25 July 2002, 859 words
If the Devil actually existed, he could find no better device than religion to further his work.
First off, religious belief requires the abandonment of reason. What more could a Devil want? All religions teach that faith is a virtue. Historically, every attempt to prove the existence of God through reason has failed and nowadays, when the scientific project is so advanced, believers must wilfully abandon reason in order to retain their unprovable beliefs.
This is true not only of laypeople, but even of some individuals who claim to be scientists. Thus, Dr. Stephan Gift, an engineering lecturer at UWI and a Christian, sends letters to the newspapers claiming that transitional fossils do not exist and therefore evolutionary theory is wrong.
Now it may be that Gift is merely deceived but, given his scientific background, it seems more likely that he is being deliberately dishonest. There are, in fact, hundreds of well-documented transitional fossils, and detailed lists can be found easily on the Internet or in any good textbook on paleontology. But this is the thing that constantly amazes me about religious believers: their readiness to tell outright lies in order to promote their Truth. And the Devil, it is said, is the Father of Lies.
Ironically, even admitted religious fundamentalists, who believe the Bible is literally true, will quote - or, rather, misquote - science for their own ends. Thus, Pastor Winston Cuffie, he of the non-accredited doctorate, claims in his Newsday column that homosexuality is "a disorder that can be cured with relative ease" and that "the condition is not genetically transmitted or inherited".
Now, while the jury is still out on the causes of homosexuality, the data so far strongly imply that there is a genetic and hormonal component to homosexual orientation. Studies of twins suggest that genes account for about half of the tendency for a man to be gay, and homosexual men and women show signs of having been exposed to unusually high levels of androgens, a male hormone, in the womb. But Cuffie, of course, would never let truth get in the way of his homophobia.
These are not esoteric issues, because the abandonment of reason, and by extension truth, pervades all aspects of social life and adds needlessly to human suffering. There are many social problems which, given the current state of human knowledge, we could solve with relative ease. But this will happen only if such knowledge is applied rationally.
The issue of abortion is an especially good example of what occurs when religion trumps rationality. Archbishop Edward Gilbert, writing in the Catholic News, says, "The attitude that justifies violence in the womb is the same attitude that justifies violence throughout the life cycle. Is not the world we live in already too violent?"
Gilbert, of course, conveniently ignores the inconvenient fact that the least violent societies in the world are all ones where abortion is legal. An article by attorney and devout Catholic Leela Ramdeen published in the Sunday Express (14/07/02) provides a textbook example of even more specious argument.
Ramdeen quotes one Cardinal Hume as saying "Once we are convinced that we have the right to determine when life becomes human and ceases to be so...then we stand in danger of creating a society that is potentially self-destructive."
The irony escapes Ramdeen entirely: that, in arguing that a fetus is human, Catholic are in fact convinced that they have the right to determine when "life becomes human". Ramdeen, in fact, goes on to argue that "scientific evidence, when considered honestly and dispassionately, establishes the fact that each of us was, from conception, a human being: that at conception what comes into being is a distinct, unified, self-integrating human being..."
But Ramdeen is neither honest nor dispassionate. Her argument, taken backward to its logical premise (i.e. that of potential) means that ejaculation and menstruation makes every man and woman a serial killer. What about consciousness? What about socialisation? These are all fundamental attributes of the human animal. And, although she is an attorney, Ramdeen avoids mentioning that, in law, the fetus has no human rights.
My point is this: since this issue of defining when a fetus becomes human is unresolvable, a truly moral approach requires you to examine those facts that can be examined. Fact: in Trinidad and Tobago, there are 4,000 women who go to hospital every years as a result of botched abortions done by backstreet practioners. Fact: there exists in this country well-equipped abortion clinics where women who can afford it can get the operation done safely.
Conclusion #1: the illegality of abortions does not prevent abortion; Conclusion #2: illegality ensures that poor women are the ones who suffer from not having access to proper medical care when they want an abortion.
True moral action is determined by reasoning from fact, not faith alone. But religious believers do not care for reason, whether scientific or moral. They care only for ancient texts and laws laid down by men, so they need not make the effort to think for themselves.
The Devil, if he existed, would want nothing better.
Copyright ©2002 Kevin Baldeosingh