The words of John Lennon resound with seculars and atheists everywhere, and it is often a point articulated on this very board, that mankind would somehow be 'better off' without Religion. I'm sorry, but I just can't imagine it, Johnny. Religion, or to a greater extent, human spirituality, is the fundamental thing which separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom. One can argue which came first, cognitive thought or spiritual belief, but the fact remains, the two are interconnected and inseparable, and have been so for a very long time. Whether it is through our cognitive thoughts that we created religion, or religion is responsible for blessing us with cognitive thought, both are the basis for humanity, civilization, society.
It is through Religion, man developed societal structures, established boundaries and guidelines for how a civilized society functions. Through human spiritual belief, we are able to recognize morality, we understand what ethics are, we develop trust and faith, and we form the basis for our principles. All of this is what enabled man to emerge from the jungle and form civilizations. Without this core of human spirituality, humans would behave much like other animals in nature behave, with the only 'morality' being to advance the species and self-preservation. Humans have a natural inclination, because of our cognitive thought, to enjoy personal pleasure. Considerations of consequence, or detriment to others, always takes a back seat to natural human desire. Without boundaries, what would happen to that primal human desire?
When you go to a zoo, you see all kinds of animals not in their natural habitat. They are in a controlled environment, there are barriers, boundaries, limitations... there is a structure to their environment. Over time, the animals learn and adapt to the surroundings, they are well fed, and everyone enjoys a pleasant day at the zoo. Would it be the same place if the animals were in their natural habitat and you were walking through their domain? Would the animals behave the same? Of course, you can imagine, you'd probably not survive such a trip. The zoo in this analogy, represents Religion, and the animals in the zoo, are humans. It is through our structure, culture, rules, boundaries and limitations, we maintain a civilized society. Imagine no Religion? Imagine going through the Zoo of Life with no zookeepers, no fences or barriers, and no animal food. Same thing!
Now, are all Religions good? Has Religion always been good for man? Is Religion sometimes perverted? Does Religion sometimes cause great death and destruction? These are all perfectly legitimate questions, but by the same token, the conditions at every zoo are not always ideal. The flaw in Religion is not because of Religion, it is because of MAN! It is ALWAYS because of something MAN has misconstrued or misunderstood regarding Religion or human spirituality. It is because man is flawed, not Religion. It is because of human attributes of greed and gluttony, men often pervert and use Religion to perpetrate evil on other men. Still, without Religion and human spirituality, we're still swing in trees collecting daily bananas.
Our Founding Fathers didn't have the 'wisdom' of entertainers telling them to imagine a world without Religion. That line of thinking was pretty much unheard of in the mid 18th century, and would have likely had you committed, should you express such a thing. Washington said a nation could not stand without God, most of the states had official state religions. The philosophy used to unite us as a nation, was based on a human spiritual belief in a Creator, who endowed mankind with certain rights and they can't be taken away by man. Everything we are, as a united nation, is based on the foundational premise that all men are Created by a Creator, and we are all Created equally. The most important right our Founding Fathers believed we had, was the Freedom of Religion. The First Amendment spells out our fundamental right to worship freely, a right we didn't previously have under the King of England.
A most unfortunate choice of words, was Jefferson's quote to Danbury Baptists, the old "wall of separation between church and state." He should have more correctly stated his vision as a wall between religious dogma and government policy. That is what was intended. Through the years, our society has seen fit to continually adopt and apply an Atheistic philosophy to government, due to a complete misunderstanding of Jefferson. Atheism is the literal antithesis of what our nation is principally founded on. While the 1st Amendment does protect the Atheists right to not believe in the entity which the nation believes has endowed him with that right, it doesn't say a thing about making that view the prevalent philosophy of government.
