FFRF awarded Armin $2,000.
By Armin Kiffmeyer
One of the most influential reasons for my peers’ and my shift away from religion can be attributed to the numerous failures of theistic religions in recent years. The benefit in this shift is easy to see when one considers these failures. The quick summary of theistic religions’ shortcomings is that they are continually revealing their inadequacies in their explanations for the universe, moral codes and necessity for community. Through this, religion is becoming a very outdated ideology.
To explain this further, theistic religions have a long history of explaining away life’s biggest questions with arbitrary claims. Whether it be “where are we?”; “what is our purpose?”; or “where did we come from?”; a theist will answer it by invoking their god(s), using blind faith as their evidence. However, as our scientific understanding continues to advance, we not only find nothing that necessitates or suggests the existence of any god, much less any one specific flavor of god, but we actually see evidence that directly contradicts specific theistic stories and explanations.
In light of new godless scientific discoveries, theists immediately form two distinct groups — those who move the god-post, redefining their theology in a way that fits scientific observation, or those who flatly refute well-supported evidence on the basis of their baseless god. This is increasingly evident to newer generations and casts a dubious light on the value of theology and faith in answering important questions. Rejecting outdated theology and faith as a basis for knowledge will prove to be incredibly beneficial for our society. It prompts us to evaluate and adjust our fundamental epistemology to better approximate truth, which is useful when we try to answer life’s biggest questions, evaluate empirical data and fight against misinformation.
In addition to conflicting with science, theistic religions are increasingly more often coming into conflict with our modern sense of moral truth. While moral facts can be considered to be more subjective than scientific ones (depending on the philosopher), I can still say with near certainty that most of the religious texts that claim to codify morality are actually morally bankrupt. Any person with a reasonable moral sense should agree that a text that directly or indirectly supports slavery, misogyny and/or murder cannot be the ultimate moral authority. Apologetics will hem and haw over reasons for humanity’s worst actions being justified in their holiest of books, but what is most telling is how there are still religious fundamentalist movements who double down and unapologetically condone these actions.
Ironically, it is these fundamentalists who are doing some of the greatest damage to their religion’s credibility in the eyes of new generations. Religious fundamentalists expose the extremely outdated nature of their religion, which leads to reevaluation of belief from less religious individuals and increases our societal well-being.
A final aspect of religion’s obsolescence is it no longer being crucial for community building. Religious institutions have been, and still are, seen as vital centers for cohesion and socialization in many communities. One could argue that, while religion is flawed in information gathering and morality, it still serves a necessary and invaluable service to its community and cannot be removed. However, this argument fails when newer generations embrace other, newer community tools. The unleashing of the internet has caused many obsolescences, and religious community building is no exception.
A community is no longer only found in people who were indoctrinated into the same fictitious religious belief, but rather can be made from any shared interest in a hobby, sport, or art. This new community-building tool is both appealing to new generations and societally beneficial as it gives individual’s control over their community. When communities are based around interests, it gives people control to participate in the communities that they enjoy being in, rather than what they were indoctrinated into. Thus, religion is yet again simply out of date.
Armin, 19, attends the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he is majoring in philosophy.
“I joined the school’s Gender Sexuality Alliance and became very involved in LGBTQ-plus activism in my community, participating and organizing many social events and protests,” Armin writes. “I am a prospective law student who is currently studying philosophy. I intend to be a lawyer, and my primary motivation for this is wanting to be a part of the positive social change I see around me.”
