50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God (22 page)

Some believers may argue that giving money to their god (or their
god's representative on earth) is a good decision no matter if the god
is real or not because the money goes to build schools, help the poor,
or fund hospitals. But if schools, poor people, and hospitals are your
concern then why not give directly to those causes? When money is
given to a religious organization some of that money may indeed do
good things. Inevitably, however, some portion of the money goes
directly toward that organization's goals of marketing its claims about
a particular god or gods who may or may not be real. Most believers
probably would agree that it is a mistake to donate money to a belief
system that is based on a fictional god. They only think it is wise to give money to their religion because they think it is true and their god
is real. Therefore most believers probably agree with me that, in most
cases, giving money to some guy who says he works for a god is risky.
The Catholic believer, for example, is very likely to agree with me that
a Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, or Mormon should make a donation to
UNICEF rather than to people employed within their respective belief
systems. The typical Muslim is probably on my side as well. He agrees
with me that giving money to a local Wiccan priestess is probably not
the best financial move to make. Both Christian and Muslim would
agree with me that the average Scientologist is probably better off
keeping her money rather than giving it to Scientology officials. So,
really, there is a lot of agreement between believers and nonbelievers
that too many people are giving their money away to organizations
that are highly questionable.

Most disturbing, regardless of whether gods are real or not, is the
fact that many believers give away money that they or their families
need. Not all, but some religious organizations and religious leaders
beg or demand money from their followers in the most despicable,
heartless manner imaginable. They bully, threaten, or make wild
promises in order to squeeze every possible penny out of the faithful,
no matter how poor they may be. How people who do this can sleep
at night is beyond me. Again, I am not necessarily condemning all religious leaders who ask for money. However, those who live in multimillion-dollar mansions should not be asking elderly people with little
money to dig deep in their pockets and "give to the Lord." I have
known a few victims of this racket and it is upsetting to say the least.
People who are struggling economically should not be giving their
money to a religious leader who is wearing a suit that costs more than
they earn in two months. If the gods really do need money can't we all
just wait until they ask for it themselves?

Although a lot of cash is spent, donated, earned, and stolen in the
world of religion, money is not everything. Some people can afford to
waste money. Some believers may feel it's worth it, even if the money
is not used properly. It's their money and if they feel good giving it away, fine. But what about time? Time may be more valuable than
money. There are probably few believers who ever pause to consider
just how much of their time they sacrifice for belief in a god. Suppose
a believer spends three hours every weekend taking part in worship rituals with others and then puts in another two hours with some sort of
religious study group in the middle of the week. It adds up to two hundred sixty hours per year. Over fifty years, that's thirteen thousand
hours. And this doesn't include time spent at special religious events,
praying, and reading religious books. Maybe atheists are wrong and
one of the gods really will give some believers an eternity of happiness after they die. But if atheists are right and the gods aren't really
there, then wasting so much time is a tragedy. Believers agree with
atheists about this in most cases. The Muslim thinks the Hindus are
wasting their time worshipping all those gods, just as the Jew thinks
the Christians are wasting their time worshipping a false messiah. Any
given believer thinks most believers in the world today are worshipping an imaginary god while the atheist thinks they all are wasting
their time. We are all a lot closer to agreeing on this than most people
realize.

Many believers are quick to point out the wonderful bonds and
networks that their religion provides. Yes, religions can be very good
at bringing people together, but only in a limited sense. Unfortunately,
religions do an even better job of keeping people apart. Disunity is
usually overlooked or denied but it is one of the significant costs
people pay for believing in gods. Worst of all, everyone on earth pays
for it, believers and nonbelievers alike, by having to live in a world
constantly troubled by religion-inspired division, hatred, prejudice,
and violence. It should come as no surprise to most believers that their
religion promotes these things. Just read the Torah, New Testament, or
Koran for example. They do not promote tolerance and acceptance.
Although some debate interpretations, they seem to clearly demand
either allegiance or annihilation.

Imagine the countless lives that have been diminished by the barriers of prejudice that stand guard around and within religions. Imagine all the friendships that never were because men said gods
were against it. Imagine all the people who never learned anything
about others from different backgrounds because they were not
allowed to date or have friends outside their belief system. For millions of people to be denied full access to the human family is sad and
it's a significant price to pay for believing in gods. It also is nothing
less than one of the most serious problems our world faces today. Why
do Christians, Muslims, and Jews so often find it difficult to get along?
Many would respond to that question with a lengthy list of historical
crimes and modern grievances. But really the answer is that they don't
get along because they think of themselves as living labels. They are
Christians, Muslims, and Jews first rather than humans first.

Another big price that many people pay for their belief in the existence of a god is the loss of scientific curiosity. This does not apply to
all believers, of course. There are many who respect and appreciate
science. Many believers have not shut down their minds to obvious
realities about life, our world, and our universe. Unfortunately, many
millions have. In hopes of appeasing a god they turn their back on science and in some cases common sense.

Although some believers and even some nonbelievers deny it,
there really is a conflict between religion and science. Science
attempts to explain things as we find them. This is done by discovery,
observations, and experimentation. Religion is very different. It
attempts to explain things by simply calling them magic and citing
unproven claims of divine revelation. These are two very different
ways of trying to figure out the universe and they are not compatible.
When one gets in the habit of accepting things based on the authority
of an ancient book or the words of a religious leader, scientific
curiosity suffers. There is no way around this. Faith is like Kryptonite
to the scientific mind.

In 1994 I visited a rural school in northern India. The students
ranged in age from about seven to twelve. They took turns reading
from the Koran as they rocked back and forth. India is mostly Hindu
but also has many millions of Muslims in its population. The teacher told me that the Koran was the only book they wanted or needed
because it contained everything that people need to know. I have seen
American workbooks, written by Christians for elementary school students, that claim dinosaurs such as the Tyrannosaurus rex were on
Noah's Ark and are still alive in the wild somewhere today. There is a
cost. Our world loses something when millions of children are taught
things that are probably not true (religion) in place of things that are
probably true (science).

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

-Aldous Huxley

hen a believer is discussing evolution with an informed
nonbeliever, and things are not going well, the believer
often blurts out a strange retort: "I did not come from a monkey!"

I have heard this so many times from so many believers that I am
beginning to think that they view our furry little friends as the scourge
of the earth. What is so bad about monkeys, anyway? They're pretty
smart and cute too. Why is "coming from a monkey" so much worse
than coming from mud, dirt, a clot of blood, dust, or maize dough as
some religions claim?

The truly weird aspect of this senseless controversy is that
believers are the only ones who bring up a this monkey origin. They
have created a bogus claim in their head and then recoil in horror from
it. The truth is, no credible evolutionary scientist, paleoanthropologist,
geneticist, biologist, or primatologist would ever say that humans
came from monkeys. It is simply not true based on current evidence,
and anyone who knows anything about human evolution wouldn't say
it is.

When a believer hits me with the "I didn't come from a monkey"
line, I respond by saying: "You're right. I didn't come from the lowly monkey and neither did you. We both come from that glorious and
noble ape known as Australopithecus afarensis." Believers usually
react with blank stares and a trace of fear in their eyes.

The simple explanation that many believers never hear, sadly, is
that we do not "come from" monkeys or even modern apes such as
chimps, bonobos, or gorillas. The reality, according to an abundance
of fossil and genetic evidence, is that we-monkeys, apes, and
humans-all share a common ancestor that lived many millions of
years ago. That common ancestor might have looked similar to a
modern monkey but it was not a modern monkey. If this also upsets
some believers, and I'm sure it does, then they should protest against
the claim of a common ancestor and leave monkeys out of it. But
when they shout their rejection of descent from monkeys, it's embarrassing because nobody with any sense has ever claimed that in the
first place. An important detail to add is that most people do not know
the difference between monkeys and apes. Working my way through
college as a zoological educational assistant at a major United States
zoo, I was surprised by how little most people know about modern primates. Most people, for example, are not aware that apes do not have
tails and monkeys do. Most people incorrectly refer to chimps as monkeys. And very few people know anything about bonobos, easily the
most fascinating apes of all, in my opinion. I suspect this widespread
ignorance about our closest living relatives has a lot to do with the
mass confusion about our evolutionary history.

The fact that so many believers are misinformed about human
evolution is partly the fault of religion's continual attack on science
education. In most countries in the world today, very few people are
taught in schools about the ancestors that we all owe our existence to.
The stories told by fossils resting in laboratories and museums around
the world never reach millions of believers because their religious
leaders reject science whenever it threatens to contradict their ancient
stories. To make matters worse, many religious leaders eagerly fill in
the void with misinformation and lies, which make it even easier for
people to reject evolution.

Highly religious nations such as Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, the
United States, Nigeria, and Turkey, for example, have banned or
avoided the teaching of human evolution in schools to the point where
a significant percentage of their populations are firmly against it
without even knowing what it is. This is why so many believers end
up saying strange things like, "my god is real because I didn't come
from a monkey." If only they knew what they are missing out on.

I gained a good understanding of human evolution in university
classes, read numerous books on the topic, and continue to keep track
of news about the latest ideas and discoveries. I have also interviewed
two of the most prominent scientists in the field: Tim White, discoverer of the oldest biologically modern human fossils to date (one hundred sixty thousand years old), and Donald Johanson, discoverer of
the famous Australopithecus afarensis nicknamed "Lucy." I find the
subject thrilling and important. I connect with it because it is personal.
It's about who I am. Learning about Homo ergaster and Homo habilis
is like looking through an old family photo album or researching a
great-great-great grandfather. It's irresistible to anyone with a curious
mind. How anyone can fail to find human evolution fascinating is a
mystery to me. So much of it is inspirational. There was a long and
dangerous path that led to us. Understanding it illuminates our important connection to the rest of nature. It also can help one think more
clearly about our collective future. My awareness and acceptance of
human evolution certainly hasn't degraded or dehumanized me, like
so many believers fear it can. For better or worse, this is our family
history. I believe we are better for knowing it.