On My Relationship with Religion…

I slept on this matter, and came up with my own answer/conclusion. We all have the capacity to be morally complicit in behaviors, beliefs and systems which cause moral harm. While I may not be complicit about Judea-Christianity, I may be morally complicit in the consumption of products from companies whom I know, or suspect get them from ethically ambiguous business practices or globalized trade routes which take advantage of impoverished people in foreign nations. This is aside from my dependency on said system, mind you.

That said, I’m very limited in what I can do about the goods I consume, (I have needs I must provide for). I am disabled, so I am very limited in what I can choose to consume or not consume. My dependency does change the moral weight of my actions, but I don’t believe it completely relinquishes accountability on it’s own. I feel, as human beings, because of our natural inclination and biasing to see ourselves as innately good, we are inclined to justify the existence of systems, behaviors, beliefs, et cetera, which are intrinsically tied to those ends. And as a result, we should be acutely aware of that phenomenon.

If I were to one day have plastic surgery on my face, so that I felt “better” about the lot in life I was given, I could thereby become complicit in the moral harm beauty culture causes women through plastic surgery (and men, but especially women). Not a paradigm shift, but my moral objections would certainly soften or slide. I could, if I wasn’t critical about it, become more complicit in it because I benefited from something which has morally negative implications. That said, plastic surgery in and of itself is not morally wrong, but it must be taken in context of the system in which it applies. In fact, even wanting something like that is going to soften my moral position on it.

Because I’m trans* my reasoning for wanting that sort of thing is far more nuanced and complex than me being a “mere participant in beauty culture or cissexism”, and has affects on how my moral burden for that behavior comes into play. But my point here was not what surgeries I would like to have, or their moral implications. It was to highlight the potential for moral manipulation in consuming/using something (these can be ideas, products, services, systems, set of beliefs, et cetera) which knowingly or unknowingly have morally negative attributes or potentials. The same would apply to a person working for a morally duplicitous employer, when they can’t afford to seek other employment, perhaps one more inline with their moral standards.

“You can not make a man understand that which his paycheck demands he not” – Unknown. Moreover, for a thorough understanding of this, you have to realize that the power of psychological manipulation is required to make religious belief work, in many cases if not all. Moreover, people are far more easy to manipulate than we would like to believe, and to the counter the more you are able to think critically the less it works. No sane, moral, educated, critically thinking person should believe in or subscribe to Judea-Christianity, and should find it morally offensive to assert otherwise, or to assert that such beliefs were in any way “containing of moral truth”. But the truth of the matter is complicated.

Some may argue that “Atheists” likewise subscribe to “belief”, in that they were trained and indoctrinated into scientific thinking, just as the religious are claimed to be by said atheists. But this is a non-sequitur, as it is a false equivocation. Acceptance of the principle of gravity, for example, comes from the inalienable facts that are associated with it’s existence. It doesn’t require psychological manipulation to believe in Gravity, the Water Cycle, the Sun, Evolution and many other things of that sort which have bodies of evidence in support of them. Simply observing them naturally leads to belief in them without need for faith, that such things are true. Not all sciences are as clear cut, but the same principle applies to all.

This is where religious belief, and scientific fact diverges. Science is in no way equal to religious belief as the weight of evidence is just not there for the later. Science is available to all without premiums, or subscription, nor indoctrination. Anyone with the tools can find it, even in the absence of all social media, and society or any sort of external influences or manipulation. Religious belief, however, is sensitively dependent on the existence of social structures, society, manipulation and people who already believe in it’s precepts. Anyone can be manipulated.

Even me, though I feel it’s seriously unlikely I could ever be made to believe in morally corrupt sky-daddies ever again. However, I have the tools to weigh, and evaluate all things that make their way into my conscience in a way that can adequately negotiate that risk, demonstrated by evidence. That’s where being a critically thinking, skeptical, inquiring person helps me. It’s of no fault of their own that the religious believe as they do. We are all inclined to the behavior that leads to that potential. And while it’s important to acknowledge their moral accountability for those beliefs, it’s also important to be aware of the nuanced moral nature of belief, irrationality, and superstition with regards to human psychology/nature.

This means that my friends are just humans, and are just doing as humans do. I was fighting with cognitive dissonance over the fact that I considered myself friends with people who believe by virtue of their religious ideologies, that I deserve eternal torment for the finite crimes I commit to their ideology by non-belief, speaking against it, and by just existing in violation those beliefs. All the while, said system is invariably biased against me, or any sort of “salvation” it claims to offer. Judea-Christianity is the ultimate catch-22, which is why I feel it is morally irreconcilable. However, my relationships with both believers and non-believers is not so absolute.

I can morally reconcile that, albeit, I had to do some serious reflection on the matter. And the fact remains that I love and care about people, regardless of whether their beliefs or moral natures. Moreover, I recognize where their fair treatment is both in their benefit, as well as mine. I recognize the benefit, and moral good of that position over my own moral objection to their behaviors or beliefs. That doesn’t mean I condone those beliefs. I most certainly don’t. But people aren’t beliefs, people are just that. People. Fallible, flawed, imperfect both morally and subjectively, emotional, irrational, and superstitious. For better or worse, these are the beings I must share this limited biosphere with. It’s just good practice to try to get along with them, even if I vehemently disagree.

Wouldn’t you say?

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