As a reluctant atheist, I am constantly examining, studying, and keeping a weather eye on religion in the hope that someday, I will find the faith that brings so many people comfort.
In evaluating religion, I’ve developed seven essential questions to determine whether a religion is worthy of my time — or perhaps anyone’s time — along with the answers I require.
They are:
- How much does it cost?
Contributions to churches and other religious institutions should always be voluntary, anonymous, and free from any pressure. Religions should not require or pressure members into paying to participate fully in all rites and rituals. Doing otherwise would be cruel and monstrous to anyone struggling financially or choosing to direct their charitable contributions to more needy people or organizations. - Will I be required to kill, discriminate against, or hate other people?
Religions should not ask their members to kill or do harm to any person or group of people, which sounds both obvious and ridiculous, but sadly is not. - Do I need to remain in the religion, and what penalties (if any) will I suffer if I choose to exit the religion?
Members should be able to exit the religion without any repercussions from family or community. Ostracizing and disowning family or community members who exit a religion are acts of selfishness and evil. Faith is an individual decision. Coercion should never play a role in a person’s decision regarding their faith. - Do women enjoy full and absolute equality within the religion?
Women and men should be absolute equals in the religion, both in terms of membership and in leadership. Anything less than this is sexist, intolerant, and bigoted. Allowing it to persist is intolerable. - Is the religion open to all people, regardless of race, nationality, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, criminal history, immigration status, and occupation?
Forbidding access to a religion because a person is undocumented, married to a person of the same sex, married to a person of a different religion, originally from another country, formerly or currently incarcerated, or any other reason is an act of intolerance and cruelty. - Does religion pick and choose the parts of their primary source documents that fit their personal preferences while ignoring other parts that are less convenient to what they want to believe, and more importantly, does this purposeful picking and choosing favor or disfavor one category of human being over another?
Choosing to adhere to and ignore certain parts of the primary source documents is fine. These primary source documents are often outdated and whackadoo. But that picking and choosing should not cause members to discriminate, hate, or otherwise make others’ lives difficult. It’s illogical and evil, for example, to stand against homosexuality because of Leviticus 18:22 while ignoring the millions of people working on Sunday, who the Bible repeatedly says should be stoned to death. Doing so makes you an evil monster who is using religion to justify your bigotry. - Does the religion allow for the existence of other religions and nonbelievers, absent any malice?
All religions must respect the existence of all other religions and do nothing to impede or harm them. Simply because you think your beliefs are correct doesn’t mean others can’t or shouldn’t think differently.
If I were ever fortunate enough to find faith, I would only join a religious organization that could answer these questions correctly, and I would encourage people to sever ties with any religious institution that cannot.
These questions represent basic human decency, simple logic, the insistence of nonviolence, and simple equality.
Answering any of these questions as I’ve described should not be hard. If there is a God, I suspect he, she, or they would agree.
Severing ties with a religious organization isn’t easy, of course, but it’s the right thing to do. As I have said many times, the easy thing and the right thing are rarely the same thing.
For example, former President Jimmy Carter severed ties with the Southern Baptist Church in 2000. Carter was a third-generation Southern Baptist for more than 70 years, but after the church refused to allow women to serve as pastors, he left the religion.
A difficult decision to say the least, but absolutely the right decision, and one to which I admire him immensely.
If you’re seeking faith like me, perhaps these seven questions will help you in your search.
Sadly, they may also make your search more difficult.
If you’re a person of faith who identifies with one specific religious affiliation, I encourage you to ask these seven questions of your own religious organization. If the answers don’t align with my answers, I would encourage you to either work for change within your religion or get the hell out.
