Bridging and Bonding
| "I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on
the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said "Stop! don't do
it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I
said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I
said, "Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" He said, "Baptist!" I said,"Wow! Me too! Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of
the Lord?" He said, "Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me too! Are you
Original Baptist Church of God, or are you Reformed Baptist Church of
God?" He said,"Reformed Baptist Church of God!" I said, "Me
too! Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or
Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?" He said,
"Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915!" I said, 'Die,
heretic scum', and pushed him off." Emo Philips |
Religious people claim that religion brings harmony and fellowship.
And so it does, sometimes - inside the group.
Social Anthropologists now talk about Bridging and Bonding within and between communities.
Bonding means making links between people within a community, and this is something that religion helps along very well. As long as you go to a particular church, you will be made welcome and feel warm and snug within that church. To a certain extent, you will also feel happy in other churches of the same denomination.
Bridging means making links between communities. Social Anthropologists know that Religion hinders and opposes this. Wherever you find religion as a dominant force in peoples' lives, you will find "high bonding capital" and "low bridging capital". You will find enmity and intolerance between communities. Religion always brings division between those who believe even slightly different versions of basically the same story. It even brings strife between those who believe the same thing but with slightly different emphases.
It divides nations, communities, tribes, villages, families, husbands and wives, parents and children. It is the most socially divisive force on the planet. There are thousands of religions around the world and literally thousands of Protestant denominations.
Secularism does not have this effect. Wherever you find Humanist values, you will find tolerance and acceptance of other people no matter what their beliefs, colour or sexuality. For a Humanist there is literally no reason not to bridge or bond with any human being, from whatever community, unless that person is individually unpleasant for some reason.
A humanist will have no proselytising agenda, no need to do good deeds except from an honest desire to please and make the world a better place. A humanist need have no ulterior motives in his relations with people.
Let's say I meet a Christian for the first time - and he gives me a gift or a compliment or just a smile. He may be a nice and genuine person. Or he might have an "agenda". His gift may be as empty as his smile, and as worthless. I cannot be sure. His agenda may be to convert me, to show me how wonderful his imaginary friend is. Even if he is genuine, people will still doubt his sincerity, because it is a simple fact that Christians are commanded to be good and to proselytise their religion.
You know that you are always slightly on your guard with salesmen from certain trades, like insurance or financial services. If you walk into a car salesroom, you would thank the salesman for his compliments on your dress, then ignore them altogether. They are worthless as compliments. That's how it is with the Christian's smile - you ignore it because it is likely to be nothing more than a sales pitch for his invisible friend.
Of course it is possible to spot a genuine person, someone who is sincere, whether they happen to be a Christian or not. But as a general rule, their Religion does not help us to trust them - it hinders.
My ex-Pastor used to boast of the fact that he had a Muslim friend, as though that were a truly amazing thing! I could imagine their relationship, each secretly thinking he was right, each mentally mapping out his strategy for converting the other. Each silently pitying the other, conscious of the eternity in Hell awaiting his friend. Despite modern attempts at bringing religions closer - no Christian or Muslim who believed their holy texts would seriously want to dirty his hands with the other religion. Islam says "God has no sons". The two are fundamentally incompatible, and will always be. If you are religious, you are always shackled by your adherence to Bronze and Iron Age books. The Christian god has made his own feelings clear - Deuteronomy 13 instructs the Hebrews to kill unbelievers. The Commandments forbid other gods on pain of death. Jesus apparently claimed to be the only way. Similar "anti-bridging" injunctions are found in the Qu'ran.
So what about atheism and war? Wasn't Stalinism an atheist regime? Surely the Nazis were atheist? Didn't they cause wars too?
The trivial answer is that both Stalin and Hitler were strongly influenced by anti-Semitic Catholicism, even if they weren't actually practising Catholics themselves.
The real answer is that Religion is not solely to blame for all the world's evils - I would never say that! Religion comes under a bigger umbrella - that of DOGMA.
Definitions: "Dogma" - a belief or set of beliefs that a political or religious group holds to be true.
"Dogmatic" - (stubborn, opinionated, biased, arrogant) - belief that one is right in one's beliefs or opinions, and everyone else is wrong.)
Dogma was responsible for Stalinism and Nazism. And religion is just a subset of all those dogmas. Whenever a dogma places itself higher than human life - then we are in trouble. Communism placed the State above human life, Nazism placed the leader and the race above human life; Christianity places its imaginary god above human life. So it causes suffering, wars and death.
It wasn't atheism that motivated those evil regimes. They were motivated by their own dogmas.
If an atheist murders a man, it will be because of flaws in his character. He will be blameworthy.
If a religious person murders a man, it just may be because of what he believes, and because his beliefs take priority over human life. "With or without religion, good people will do good things and bad people will do bad things. But Religion can make a good person do appalling things." (Stephen Weinberg)
I'm thinking of the Inquisition, the witch-burnings, Islamic Fundamentalists, the pastors who preached for continuing the slave trade, the violence done to homosexuals, the repression and abuse of women. Not to mention all the horrors related in the Bible and Qu'ran themselves.
Religion is often not the immediate cause of wars. But it reduces bridging between communities to such an extent that it makes wars more likely, just as a drought will make a fire more likely should some spark drift by. It also helps perpetuate conflict, because each community believes that god is on its side, that it is "chosen" and right. It gives a label to each side, making people pledge allegiance to their bonding group. It differentiates groups.
The history of Religious conflict is too long, too self-evident and too painful to go into on this page. It began with Moses and those poor nations (for all we know, peaceful ones) who happened to be in his path.
Geoff Mather 2007
Back to REASONS
See: "Am I dogmatic?"
See: "Humanist values"