RELIGION: Dogma often a barrier to social justice

Re: “Pope visiting an increasingly less religious US” (Your Voice, 9-21).

The Rev. Dave Brown notes the precipitous decline of religiosity in America “over the past 50 years.” He even foresees religion waning even further into the “margins of American life.” He scrambles to find some justification for the continuation of religious practice, which ostensibly has always been about living in accordance with truth and virtue.

The fundamental problem all religions face is that we modern humans have enough evidence to clearly see they have never really been all that good at achieving this goal. The reason: Their very dogmas ensure untruth, division and conflict.

He mentions religion’s past intolerance, violence and anti-science bent (though skipping over those same things ongoing today), but still wants us to believe we should turn to religion for “compassion, unity and love.” In this regard, he asks, “Do we experience life becoming less harsh and more kind as religious communities’ influence wanes?”

Why, yes, we do, indeed. The great social justice movements of the past 200 years - including liberty, equality and care for the planet - emphatically reject the idea that religion is in any way necessary. In fact, it more often stands in the way of inculcating higher human compassion, unity and love.

This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 1:12 PM with the headline "RELIGION: Dogma often a barrier to social justice."