I still remember the day I stopped believing in the Christian God. I was twelve years old and an avid reader of all things fantasy and fiction. I was sitting on the back pew reading a Harry Potter book while waiting for Wednesday night Bible Study to start. A church elder saw the cover and came up to me, saying I had the spirit of witchcraft on my soul and needed to get rid of my book and repent immediately. I told her I would do no such thing.

I had already been skeptical of the religion’s claims for as long as I could reason, but I was so scared of possibly going to Hell that I stifled my questions and prayed desperately to God for a sign that He was real. But that night, something shifted. I decided that a God that would curse a pre-teen to Hell for reading a popular fantasy novel was a bit of a freak, and I didn’t trust freaks. Thus began my long journey to agnostic atheism.

Fast forward 18 years, and I’ve expanded beyond my personal disbelief to wonder if religion is bad for society as a whole — not just tweens who dabble in the supernatural. This was initially going to be a completely anti-theist essay, but the more I thought and wrote about religion, the more I realized that my idea of religion was very narrow.

When scholars talk about religion, they’re generally referring to “any set of attitudes, beliefs, and practices pertaining to supernatural power, whether that power be forces, gods, spirits, ghosts, or demons.1” However, when I thought about religion, it was about monotheistic religions — specifically apocalyptic Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam). With that idea in mind, I couldn’t help wondering: Is religion detrimental to a healthy society?

Religion can be thought of in terms of three domains: belief, behavior, and belonging2. Growing up, I thought of religion as something people believe in to make sense of the world around them and to find guidance for navigating life. The scholarly definition expands on my definition to include behavior (attending services, rituals) and belonging (community).

I admit that I’m biased when it comes to religion. When I hear the word, I immediately think of the detrimental effects, both personal and structural. Religion can be dangerous to both individuals and the societies they create. Many people have reported suffering from serious mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, and self-hatred, due to dogmatic religious teaching. I personally struggled with accepting my bisexuality for years due to my religious upbringing, and many LGBTQ+ youth from religious backgrounds experience depression and even homelessness from family shunning.

Many religions also encourage belief in the supernatural without proof, which sets a dangerous precedent and makes individuals susceptible to being duped. On a structural level, discrimination due to religion runs rampant across the globe. In the USA, a majority-Christian country, many politicians use religion to justify structural oppression: homophobia, misogyny, racism, and even genocide.

Religion may also serve to make citizens passive rather than active; If supernatural powers determine outcomes, then there’s no need to actively push back against oppression in this life. Followers of apocalyptic sects of religion deny climate change and display a disregard for the natural world because they’re convinced that we’re in the “end times” and that God is coming to destroy civilization, so there’s no reason to try to save a doomed planet when there’s a paradise waiting for them in heaven.

Still, religion wouldn’t have endured for thousands of years if it were purely negative. There are very compelling upsides to religious practice. Shared religious belief can foster a sense of community and belonging in practitioners who might otherwise have little in common. Those who experience oppression and other difficulties often find a sense of hope and solace in the idea of experiencing a just afterlife free of hardship.

Religion has also been used to fight against oppression. In the 1960s, Latin American Catholics developed liberation theology, “a Christian theological approach emphasizing the religion of the oppressed.3” Liberation theology has also played a major role in Black American Protestant Christian traditions. While oppressors cited the Bible to justify slavery, abolitionists used the same text to argue for racial equality and an end to poverty.

With all evidence in mind, I’m no longer convinced that total anti-theism is the answer. However, I think we should heavily decenter religion in popular society, especially in government and politics.

Let’s say we decide to greatly reduce the role that religion plays in society. How do we do it? What replaces religion if we give it up?

I think, in replacing religion, the question is less “how do we convince people to stop believing in religion?” and more “how can we create a society where people feel safe enough to release the need for religion?” In this case, the “what” provides the “how.”

Earlier, I mentioned that religion operates in three domains: belief, behavior, and belonging. Anything that replaces religion would have to cover all three bases and provide expanded avenues for people to create meaning in their present lives rather than pining for meaning in the next one. In my opinion, the only answer is genuine, offline place-based community-building. While the internet is great for expanding people’s ideas of what’s possible, nothing can replace old-fashioned in-person communities. Encourage people to care about their neighbors, local governments, schools, and nonprofit associations! Get people outside having fun together again! Host a community barbecue or movie night in the park!

A word of caution: religion isn’t the only form of dogma, and any potential “replacements” for religion must take care to avoid falling into the same patterns it’s trying to eliminate. Place-based community building can become xenophobia and tribalism if you’re not careful.

What do you think? Is it time for us to move past religion? Has religion outlasted its usefulness? What steps are you taking to build community? I’d love to hear from you!

Yours in Community,

Mina

Check out the companion video to this post on YouTube!