Boulder, Colo., Feb 6, 2016 / 04:07 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- An auditorium on the campus of the University of Colorado bustled with hundreds of people as a crowd of students and non-students alike gathered to watch two experts go head-to-head to debate an age old question: Is religion good or bad for society?
“My argument is simply stated: religion is not only good for society, but it is essential to society,” said James Gaston, a professor of history and humanities at the Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio.
“Religion is good and thus essential to society because of you...Everyone must search for truth, for self-knowledge...for God. We differ in what we think such happiness exists. Nonetheless, we search,” he continued, saying religion is the pursuit of this search.
The Aquinas Institute for Catholic Thought, an intellectual arm of ministry on the campus of CU Boulder, sponsored the Feb. 3 debate, in which two scholars discussed the pros and cons of religion.
Contrary to Gaston stood Michael Huemer, a tenured professor in philosophy at CU Boulder.
Huemer prefaced his opening arguments by saying the question about religion's repercussions on society could not completely be answered. He did acknowledge the “cost that religion imposes” which complicates a number of different societal aspects.
“Religion has a tendency to cause or exacerbate human conflicts,” Professor Huemer noted, pointing to the religious backbone of the Crusades and more contemporary conflicts, such as the rise of the Islamic State.
Among its other faults, religion slows intellectual progress, promotes the acceptance of the implausible, and creates false general conceptions about reality – all of which are harmful to progression in society, Huemer charged.
“Some people spend time studying religion that they could have spent studying something else that would be more beneficial,” Huemer said, pointing to physicist and mathematician Sir Isaac Newton.
“Newton's works on science and math includes the best things that have come from the pen of man...If he didn't spend that much time thinking about religion, think about what more progress would've been made,” he said.
According to Huemer, the greatest downfall of religion is that it stifles progression.
“I think intellectual progress requires the opposite values (of religion) on all fronts,” he argued, saying “I suspect the great majority of religions are harmful.”
Gaston opposed this, however, saying religion provides a path towards man’s search for happiness, which everyone in society seeks. This connection makes religion beneficial to society because it offers an outlet of pursuit toward man's ultimate desire.
“Religion is simply a generic name for the search for happiness,” Gaston said.
“The rights, practices and methods of religion constitute the moral way of life, or the means by which we pursue happiness,” Gaston added, saying this gives “direction and the very structure of living to every society.”
Society, according to Gaston, is a permanent union between two or more persons, striving for a common good by cooperative activity.
“In a Christian society, the notion of happiness is common to all. But the manner of pursuing happiness is left to each one of us to adapt our pursuit as we must,” he said.
Huemer argued, however, that this notion of happiness can be found in the material – namely through scientific or intellectual progress.
“Scientific progress is the reason why people today are living vastly better lives than a thousand years ago. Life expectancy is way up, and people are just much happier,” Huemer said.
But Gaston rejected Huemers notion of progress as the ultimate good. Instead, he believes that religion – Roman Catholicism in particular – is beneficial to society because it offers mankind a common end for happiness while respecting the diversity of society.
“I argue that if you give Christianity and spirituality in general an honest review, I think you might find something there that might shock you,” Gaston said.
“There are a lot more things out there beyond the material.”
Photo credit: www.shutterstock.com.
Article Archive
Is religion good or bad for society? Two experts debate
Related Articles • More Articles
The Augustine Institute's new facilities in Florissant, Missouri. / Credit: Boeing Company and Augustine InstituteCNA Staff, Apr 23, 2024 / 13:30 pm (CNA).The Augustine Institute, a Catholic educational and evangelization apostolate based in Denver for nearly two decades, announced on Tuesday that it will be moving its operations to a new campus in the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The institute, founded in 2005 as a Catholic graduate theology school, currently has an enrollment of 550 students. It says on its website that it exists to serve "the formation of Catholics for the new evangelization" by "equip[ping] Catholics intellectually, spiritually, and pastorally to renew the Church and transform the world for Christ."The organization announced on Tuesday that it had purchased the former Boeing Leadership Center in Florissant, Missouri, just outside of downtown St. Louis. The school will "begin transitioning its operations over the next few years," it said in ...
Over a year after the earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey in February 2023, restoration of Aleppo's Church of St. George has been completed. / Credit: Abdul Kareem DanielAleppo, Syria, Apr 23, 2024 / 14:15 pm (CNA).This year's feast of St. George was a particularly joyful one in the Syrian city of Aleppo, especially for the Melkite Greek Catholic community. The church is reopening its doors after undergoing restoration due to damage from a February 2023 earthquake. Additionally, Archbishop George Masri of the Melkite Archdiocese of Aleppo and its environs will celebrate his golden jubilee.The celebrations took place during the visit of Patriarch Joseph Absi, the current patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, who presided over the Divine Liturgy in the restored church on the evening of April 23. The evening before, there was a procession along Holy Bible Street followed by vespers.Restoration of the Church of St. George in Aleppo after the February 2023 earthquake...
Archbishop Luis Argüello and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. / Credit: Archdiocese of Valladolid; La MoncloaACI Prensa Staff, Apr 23, 2024 / 15:00 pm (CNA).The Spanish government approved today in the Council of Ministers a plan to implement recommendations made in a report on sexual abuse within the Catholic Church. While recognizing some good points in the plan, the Spanish Bishops' Conference (known by its Spanish acronym CEE) issued a statement strongly objecting to what it called unfair treatment and discrimination against the Church by the government.Before giving details of the government's plan, the minister of the Presidency, Justice, and Relations with the Legislature, Félix Bolaños, extrapolating data from a survey commissioned by the People's Ombudsman, estimated that in Spain there are about 440,000 adults who were victims of sexual abuse as minors, representing 1.13% of the adult population in Spain."Around half of these abuses would have been committed...