Cooperation, Community and Atheism
I remember after I finished reading The Age Of Reason, being convinced that if only my Christian friends would read some of these same books I was reading — they’d come to the same revelation I had. In the past 15 months since I completed my journey from devout evangelical to atheist, I’ve recommended lots of books to lots of friends. But the few occasions when friends have taken up those recommendations have reminded me of a simple fact: if a person really wants to believe something, then even the best logical arguments will fail to dissuade them. Give them what appears a completely watertight case against the Bible’s fantastical claims about Jesus, and they’ll likely respond with “yes but I have a relationship with him!”. One can waste a lot of time arguing with that.
Looking back now on my own de-conversion I can see now that it was never as simple as reading some books and being convinced by their arguments. Rather there were prior changes in my life that brought me to a place where I was open to the other views of the world described in those books.
The world is abound with theories about why religion exists. Some say it was created by the powerful to exploit the masses, some say it is about running from our fear of death, some say it is about looking for parental substitutes. All of these ideas may be partly true but the theory that makes by far most sense to me is that religion is about cooperation. Humans are generally better off when they work together. But any system of cooperation is always susceptible to abuse by cheaters — individuals who take without giving back.
Our primate ancestors lived in small groups, and in a sufficiently small group, one can keep track of who is trustworthy — who will repay you if you do them a favour. But we modern humans live in societies where we interact with thousands of other individuals — often people we have no prior knowledge of. Religion gives people a common value system through which they can exercise trust and hold each other accountable. Beliefs on their own are easy to fake, but religion with its obligatory rituals and costly sacrifices is not so easy.
Religious communities are a prime example of cooperation. Individuals who are not otherwise motivated to support each other, pooling some of their resources and time together for the common good. It is never perfect and often the people at the top fare better than the rest — but it can work well enough to keep individuals committed to same community for their entire lives.
So for most believers, questioning their fundamental beliefs is not merely an philosophical exercise. Those beliefs hold together their religious communities and enable their place in them. If one member starts openly questioning the community’s beliefs, the rest of the community is incentivised to defend those beliefs and bring that member back into line. Only a few hundred years ago that might have ended with burning the individual at the stake, but these days religious communities have to make do with peer pressure — otherwise known as “strengthening each other’s faith”.
Of course not every member of a religious community believes exactly the same thing, but there will always be limits to how far an individual’s beliefs can diverge from the wider community. An Evangelical church member who declares himself a follower of Allah and His Prophet Muhammad is unlikely to be asked to join the church leadership.
I had drifted out of church for several years before I started to question the fundamental tenets of the Christian faith. In 2008 I moved to Rwanda to work with a health NGO. My church experience in Northern Ireland was relatively progressive, but that flavour of Christianity barely exists yet in a place like Rwanda, where the religion has been largely shaped by conservative missionaries. Over the years living there, I tried to fit into at least five different churches but eventually gave up. I left one church after a sermon about the dangers of technology, and another after it transpired the pastor was a serial philanderer. Once out of Christian community, my intellectual curiosity drew me to books and authors I would have previously avoided.
This is of course is the reason why leaders of religious communities devote so much preaching time to the dangers of wandering off, and the Bible warns us that “the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”. If a believer wants to see what stuff their faith is made of, they should try exiting themself from all religious community for a few months.
Oddly I now find myself an atheist occasionally envious of those still going to church several times a week. It is of course nice to have Sunday mornings free for leisurely lie ins and crowd free shopping trips — but in our highly individualistic western society, it is hard not to envy those doing intentional community. In recent decades Atheist churches and congregations of “spiritual but not religious” folk have become a thing. It seems inevitable that as regular church attendance declines, such non-religious (yet intentional) communities will increase. But I find myself doubtful they can ever fully emulate the level of community possible with a unifying religion, and be more than social clubs for like minded people.
Maybe I’m wrong but that is why one year on into atheism, I’m less convinced that religion is about to disappear, less begrudging of people still holding on to fantastical beliefs, and less inclined to try to convince them they are wrong [1].
[1] Except of course when they try to use the law of the land to make everyone else adhere to their religious beliefs, or their beliefs incline them toward bigotry, homophobia, misogyny etc.
