Leaving the Land of Woo

Tags: criticism of religion | religion

Lots of people agree that the ideas behind many of the food fads and alternative therapies are daft.  They'll dismiss the idea of healing energy, or therapeutic crystals demanding to know where the evidence is.  They'll think about detox and conclude that it's probably just a scam.

But when it comes to religious faith, all the barriers go up.  People shy away from thinking about the irrationality of religion because as we all know, faith itself is revered in our societies.  The fact that there are so many people all believing, in itself seems to justify the very act of belief.  Not only that, but anyone criticising the idea of religious belief is obviously overstepping the bounds of what is acceptable.

We are quite willing to acknowledge that people selling candles or magnets are making up the theory that goes with it, but churches are seen as something quite different.  Why is that?

Well, in the case of the candles and magnets, there is a commercial product being sold whereas religions like to distance themselves from commerce.  Religions, we are told, is about how to live our lives, and since they don't seem to be after a quick buck, they must have our interests at heart.  (We'll leave aside the mega-industry that is American religion for now.)

But what militates most against criticising religion is it's ideological place in our society.  Everyone grows up in the presence of powerful religious institutions, surrounded by the expression of religious belief, inculcated into reverence for its symbols, taught to be respectful of its expression.  Our parents send us to worship from an early age, telling us stories about religious figures, teaching us to believe in supernatural beings.

By the time we develop enough of our own critical faculties to question these ideas, to do so would be going against our entire upbringing.  That's the really big difference between food and health Woo, and religious Woo.  Religious Woo has a much tighter cultural grip on us.

Rejecting religion is distancing ourselves from a major part of our upbringing, sometimes openly challenging the way we were brought up by our parents, sometimes openly conflicting with their beliefs.  Questioning religion, is like rejecting your parents.  And in those circumstances, many people decide to keep their heads down.  They become lapsed.  They still, when questioned describe themselves as religious, but hastily add that they are not active.  Rather than break with religion, they distance themselves by acquiescence.

So what characterises Woo?  It's the irrational belief in mystical and undetectable forces, the obscuring of real knowledge with fanciful unevidenced theories, and attributing causes without good reason.  That fits both those who claim homeopathy works, and those who say prayer works.  It fits those who claim to possess healing energy, and those who claim to be able to bless other people.  It fits those who claim that Qi exists, and those who claim that God exists.  It fits those who trust in Ayurvedic medicine, and those who go to church.

Religion if a thriving part of the Land of Woo, spreading misinformation about how the world works, and relying on undetectable superbeings who are claimed to be omniscient, and omnipresent.  It has truly earned its right to be considered a permanent resident in the Land of Woo.  It's only our misplaced culturally indoctrinated sense of reverence, that allows religion to hide from open critical examination.