Religious Misinformation
“Religious” and “misinformation” are words that are rarely juxtaposed in the American press. Our tradition of freedom of religion makes us predisposed to accept any person’s sincere religious beliefs as legitimate, no matter how different they might be from our own. Could this collective willingness to suspend the normal scrutiny we apply to reality be repurposed as a weapon against democracy? Such a skeptical view of religion can be hard to approach in contemporary America, out of respect for the most faithful among us. But that doesn’t preclude examination of other countries, or reaching back into American history.
Religion helps us explain the unexplainable, bridging the gap between reason and reality. Religious beliefs can rely on faith, shielding them fully or in part from reason’s normal scrutiny. What makes a religious belief misinformation? Disagreement is surely insufficient, otherwise every religious belief would be implicated in the view of a non-believer. When religion posits explanations for things that are objectively unknowable, the moniker of “misinformation” cannot be applied.
The designation of misinformation requires a belief that contradicts fact, as established by competent scholarship. An early example of religious misinformation was the insistence by medieval clergy that the Sun rotates around the Earth. Galileo’s stubborn refusal to abandon his…
