Recently many book, paper, movies, documentaries, and scientific discussions have brought up the idea that humans are being held back by religion. The topic of religion has debated for many centuries. Even before the scientific revolution brought about new understandings of how the role has evolved humans has questions the relevance or reality of a controlling being. But in all of this for as long as humans can remember there have been religions governing the decisions, lifestyles, and culture of people groups. Whether human created or of divine intervention, religions have governed the actions of humanity. Religions have had as much impact in this world and in cultures as food and the environment has. Religions guides us, moves us, inspires us; religion even explains us. It is the one thing that can answer those questions that we could never answer ourselves. It explains the meaning of life, what comes next, where we came from; religion surpass science in many areas: around the world it is still debated where humans came from, how they evolved or who created them, and how everything came to be. Religion explains all of these things. So then the question that come to mind is: If religions have had such a large impact on the world, why or what is the drive to remove them? Why has “modern society” deemed them foolish, ignorant, and ideas of a less ‘intelligent’ and ‘less evolved’ humans. Why have religions become an idea of something that is of the past? Why are they becoming marginalized in society? Why do some humans find them to be a hindrance to society rather than something that facilitates advancement?



One of the largest “non-religious” philosophies is atheism. This is the belief that there is no deity ruling from outside of our world. As the American Atheist define it…


An Atheist has no religious belief. An Atheist does not believe in a god or gods, or other supernatural entities...We are not a "religion." The concept of an agency outside of nature with the ability to reach into natural law and control events is supernaturalism, the foundation of any religion. Belief in the existence of that agency is based on faith. An Atheist has no specific belief system. We accept only that which is scientifically verifiable. Since god concepts are unverifiable, we do not accept them.



Atheists find that there is no logical reason for a being to be outside of earth reach and yet is able reach into the world and control its natural laws. As it is stated above, “We accept only that which is scientifically verifiable.” This being said, one of the greatest scientist of all time, Einstein once said, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” For as long as humans have existed we have used these parts of life to support and define each other. Why now have we begun the belief that they cannot be related to each other, that they must be separated? Atheist believe that there is nothing to believe in but reality itself. If it cannot be proven by man it does not exist. They create a god out of their own self placing themselves as the all knowing beings that control the universe. This state of mind, however becomes foolish and ignorant. Do we really have the right to say what is and isn't when we are so small and insignificant in comparison to everything else. We as humans cannot ascertain what we do not yet know all of. The universe is so large of a place that humans cannot define all that it is in even a million years, especially since all that it is is not obtainable to us nor comprehendible. We are a singular being in a vast expanse of organism, worlds, and matter. It it is foolish to think that something so large can be defined by a specie that only understands one millions of a million of what it is. As the great writer C.S. Lewis said, “Atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning...” If life has no meaning and yet we see people every day aiding the poor, building houses for the needed, and ‘rescuing’ the environment that is being ever destroyed than question arise of why? Why are we doing something so menial for your self when we are so small and minuscule that most anything done will change nothing in respect to time? People may say that they do this because it make them feel good or to change the future, that it is oath it because they are chaining at least one persons life, but this all bring about the question of what has caused this meaning? Why have you devoted your life for the betterment of humanity when people may believe that humanity has no meaning and life is but a bit of time spent in something that will inevitably end? The questions is always there: What has caused us to feel the way you do, hold competition, and want to create a better world for all? Why do we have compassion, empathy, and logic when every other organism, animal, or creature out there as no such intelligent or empathetic thought? What make us they way we are? To all this I would say religion does. The being that is omnipresent that hold out life in its hand and waves and move through the universe in way that we cannot understand. That is the thing that causes us to be us and to understand, question, and invite. It is the force that drives and creates life. And since we cannot understand who or what it is we create religion to try and understand of preserve what little we can discover about the force that drives us. This is why we have religion, this is why we need religion, this is why religion exists.


Bill Maher’s, in his movie Religulous, said that humans are being held back by religion that we cannot move forward without letting go of the idea that the earth and universe is being controlled by an outside omnipresent force, a “god.” As stated before, many have thought that in order to progress we must move past the idea of theological explanations in a realm a rational thought. But why is the idea of theology defined as irrational. If the universe had started from a small super condense form of particle does it not logically make sense that a greater being then created that bit of mass for as science has defined, “Mass and energy can neither be created nor destroyed.” So since we know this does it not logically make sense to conclude that that ball of matter had to be created by something? Religion is the concept that explains of this. It is the binding force that enables an unexplainable statement, concept, or reality be understood. The idea that religion is not needed and is a hindrance is a foolish idea in-it-of itself. Life has only moved on because humans have been able to look to a force that moves in way humans cannot see nor explain. Scientist cannot explain where energy came from. They do not know why some living things have more chromosomes than humans even though we are the most complex and advance spices in existence. There is so much that science cannot explain. That is why religion is needed to help facilitate growth and define what we cannot until we either do find what that is or learn to accept the reality of not being able to see and understand all things–the latter of which is more likely.


If we do also break down some of the ideas and theories that counter many religious thought we can see that they too at the fundamental levels fall apart. When looking at evolution we can especially see some flaws. Firstly, it is never too much to say that we must understand that evolution is not a scientific fact, it is a theory, it has about as much reason and rhyme as some of the world religions. Not only this but the very founder of this theory doubted much of what he wrote throughout his life and into his death. Darwin did not even fully believe the theory himself and had to revise the Origin of Species many times never quite figuring it out in the end. Not only this, but in his book he failed to ever be able to define what a species is, even though the book was all about species. In all of this their are many ideas behind evolution that do not make sense. For example, the fossil record is a piece of evidence that is often used to explain and support evolution. It is quoted quite often and upheld with the most validity. The one problem with this is that the very fossil record is itself is inaccurate at certain times. A famous scientist, named Ken Ham, recently had a research team excavate a site in North America. After removing some rock and fossil from the ground they discovered that there was a piece of wood encased in a solid rock; when they had these two items dated at a lab the results stated that the wood was 45,000 years old and the rock was 4.5 million. The question now is if the wood is younger than how did it get encased in the solid rock? Not only this but when that same science research team sent bits of that stone off to different dating labs they all came back with different dates for when these stones had formed. With these discrepancies how can we not question the validity of much of what evolution is built on? One could go on and on about how many thing prove and disprove evolution, however the facts are simple. There must have been one thing that begin it all no matter what it is even if we have evolved from amebas there was something that created those amebas in the first place–though even this idea is foolish for the only examples of evolution seen today are that of micro evolution where on species simply evolves, but does become another species of animal (macroevolution).


These examples and quotes are all there just represent how religion has always existed and must exist; for this reason religion will continue to exist. Religion is not something that will hold us back; it is a force that will facilitate our growth through life and the future. Now is just a period of history when we doubt the being that made us. We are all so small and insignificant that we can not begin to understand the greater good and underlying connections that have formulated and controlled history throughout time.