphasized my intense disdain for religion, and served it purpose as having an effect on the reader. Do realize that when I reference religion, I am referring to organized religion. I believe that what people do in the private sphere is up to them, and I take no issue with it. However, when one feels compelled to foist their irrational beliefs on the public—although they still do in the voting booth, think eight years of Bush—I feel an even greater obligation, for the well being of the public of which I am part, to prevent such a transgression of idiocy from occurring.

While I can understand your consternation for such a strong attack against religion, I wonder if you truly believe that criminalizing religion is “just as disturbing” as the video. I fail to see how criminalizing the public imposition of religion would have as bad an impact on the well being of society, as would the participants of the video realizing their dream of a strong theocracy. We already saw that movie, and we know how it ended. It was a very long movie that started with Constantine, and ended with the Enlightenment (and you thought “Gone with The Wind” was long). The movie was titled “The Dark Ages,” and frankly, I think it sucked!

On the other hand we see a region of the world, i.e., Scandinavia where, while religion is not criminalized, they give no credence to religious dogma. Religion is very minimal, and mainly used for ceremonial purposes. The result . . . Scandinavia, specifically Denmark and Sweden, consistently score higher on the “happiness index;” they also have a much lower crime rate than do more religious, and especially extremely religious countries like the United States. To familiarize yourself more with these little known facts, I highly recommend the book “Society without God: What the Least Religious Nations Can Tell Us About Contentment,” by Phil Zuckerman.

While my comment was admittedly amplified, one should note that it is the iconoclasts of history who were the ones that fought for greater (conservatives, here comes some of that red meat you “claim” to cherish) liberties, and freedoms for the masses, not the orthodox committed to the status quo. Either way, it would not hurt anyone to give thought to the matter. Albeit, when it comes to religion, dogma trumps reason every time.

I leave you with a quote from the highly intellectual Anti-theist Christopher Hitchens that captures the essence of religion quite nicely, he said that, “Religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.” I, and approximately 40 million American citizens, and close to one billion Earthly denizens worldwide wholeheartedly agree. One may attempt to disagree with his assessment through the contortions of intellectual dishonesty; however, 2000 years of Abrahamic religious history would prove such an endeavor futile.

In Reason,
Madison