Scholars: Would the world be better off without religion?

While many of us were watching as the New Orleans Saints beat the Detroit Lions Dec. 3, National Public Radio was airing a debate entitled, “The World Would Be Better Off Without Religion.”

Intelligence Squared U.S. sponsored the debate with two scholars favoring the proposition and two opposed.

(I was one of those cheering for the Saints that night. I listened to the recording of the program and read the transcript later.)

The two representatives arguing for the motion were Matthew Chapman, the great-great-grandson of Charles Darwin, an author and filmmaker, and A.C. Grayling, a philosopher who takes a humanistic view of ethics and master of the new College of the Humanities.

Opposing them was one of the most influential conservative thinkers in the nation, the president of the King’s College, Dinesh D’Souza; his teammate was the Rabbi of Sinai temple in Los Angeles, Calif., David Wolpe. ABC’s John Donvan served as moderator.

A.C. Grayling started by stating some problems with most religions is they give second-class status to women, are hostile to gays and are opposed to most kinds of progress, especially scientific progress. The truth they received a long time ago is challenged by new and different views of the world. Religions cannot put these together so they reject modern science, according to Grayling.

Rabbi David Wolpe said, “Religious Americans give more to charity, volunteer more, participate in civic processes more, attend more meetings, are more likely to vote, to volunteer, less likely to drink, divorce, do drugs. They are much more inclined to be optimistic and feel meaningful about life. They’re less inclined to depression, less inclined to suicide, less inclined to suicidal thoughts. They are much more helpful in their communities. If you want to measure altruism and empathy, the best measure is not age, gender, income, education. It’s whether you’re involved in a religious community.”

He went on to say, “If you’re part of a religious community as measured by attending services and reading scripture and praying, it adds, on average, seven years to your life if you’re a white American male, 14 years if you’re an African-American male.”

Wolpe ended with an example, “Mother Teresa was once tending to the wounds of a leper in Calcutta, wiping the wounds of this sick and dying person. A journalist who’d been following her around for several days said to her, ‘I wouldn’t do that for a million dollars.’

“Without looking up, she said, ‘Neither would I.’”

Chapman brought up the subject of evolution.

“Evolution through natural selection over billions of years is one of the best supported theories in science. But 40 to 50 percent of Americans believe the earth is only 6,000 to 8,000 years old and that God made us as we are now.

“Nearly 50 percent n I mean, it’s really extraordinary. It’s unheard of in any other culture except Muslim countries,” he added.

D’Souza talked about the crimes of religion. “Let me suggest that those crimes, even the worst of them, are infinitesimal compared to the crimes atheist regimes that are far greater in magnitude, far longer in duration and, actually, are still going on. The Spanish Inquisition killed fewer than 2,000 people. … The Atheistic Khmer Rouge regime in the space of about three years managed to kill 2 million people.”

The audience at New York University was statistically on the side of removing religion from our existence. A poll taken before the debate showed 52 percent of the audience favored the proposal, 22 percent opposed it and 26 percent were undecided. After the debate, 59 percent were in favor of eliminating religion, 33 percent were opposed and 10 percent were undecided, indicating that a number of people who were “undecided” prior to the debate sided in favor of religion.

I can only point out the highlights of the debate.

You can hear the debate or read the transcript by going to www.NPR.org.