Q & A

Q: Can science and religion ever be reconciled?

A: I don't think so. This would be trying to reconcile truth to a lie. But people still try. It is ridiculous.

I dated a chick once who was like this. She believed in evolution, and she did not believe in the inerrancy of the Bible. But she was spiritual and attended a Methodist church that was hipper than your run of the mill Baptist or Pentecostal Holiness church. It was not as hip as a Unitarian church where you could be openly atheist. Her goal was to try and convert me to this new liberal religion. This was stupid.

People like this want to have their cake and eat it, too. They want to have science but also keep their imaginary friend. It would surprise many Christians to discover just how many evolutionists and atheists are leading their churches. Why does this happen? At some point, people that believed realized that it was all just a bunch of shit. This is what happened with me. The difference is that I could walk away from it all. These people are the ones who have devoted years, education, and careers to the church. They can't walk away because this would mean taking a real job somewhere.

The people who are more mystifying are the ones who are laypeople and have nothing to lose by facing up to reality. I know one atheist who attends church faithfully at the Unitarian fellowship. He keeps up the practice despite it being a waste of time. I call it the "Methadone Program for Ex-Christians." People need their fix even if they know better.

A couple of weeks ago I attended church to hear a friend play the drums. I still hum Bach choral tunes. For me, church offers a certain aesthetic that I still enjoy. I don't bother closing my eyes for prayers, and the sermon is always amusing. But I don't believe. I always leave church a little sad that people could waste their lives on such stuff. But I think deep down they know it is all bullshit. I know I did.

The addictive part of church isn't the religion part. It is being in a community of friends. Atheists don't have anything comparable which may explain why atheism remains a minority viewpoint in the US. People like to join clubs and organizations, and church is just another club. Even my latest act of church attendance was because of friendship and not religion.

Freethinkers make the mistake that religion advances as an intellectual error, and it merely needs to be corrected. The reality is that religion advances as an almost purely social phenomenon. When I told my ex that her unorthodox religious beliefs would be more at home at the Unitarian fellowship, she rebuffed that notion as quickly as it was offered. The U-U people might be more accepting, but her friends went to the Methodist church.

People have a fundamental desire to be with other people. This is a scientific fact. Much evidence dealing with people in solitary confinement shows that people in isolation break down mentally. Extended isolation is considered cruel and unusual punishment. Because people crave social involvement and connection, people who are simply stupid and evil exploit this need and co-opt it for their ends. It can be church or a criminal organization. Essentially, people trade their brains, their morals, or what have you for love.

This is why I don't spend a lot of time arguing about religion with the theists. Other atheists love nothing more than going over the fossil record or pointing out inconsistencies in the Bible or explaining how Anselm's ontological argument is just a trick with words. The fact is that people cling to religion because of their felt needs. They want to belong, so ignorance is the price of admission.

On the flip side, most of the atheists I know tend to fell into two camps. You have your rebellious non-conformists such as myself, and you have your socially handicapped Asperger nerds. Since both of these types have a much lower need for social interaction, they have liberated minds. Freethinkers are loners.

At some point, the cognitive dissonance between science and religion will become unbearable, and people will change their minds. This has already happened in Europe where atheism is much more prevalent. But I think the reason for this is because Europeans are more communal. They have alternatives to church. These would be the cafe and the pub.

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