CONVERSATIONS IN THE PANTHEON - The Truth about God and Religion

The Impact of Religious Dogma on People's Lives

Mary: We're living in a high-tech world driven by instant, global communication. Scientific knowledge is growing in leaps and bounds and its readily available through the world wide web. Furthermore, illiteracy has steadily decreased since world war II and almost everyone has a smartphone. Under such conditions I would have expected religion to play a much smaller role in people's life.

Mathew: The reason religion is still important in our high-tech world is that it provides comfort to its believers. Even in rich countries there are alot of poor people. It's a tough world for the less privileged. Even if one is not suffering poverty, life is a constant struggle for survival. Even the wealthy are afflicted with pain and disease. We are fortunate to have well-paying jobs and a pension to look forward to in retirement. Many people have neither.

We live in an imperfect world. We're swimming in a sea of prejudice and discrimination. If one's skin colour is white the swimming can be enjoyable, like swimming in a swimming pool, but if one is black or coloured, the swimming is anything but enjoyable. It's like swimming in the ocean against the wind and the waves. You expend a lot of energy and you don't get anywhere.

There are a lot of people who are homeless. We see them begging on the street, right here. There are a lot more people who have jobs that pay below-sustenance wages. Some have two jobs and still can't buy enough to feed the family. I see them at the food bank and it breaks my heart.

It's the suffering that these people are subjected to due to systemic discrimination and economic inequalities that drives them to seek solace and comfort in god and church, where they're welcomed with open arms.

You can castigate the churches all you want for preaching a lie, but, at the end of the day, you have to praise them for all the good they do.

Thomas: On this point, I agree fully with you Mathew, and I'm sure that Mary also does. I take my hat off to all the clergy and volunteers who provide assistance to the disadvantaged. They are the unsung heroes of the churches throughout the world, regardless of the religion they adhere to. They all provide unselfish humanitarian assistance. No question about that.

I like to take shots at the church hierarchies because, through their misguided dogma and policies, they counteract the good work of priests and parish volunteers. Such policies inspire so much anger in segments of the population that it overshadows all the good done at the working level.

I admire the work that your wife does in the parish. She has helped so many people, including the Syrian refugees that arrived with only the clothes on their backs. I praise all those things. I know that the church enhances the value of our communities. And it's so uplifting to listen to a church choir singing beautiful hymns. It's also marvellous because the church brings neighbours together to help not only themselves but also others, even complete strangers.

However, we all know that everything in life comes with good and bad. In the Confucian philosophy it's called yang and yin. It's an immutable Law of Nature. The church has done many good things, but also many bad ones. Moreover, they neither admit to some of the bad things, nor even want to talk about them. I won'teven talk about the paedophilia cover up scandals in christian churches because they have already been widely aired.

Mathew: What is your concern then? And please don't tell me that they're preachinga lie because we have already beaten this horse to death.

Thomas: My biggest concern with the church is that it imposes its own arbitrary morality on people. The church's position on abortion and contraception causes deliberate physical and emotional harm. What right does it have to tell a rape victim that she can't have an abortion? You have daughters. If it were to happen to one of them, the church would say, Sorry, but you're stuck with the consequences. What right does it have to legislate morality in a secular world?