Paradoxical poll on religion - Up Front

Humanist, Jan-Feb, 2003 by W. Larry Fogg

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life released its second annual poll on the role of religion on March 20, 2002. The poll reports that 80 percent of Americans believe that religion has a positive influence in the world today. By a margin of 51 percent to 28 percent, Americans also think that the lesson of September 11, 2001, is that there is too little--not too much--religion in the world. Yet the poll reports that a 65 percent majority believes that religion plays a significant role in most wars and conflicts in the world. Melissa Rogers, executive director of the Pew Forum says, "Americans overwhelmingly view religion as a powerful force for good in our nation and in the world, but they also believe it can be a catalyst for conflict." Unfortunately Rogers offers no alternative interpretation of the key concepts underlying the poll results.

Are the American people ambivalent about the beneficial effects of religion? Perhaps. But it may also be that the ambiguity has its source in the wide range of slippery meanings people give to the term religion. In many current dictionaries only the second definition of religion refers to a set of specific institutionalized beliefs known as "the world religions." The first definition refers to an individual's set of beliefs, attitudes, and ethics. In discussions of religion, I often note that people slip easily back and forth between this first more personal definition and the second, which refers to a person's institutional affiliation. The term faith has similar ambiguity.

So when Americans say they believe that religion is a force for good and we need more of it, they may only be using definition one--that having beliefs about the purpose of life and some moral code is needed if we are to get along together on this earth. They may also believe (despite the fundamentalist propaganda) that these beneficial values are possible even without a belief in one deity or subscription to any one institutional creed. Their approval of religion may be nothing more than an approval of decency, compassion, and (above all) tolerance in human beings wherever and however they derive those virtues.

So this may be another case of a slippery poll. Despite its appearance, the results of the poll are not necessarily a ringing endorsement of institutionalized religion, as many apologists say it is. They are certainly not an approval of the more strident, intolerant, and evangelical forms of organized religion. Although there have been periods in history when religious institutions have been open to each other's culture, claims of unique knowledge of God, intolerance (especially toward unbelievers or infidels), and often repression in the name of creedal loyalty are bound up in the traditions of all the major world religions (with the possible exception of Buddhism). The American people know that today the area often referred to as the "Holy Land" is once again proving to be the bloodiest place on this planet. Most religious people have good will and are tolerant, but many are getting weary of endless battles between religious institutions, traditions, and their special interests. While Americans may think that religion is good and needed in the world, that in no way endorses the institutions that-it could be argued--are at the center of the world's current conflicts.

W. Larry Fogg is a retired Northeastern University philosophy professor from Braintree, Massachusetts.