Humanism, atheism and other freedoms

If you ever want an example of just how convoluted, crazy and illogical religious thinking has become, you can usually depend on the Catholics. Take the comments by the Pope’s astronomer, Guy Consolmagno, who has just accused creationists of being pagans.

According to an article in The Scotsman, Brother Consolmagno, who is based in Arizona, believes that religion and science need to work together. Creationism, on the other hand, wants to credit god for everything, and in doing so its view of god is little better than those of pagans. He went on to say:

“Religion needs science to keep it away from superstition and keep it close to reality, to protect it from creationism, which at the end of the day is a kind of paganism – it’s turning God into a nature god. And science needs religion in order to have a conscience, to know that, just because something is possible, it may not be a good thing to do.”

Now, who can spot the error there? It’s that bit about “science needs religion in order to have a conscience”. Give one good reason. Actually, all atheists – regardless of whether they are scientists – are perfectly capable of developing perfectly good consciences without resorting to fairy stories and arbitrary dogma. Atheists do the right thing because it’s right, not because they fear retribution or even eternal torment from a ‘loving’ god. In fact, given that atheism doesn’t indulge in holy war, doesn’t absolve people of their sins (however heinous) just because they chant a few archaic mantras, and doesn’t encourage one group to regard all other people as worthless, evil or deserving of death just because they don’t believe the same fairy story, means that atheists stand a better chance of being people of good conscience.

It is an arrogant and mendacious habit of the religious to assume that it is impossible to be good, loving and caring without submitting yourself to some bizarre cult.

So let’s make this clear. Science does not need religion. Not in any way, shape or form. In fact, science wasn’t able to get properly established until the deadening hand of religion had loosened its grip on human thought. That’s what the Enlightenment was about. It is only when we throw off religion that human development, including science, can progress freely.

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