Are we better off without religion?
In 1971 John Lennon released his infamous single, Imagine, inviting people to consider what the world would be like if we removed all of the national borders and religious beliefs that fuel our tribalism. For Lennon, religion was a hindrance to our human wellbeing, not a help, and his is not an isolated opinion.
In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks in 2001 something in the tone of popular level atheism shifted, and it found resonance in our secular age. The so-called new atheists—Dawkins and Dennett, Harris and Hitchens—began to argue that religion isn’t just a harmless hangup of our evolutionary history, but that on the aggregate, religion is a net-loss to society. Even worse, that it is dangerous, and so should be eradicated. The headline? Religion poisons everything.
So what does the Christian story say about our wellbeing, individually and collectively? Are we better off without religion?
Well, let’s start by zooming out to look at the historical footprint of Christianity, because unfortunately, at least for John Lennon and the New Atheists, it seems that imagining a world without Jesus might not be the utopia they had in mind.
In the last decade alone there have been a spate of acclaimed books, by secular and religious historians, who, despite taking a sober look at the skeletons in the Church’s closet, remain convinced that Christianity is a net-gain for society.
Recognising the unique shadow cast by Jesus, these scholars argue that the Christian story was the historical catalyst for the scientific revolution, and of the emergence of the core conviction that all human beings are made in God’s image, and so share an inalienable dignity; a belief that in turn sparked women’s equality and civil rights movements, reforms to open education and healthcare to all, and the rise of charity and welfare support.
Tracing the best features of our contemporary civilisations back to Jesus, they argue that his teaching and example end up being the very thing that exposes the dark side of religion, serving as the standard by which even secular people denounce any of the historical abuses perpetrated by Christians.
When we decry the greedy hoarding of wealth, the abuse of the vulnerable, or the violence of the powerful, we are not criticising people for being Christian, but for not being Christian enough.
So to erase Jesus from the history books, and Christianity along with him, seems more like a dystopian project than any recipe for a dream.
And when we zoom in to examine our own personal experiences, whilst I can certainly relate to those who have endured dark episodes tied to Christianity, it turns out there is another dimension to religion that is worth considering.
Namely, that God is good for you!
As it so happens, sociological research into the relationship between religion and personal wellbeing is a highly developed field, with mountains of controlled studies performed, especially in Western countries where Christianity has been culturally dominant. And the findings are unambiguous.
According to the magisterial Handbook of Religion and Health published by Oxford University Press, there are a myriad of ways in which religious belief and active participation in a religious community contribute to human flourishing.
From mental health outcomes to personal satisfaction, a sense of purpose to rich relationships, these findings, unnerving to many in our secular age, are what prompted Professor Robin Hanson, an atheist economist, philosopher and physicist, to admit to Sam Harris, “Religious people are just better off on pretty much all of our standard metrics.”
Now none of this proves that God exists, or that the Christian story is true, but it does seem to bankrupt the idea that religion is a hindrance to our wellbeing.
After all, religion is just a sociological container we use to label a particular set of beliefs, practices, and experiences, and whether you are better off with or without religion depends entirely on the contents of that container.
In John 10:10, Jesus promises that he did not come to hinder life but to give it, and life in all its fullness. By teaching us about who God is and who we were created to be, what has gone wrong with the world and how Jesus can make it right, the Christian story offers a set of answers to life’s deepest questions that has transformed the world, and that is continuing to change me.
Imagine. The world may be better off without a lot of things, but Jesus is not of them.
