I’m one of the few openly atheistic people in this bucolic little corner of Iowa. I’m also one of the few openly educated people in this rustic piece of America’s heartland. For whatever reason, some of my fellow citizen around here have asked me questions like, “Why do you read about religion if you’re an atheist?” What’s behind that question?
Do I have to believe in a god or two or a thousand to try to understand what is so compelling about religion? Religion is and always has been, for better or worse, a major institution in nearly all, if not all, societies throughout history. The gods differ and so do the specific catechisms, doctrines, and practices, but at all points in time and space on the globe, religions have been central to humanity.
To me, it seems self-evident that a person should study religion. The question I would ask is, “Why not study religion?” Religion makes claims and raises questions that are better addressed by physics, geology, psychology, sociology, etc. Being the curious creature that I am, endowed with very large frontal lobes and surrounded by religious folks, I can’t help but be interested in religion.
Why did religions arise? Why do they endure? Does religion exert a good, bad, or neutral influence on individuals and societies? Would a world without religion be a better world? Is religion a social function or a social dysfunction? Was it functional at one time but is now just a nagging artifact of history? A vestigial social organ? Why do so many grown men and women adamantly defend religious truth claims in face of what we know to be real and in contradiction to religious teachings? The questions go on and on; the point is that it’s absurd that think that I would ignore such a predominate social and psychological structure that looms large in the world which I inhabit.
Similarly, a believer said to me, “I’m surprised that you’ve read the Bible, since you make no secret of your atheism!” It’s been said that the surest way to becoming an atheist is to read religious texts; that was the case with me. The Bible helped turn me to atheism. Knowing what you don’t believe helps to crystallize what you do believe.
You don’t have to be a corporation to study a large company. You don’t have to be a lepton to study particle physics. You don’t have to be a rocket to be a rocket scientist. You don’t have to be a celestial body to study astronomy. You don’t have to have cancer to be an oncologist. And you don’t have to be religious to study religion.
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