Religion

A Little History of Religion (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016) by Richard Holloway P. 223: In 1925 the State of Tennessee outlawed the teaching of evolution in its schools. It became a punishable offence to teach “any theory that denies the story of the Divine Creation of man as taught in the Bible and to teach instead that man has descended from a lower order of animals.” The Scopes trial, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Clarence Darrow’s argument: John Thomas Scopes got himself arrested for teaching his students about evolution, and trying to show how foolish it was to disprove evolution by quoting Genesis. He was fined $100. P. 224: It wasn’t until 1968 that the law banning the teaching of evolution in schools was overturned by the US Supreme Court. Fundamentalism is a tantrum. It’s a screaming fit, a refusal to accept new realities. …if scientific change and the new knowledge is hard for the fundamentalist mind to accept, even harder is change in the way we run society. The most revolutionary change that hit the world in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries was the liberation of women. …History shows that the men in charge never volunteer to give up their privileges. P. 225: Just as they learned to adapt to Darwin, liberal religions are learning to adapt, however painfully, to the liberation of women. But time does not stand still and they now have to deal, even more painfully, with the emancipation of gay people. …fundamentalist Christians, Muslims, and Jews share a common problem. P. 226: The Monkey Trial We are right and you are wrong because the Bible [or the Qur’an, or revelations from God] tells us so. P. 227: Religion is certainly no stranger to violence. P. 231: Religion has caused and continued to cause some of the most violence in history. And yes, it has used God to justify it. P.233: The mottoof the Enlightenment was “Dare to Know.” The authority of religious leaders should be confined to their own faith communities Only in the USA that this principle was ever strictly enforced. Building a wall of separation between Church and State became one of the founding principles of the USA. Pp. 235-236: Secular humanism helps men and women live good lives on principles humans have worked out for themselves. Humanity takes responsibility for itself. Secular humanists are happy to work with any group that want to make the world a better place. Humanists do not believe in any religious doctrines. Secular spirituality finds meaning and beauty in this life. It is the only life we’ll ever have, so we should be grateful and use it well. p. 237: it is religion without the supernatural; it’s human religion.