The Power of Religion

And here is a contribution from Mike Grosso, also in response to our discussion on religion. As with Steve Stokes' piece below, the following represents the views of the individual contributor, not the views of the discussion group as a whole. You are invited to comment on Mike's essay by clicking on the "comment" link at the bottom of this post.

The Power of Religion - A Mystery?
by Michael Grosso

Future historians will have much to say about the resurgence of religion that began in the last third of the twentieth century. As Mark Lilla recently explained in the New York Times Magazine (August 19, 2007), the great thinkers of the eighteenth century completely underestimated the power of religion. Many imagined that religion would die out as science progressed, just as Marx imagined the State would wither away with the rise of proletarian justice.

They were wrong. The facts of subsequent history converge toward the idea that religion is an indestructible force. In spite of science destroying religious mythology, there is no decline, no wavering – but rather, steady and massive resurgence of religious belief. The contradictions between science and religion – and surely they exist – are blithely passed over. Religious believers listen to a different drummer.

Science has not done religion in -- neither has political repression when it tried. It was a kind of experiment when the regimes of two great countries in the twentieth century controlled, repressed, and tried systematically to eradicate religion from the consciousness of their peoples. Soviet Russia was able to pursue this experiment for seventy years, and China has also been at it for decades. These attempts to eradicate religion have failed miserably. As soon as the Soviet power block broke up, there was a rebirth of religious sentiment everywhere and it took many shapes. Some flocked back to the Orthodox Church, others went their ways with new gods, cults, movements. Ditto for China, which, as it slides from communism into a market economy, is also brimming over with religious ferment.

Meanwhile, the young everywhere are returning to the churches and mosques, some switching from the old and trying new faiths. Leading among religions whose populations are swelling the ranks of believers are of course Islam and Christianity. So, although Americans are reading books by some brilliant atheists, it represents a tiny blip of revolt against the onward drift of religious belief.

The evidence of the lively, hydra-headed power of religion should prompt us to ask, Why is religion so powerful? If science, political oppression, and consumerism have failed to extinguish religion, what is the nature of its resilience? Are we humans driven by an instinct, an impetus toward transcendence? Is there some compelling mystery in consciousness we have yet to appreciate? Or are we hopelessly addicted to comforting illusions? These are psychological and metaphysical questions.

But the runaway fertility of religious belief also poses ethical problems. For example, mutual respect for each other’s belief systems becomes more important than ever, a practical necessity in a world teeming with religious diversity. Believers and disbelievers will have to live together. As for the impending clash of civilizations, there is a long range challenge we have to face, a choice humanity as a whole will have to make: either cultivate the garden of toleration or stoke the hell fires of fanaticism.