Anti Religion – Is This Our Current
Default Religion?

When I communicate an association with religion, I have at times found myself on the receiving end of a deluge of beliefs as rigid and unquestioned as those of the most holy-book-bashing of the religious.

As we know, religion has caused its share of problems down the millennia. But we learn nothing if we are equally rigid and oppositional with any views we hold.

I would also suggest that if we act in automatic rebellion against something, we are operating from much the same place as when we act in automatic obedience. In both cases, we are not at choice.

Here, I discuss some of the anti religion beliefs I have encountered, along with ideas for why we have – in the UK and some other countries – become so anti religion.

Contents List for Anti Religion – Is This Our Current Default Religion?

ANTI RELIGION BELIEFS

1. Religion Is Dead

2. Religion Causes War

3. We Should Get Rid Of Religion

4. The Religious Are Abusive And Corrupt

WHY ARE WE ANTI RELIGION?

5. The Insidious Anti Religion Belief System of Our Society

6. The Media's Representation of Religion

7. The Most Vocal Religious People

8. Those Who Have Suffered In The Name Of Religious Teachings

OTHER

9. Shaking Off My Prejudice Of The Clergy And The Church

ANTI RELIGION BELIEFS

1. Religion Is Dead

Prediction – the Bible will be a best-seller this year. It always is.

In some evangelical churches and some developing countries, the numbers attending continue to rise.

But either way, if you attend many churches, synagogues and mosques, you will find a vibrant dedicated community.

2. Religion Causes War

It is true, religion can cause war. But so can many other things –
love,
nationality,
money,
property,
natural resources.

Shall we chuck them all out?

In Northern Ireland Christian has fought Christian. There are very few religious differences between Protestants and Catholics. They both follow Jesus and follow the Bible...
...a book that states they are all part of the same body of Christ.
...a book that tells us there are only two crucial commandments and both are based around love.

It is entirely understandable, and indeed very healthy, that anyone caught up in such a conflict should be anti-religion.

But for those of us who are not so unlucky, can we allow ourselves to see that this fight and many similar ones are more about nationality, identity and history rather than religion? If religion did not exist, these differences would still be there.

Pat Magee, the man who planted the IRA bomb in the bombing of the 1984 Tory Party conference in Brighton, declared himself to have been an atheist. Certainly he was not motivated by religious conviction.

Unfortunately, as humans we have an ability to fight about anything. And as someone who has occasionally been on the receiving end of the anger of atheist fundamentalists, I can tell you that being anti religion or getting rid of religion would not stop some people wanting to attack others for their beliefs.

“He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;
he breaks the bow and shatters the spear,
he burns the shieldsa with fire.
“Be still, and know that I am God;””
(Psalm 46, NIV)

Let us, both in and out of religion, be still and hold a space for peace in the world.

It is one of the things I love about spiritual and religious groups - that we do pray for peace in the world. Outside religion, it is easy to just watch the bad news and believe that things will never change.

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