Posted by Dr. Anthony ADRIAN
November 24, 2009 -
1,434 views
What if People Actually Treated Religion as Just a Metaphor (Like Secular Jews)?
It's possible to keep the good parts of religion -- like the music, rituals and pageantry -- and get rid of the sex-hating dogma, the belief in god and other troublesome aspects?
If religion really were just a metaphor, just a comforting and inspiring story that gives shape and meaning to people's lives... what might it look like?
One of the most common tropes among progressive religious believers is Religion As Metaphor. "Religious beliefs don't have to be literally true," the trope says. "They're just useful metaphors: stories that give shape and meaning to our lives."
I think the "metaphor" trope is just a disingenuous way for believers to slip away from hard questions about their true beliefs. But it got me thinking: If religion really were just a story -- a story that people found comforting and inspiring, a story that people sincerely knew wasn't true but still enjoyed telling and re-telling -- what would that look like? Religion in general would be quite nice through my eyes.
And would atheists have a problem with it? I know Agnostic would welcome it!
I was debating the other day with an religion extremist who was getting bent out of shape about how I think that religion was just a story people found comforting. I noticed that these extremist usually call me many names…THAT I’m not…just to shut me up and try to make me start speaking with a kool-aide flavor like them. Fortunately, I’m kool-aide tolerant. J People didn't have to believe religion was literally true for it to make a difference in their lives, as I added to our conversation. So why was I being so intolerant and such a hater trying to take it away the fairy tales and magical world they preach to the believers that follow them?
And it suddenly struck me:
The version of religion he's talking about?
Let's look at secular Judaism.
For plenty of Jews, Judaism is much more of a cultural/ historical/ familiar identity than a religious one. In fact, for many Jews, Judaism is entirely a cultural and historical and familiar identity, and not a religious one at all. The phrase "atheist Jew" has a non-absurd, readily- comprehensible meaning... in a way that "atheist Baptist" doesn't. Through my experience and being a student of religion history…I found that many Jews cherrypick the Jewish rituals and stories that they like, and reject the ones they don't -- not as a slippery way of trying to shoehorn an obsolete and untenable faith into a modern worldview, but entirely openly and without shame or pretense, in an "I don't think God gives a damn about this, I don't even think God exists, this is all just mangled history at best and totally made-up at worst, so I have no qualms about picking the parts I like and ditching the rest" approach. Questioning the tenets and texts of Judaism is part of the rabbinical tradition, and many secular Jews view their selective observance, not as a rejection of the Jewish tradition, but as part of it. They treat sacred Jewish texts the way we all treat philosophers and political writers who aren't purportedly passing on the divine word of God: they read them critically, they embrace the ideas that make sense, they actively oppose the ideas that are barbaric, they ignore the ideas that seem silly.
If I could come out with a “one-religion” for the jews, Christians, and Muslim…would be to convert all of them to secular Judaism, I'd seriously consider pushing this new religion as the front runner!. Secular Jews have found a way to (mostly) take what's good about religion and (mostly) leave what's bad about it. And that way is to not treat it as religion. That way is to not treat it as the divine word of God. That way is to treat it as a story: a fascinating story, a story with a powerful tradition behind it, a story worth telling and caring about and getting involved in... but a story. A story with parts that are inspiring and useful, and parts that are gruesome and ugly (which MOST people love to hear from me about), and parts that are just plain too deep into the kool-aide!!!
And of course, much of that investment has to do with how Jews and Judaism have historically been treated by the rest of the world. As a friend pointed out when I ran this piece by her: Plenty of Jews in Germany were very secular, didn't even particularly think of themselves as Jewish... but that didn't change how the Nazis saw them. Practicing the rituals of Judaism is a way of acknowledging this reality. And it's a way of defying it, a way of saying "Frack you" to it: to Nazis, to pogroms, to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, to ghettos, to forced conversions, to being barred from all professions except money-lending and then being vilified as money-grubbing usurers, to expulsions and massacres, to the blood libel, to the Spanish Inquisition. Secular Judaism isn't just about the fact that your great-grandmother practiced these rituals. It's about the fact that she was put in a concentration camp because of them.
Judaism may not be alone in this…other religion are moving as well towards this. I'm beginning to hear of secular Catholics, too: Catholics who are following the "we think these rituals and images are beautiful, and they're an important part of our family history handed down through generations, but it's not like we actually believe it" pattern laid out by secular Judaism.
And, of course, there's one of the most classic forms of secularized religion: Christmas. Christmas is ostensibly a celebration of the birth of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; but for many people, it's simply a celebration of so many cultures (as I stated in one of my blog about the history of Christmas). It's becoming a secular holiday for many, and hard-line atheists from PZ Myers to Richard Dawkins have spoken cheerfully in favor of it. I admit…it is a nice human thing to enjoy year’s end with family and close friends for the holidays.
And you know what?
I love this.
I would love to see more of this. I would love to see a secular Catholicism that preserves the soothing ritual and rich pageantry, without the sex-hating dogma and the authoritarian hierarchy. I would love to see a secular Baptism that preserves the wild oratory and soaring music, without the hateful obsession with hellfire and judgment. I would love to see a secular Hinduism that preserves the magnificent imagery and generous diversity, without the rationalization for the caste system. I would love to see a secular Wicca that preserves the passionate love of nature, without the dismissive contempt for science that is so contradictory to that love. I would love to see a secular Methodism that preserves the Jello salad. (Actually, I could do fine without that... but if other people want to preserve the grand tradition of Methodist Jello salads, more power to them.)
I could see it as a way for humanity to preserve the cool stuff about religion -- the ritual and the tradition, the narrative and the imagery, the community and the connection with family and history -- without the active disregard for reality that causes so much trouble.
And as an atheist, I could be totally happy with it.
Going back to the simple story…..
Progressive religion says, "This is simply a story"... but it isn't sincere. You can tell that it isn't sincere by how bent out of shape it gets when people point out that it's just a story, and therefore isn't really true. Progressive religion uses the "metaphor" trope as a slippery way of avoiding hard questions when engaged with skeptics... and as soon as the skeptics turn their backs, it slips right back into actual, non-metaphorical, "belief in immaterial entities or forces that it has no evidence for" religion. Progressive religion is ultimately just as willing to ignore evidence that contradicts its comforting story as hard-line conservative religion.
Truly secular "religion," on the other hand, says, "This is simply a story" -- and means it.
The difference is this:
If you say to a "Religion is a useful metaphor" believer, "Your religion is a story, it isn't factually true, a lot of the history is mangled and some of it's flatly wrong, and all the God stuff is totally made up"... chances are they're going to get seriously defensive. They'll tell you how intolerant you are, how you're just as dogmatic and proselytizing as religious fundamentalists, how disrespectful you are to point out the flaws in religion and try to persuade people that it's mistaken, how close-minded you are to reject ideas just because they're not supported by dumb old evidence.
If you say to a secular Jew -- a genuinely secular, non-believing, atheist Jew -- "Your religion is a story, it isn't factually true, a lot of the history is mangled and some of it's flatly wrong, and all the God stuff is totally made up"... they'll say, "Yeah, I know. So what? So are you coming to Passover or not?"
Pass this along…from your local ULC Doc. Enjoy your Thanksgiving extended weekend!!!
Doc Adrian
“Peace be with you”
