I believe Steven Weinberg put it best when he said, “With or without
religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people
doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.”
In essence, he is saying that decent people will still commit good deeds and
evil people will still commit evil deeds. However, a good person, when told
not to question and to just have faith in something can be coerced into doing
something evil. For example, when someone commits suicide or genocide to
get into their brand of paradise. If they weren’t under the spell of religious
fervor, do you really think they would do this?
Imagine, for a moment, that you live in a different country and are the
descendent of a rebellious tribe who resisted the rule of a dictator. Because
your ancestors rebelled, you must pay for the crime even though you had
nothing to do with it. This dictator tells you what you can eat and on which
days you can eat it. How you can love and who you can love. He tells you
that you must submit to him before every meal and every night before bed.
He tells you that he is infallible, omnipotent, and omniscient. But, above all,
he loves you and you should love him. If you disobey or do not submit to
him, you will be tortured for the rest of your life. However, if you follow the
rules you will be just fine. Now, what would you say if I told you that I don’t
think you could act morally if you didn’t live in a society like this? This is how
it sounds when a theist says that I cannot be moral if I don’t believe in their
specific version of the “Dictator”. What an absurd statement. It is insulting
to me and it should also be insulting to you. I sincerely hope that you are
not being a villain just because your deity told you not to.
I hope that I have, at the least, given you an outside perspective of what the
theistic world looks like to the irreligious. I would like to make an emotional
appeal for God now, because I just cannot see a logical or ethical one.
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