The Fallacies of Religious Clerics by N. Fakhr - HTML preview

Why Do Religious Clerics Remain Religious Clerics?

Many religions teach people to watch their actions carefully.

Why?

Because there is an observer—the God of that religion—who sees what they do.

In many religions, God is also aware of what goes on inside a person’s mind. He knows every thought they have. People are taught that God expects them to think what He wants them to think and to do what He wants them to do.

And, of course, they are also taught that what God wants is what is best for them.

When we receive such teachings during childhood and adolescence, something important may happen.

We may become afraid not only of doing certain things, but even of thinking certain thoughts.

Among the most frightening of these may be thoughts of doubt or disbelief about our God.

We may be taught that if we die while guilty of an ordinary sin, that sin will be judged in the next world. It may be weighed against our good deeds, each of which has its own value.

But doubt or disbelief may be presented very differently.

We may be told that if we die while doubting or disbelieving in our God, we will die as unbelievers. No matter how many good deeds we have done during our lives, we may remain in hell forever.

This fear can create an important phenomenon in the mind of a believer—one that may influence the way that person thinks throughout life.

We will call it a “guardian of the mind.”

Suppose I am a believer and a serious doubt arises about one of the foundations of my religion.

Following that doubt may seem dangerous.

What if examining it leads me to disbelief?

And what if I die as an unbeliever and face eternal punishment?

Faced with such a possibility, my mind may learn something very simple:

Do not go in that direction.

This is how the guardian of the mind works.

It discourages me from seriously examining doubts about the foundations of my religion or about God. Fear of the possible consequences teaches my mind to stay away from thoughts that might take me in that direction.

This can happen regardless of how intelligent or educated I am.

I may be highly intelligent. I may become exceptionally knowledgeable, creative, or even brilliant in science, logic, philosophy, or another field.

In those areas, I may examine evidence carefully and follow an argument wherever it leads.

But then I may encounter evidence that raises a serious question about the foundations of my religious beliefs.

At that point, something may change.

When the investigation approaches this particular area—the foundations of my religion—my mind may quickly turn away from the evidence instead of examining it with the same freedom.

From now on, we will use “guardian of the mind” to describe this phenomenon:

the fear of allowing thoughts that challenge the foundations of our beliefs to enter and develop in our minds, because we are afraid that following those thoughts might lead us to disbelief and eternal punishment.

Now consider what happens as our religious life continues.

If we believe that our God controls everything in the world, that we are completely under His power and observation, and that He commands us to do things that are good, admirable, moral, and ultimately in our own best interest, we may develop both fear and love toward Him.

We may come to believe that becoming a better person, reaching perfection, and achieving eternal happiness all depend on serving and obeying God.

We understand this service and obedience as worship.

Naturally, we may want to learn anything that can help us along this path.

Other people may encourage us as well. They may respect us for devoting ourselves to the study of religion, especially in a community where religious study is itself considered a virtue.

So, at the beginning, we may study religion simply because we love it and because of the good things we have been taught about it.

We may want to become closer to our God.

We may also hope to reach salvation in the next life.

But something else may already be present.

Through our upbringing and the teachings of the people around us, a guardian of the mind may already have developed within us.

This means that while we are learning more and more about our religion, we may not be equally free to ask whether its foundations are actually true.

Then another factor appears.

Once we publicly present ourselves as students of religion, we also publicly associate ourselves with its beliefs.

Our position in the minds of other people now begins to become connected with those beliefs.

Religious bias can therefore take deeper root.

As the years pass, we may also experience the pleasure of being respected and having a good reputation among believers.

Later, other factors may appear as well.

We may experience the power that can come with being a religious cleric.

We may enjoy having influence over other people.

We may receive financial advantages from our position.

Or perhaps none of these things will ever happen.

They are not necessary for the process we are describing.

The guardian of the mind, religious bias, and the desire to protect our reputation may already be enough.

Together, they may create a powerful desire to justify our beliefs—both to ourselves and to other people—in every possible way.

We may insist that our beliefs correspond to reality.

And because we believe that they are true, we may also insist that other people should believe them so that they, too, can be saved.

But are our beliefs really true?

And do the arguments we use actually prove that they are?

In the following sections, we will examine the different arguments and methods that we, as religious clerics or religiously biased people, may use to justify our faith, prove the existence of our God or gods, and attract followers to our own religion and religious tradition.

We will then critically examine those arguments and methods.