Atheism, Religion and War

Thoughtful atheists are often baffled by thier fellow humans stubborn attachment to religion. Even a smart guy like Richard Dawkins lapses into silliness when trying to concoct an explanation. My guess is that the question doesn't even occur to dumber guys like PZ Myers and Christopher Hitchens - but I don't know.

Part of their confusion, I suspect, stems from confusing religion and theology. In practice theology is a relatively unimportant part of religion, serving somewhat the same function in religion that a hood ornament does for a car. Because our atheist friends mostly fail to understand this, they waste a lot of time "refuting" various religious beliefs.

The key to understanding religion, I think, is understanding its historical and present role in society. Consider Gaza as a thought experiment. If Gazans were or suddenly became Christians, Israeli policy would crumple like a MacDonald's sandwich wrapper. If those images of dead and maimed Muslim children were images of dead and maimed Christian children American policy would shudder to a halt and turn on Israel with crushing force.

The point is that religious affiliations are potent badges for tribal affiliation. American support for Israel stems from two factors, the American protestant desire to convert the Holy Land (and bring on the end of days) and American Jews virtually unanimous support for their tribe in the Middle East fight. In both cases, the badge of the tribe is the key factor involved.

For me, the argument is very strong for Jared Diamond's idea that religions took their modern form to organize large groups for armed struggle against each other. From this point of view, religion is a tool for moving the unit of selection from the individual to the tribe. Groups that failed to adopt and unify around suitable badges get killed out by those that do.

When I observe the antics of a dolt like PZ Myers, who arranged the theft of a consecrated Catholic host so that he could abuse it, I am both disgusted and amused. Does he really not realize that he is re-enacting the ancient tribal rite of counting coup against another tribe? That there is no intellectual distance between his actions and those of the gangbanger who tags an innocent wall with his own tribal affiliations. The answer, of course, is that he doesn't . He is a fanatical member of the Church Militant of Atheism, and his acts in defence of his religion are sanctioned by his Faith.

Hint to the Palestinians: if you want your land back, try converting to Catholic or Southern Baptist. It's bound to be more effective than the pop guns Iran is providing you with.

Hint to the Israelis: you may have picked an inopportune time and place to establish a new state based on a theocratic and racist principle. On the other hand, there is no chance that the Palestinians will adopt my advice, and little chance that Muslims will join the modern world anytime soon, so you could be alright.