Religion May Be Rational

"Dad, is religion superstition?" As my daughter, Emily, took another bite of her potato, I tried not to choke on mine.

"What prompted that question?" I mumbled.

"In English class today we had a discussion about superstition. One of the character’s in a story we’re reading takes advantage of people’s ignorance, by selling them ointments that they think will cure them even though he knows there’s no reason to suppose they will. William asked if religion was superstition."

I smiled, imaging the expression on the face of Emily's high school teacher when William raised his innocent question.

"What did the class think?"

"No one could come up with any reason why religion wasn’t suspicion."

"Did your teacher have anything to say?"

"No. He just let us talk."

My potato was getting cold. I cut another piece, and put it into my mouth. A tough question, I thought to myself. No wonder the teacher remained on the sidelines, letting his students play with it on their own.

"Did you clarify in your class what you meant by ‘superstition’?"

"Yes. Superstition is having false beliefs. If you believe something that isn’t true, then you are superstitious."

"So the question of whether or not religion is superstition depends on whether or not religious beliefs are true or false?"

"Well, you can’t prove that religious beliefs are true. And a lot of them seem to be false. So religion seems a lot like superstition."

I’d finished my potato by this time and had a moment to think. I didn’t agree that all religion is superstition, but certainly much of what we describe as religious practice is irrational. Could superstition be distinguished from other beliefs that seem irrational — like religious beliefs?

"O.K. Superstition is an ‘irrational belief.’ If religion is irrational, then religion would be superstition. But if religion might be rational, then it would not in principle be superstition. Right?"

"Yeah. That makes sense." Emily had finished her potato, too. My wife, Nancy, got up to clear the table, as I tried to think this through.

"To see if religion might be rational, we need to clarify what we mean by rational. An example from physics could help. It’s a basic principle in physics that the speed of matter in motion is relative to the motion of the observer. For example, if we move toward sound, the sound waves meet us with greater speed, than if we are standing at rest with respect to their source.

"What's that got to do with religion?"

"Be patient, please. We can demonstrate this principal in physics by measuring various things in motion. It would seem rational, therefore, to conclude that the principle of relative motion applies without exception in the universe."

"So, this is an example of what it means for something to be rational?"

"It would seem rational to conclude that the principle of relative motion would be true for all phenomena. Right?"

"Sure. But . . ."

"But we also learn in physics that the speed of light is constant, regardless of how fast we are moving with respect to the source of light. Thus, we either have to conclude that the speed of light is irrational, or we have to expand our notion of rationality."

"We’re talking now about rationality, not about religion."

"We’ll get there, Emily, just give me a little time. You agree? The speed of light is an exception to the rule of relativity. The exception does not disprove the rule, for the rule applies to all other things in motion. A rational view of the universe, rooted in our experience, must distinguish between the behavior of light and the behavior of all other matter in motion. That is, rationality is not simply consistency or having a rule without exceptions. Rationality is making sense of our data and our experience — all of it, and not just some of it."

"You mean we can make sense of our religious experience?"

"Perhaps." Nancy had cleared the dishes from the table, but I knew she would leave them for me to wash. That's my job.

"Let’s go back to the example from physics for a moment. Our location with respect to the source of sound gives us a different experience of that sound. Right?" I took her silence to be agreement. "So, we might expect that our relationship to a religious community and tradition would affect our experience of it. Like our experience of the physical world, religious experience is also relative."

I pressed on. "But this fact alone doesn’t prove that religious experience is only relative, just as the fact of the relativity of the speed of sound doesn’t prove that the speed of light is relative. Confirmation of a rule doesn’t prove there isn’t an exception."

"So?"

"So, those who claim to have religious experience may well admit to the human limitations of that experience, with all its relativity of perception and comprehension. But within each religious tradition it is also asserted that there is a dimension of reality that is other than or prior to the human experience of it. This dimension of reality is understood to be the source or ground of all that is relative."

"Are you talking about God?"

"Some people call this source, or ground of all that is relative, God."

"You’re saying then that just because religious experience is relative, God isn’t necessarily relative."

"Yes. Although our experience of God may be relative, that doesn’t prove that God is relative. God may be the exception to the rule, even as in physics light is the exception to the rule of relative motion."

"But what does this have to do with superstition?"

"Among those who talk about God or refer to this dimension of reality in other ways are tricksters, who exploit the gullible for their own gain. Religion is as easily used by such persons as politics and the marketplace. But the fact that there are religious tricksters does not mean that all religion is trickery. And the fact that religion includes irrational beliefs, and to that extent is superstitious, does not prove that religion itself is irrational."

"Does this make religion rational?"

"There’s ample evidence that the response by people of faith to God has been meaningful for the human community. To name only one example, Mother Theresa took to heart the biblical teaching to seek the divine in the midst of human suffering. She testified that her search confirmed her faith. Moreover, those whose lives were touched by hers are evidence of that fact."

"But she’s a special person."

"True. But she affirmed that it’s not her love for others that made the difference but the love of God for her and for all those who suffer. We may think she was wrong in her beliefs, and she may have been. But even if her beliefs were wrong, her response to suffering was not irrational. Her response enabled her to serve those who are suffering and to inspire service among those who might have turned aside. It’s a fact that her faith reduced suffering and created meaning. And this means the religious tradition that sustained her faith offers a rational response to suffering.

"There are a lot of other examples, Dad, that don’t make religion look so good."

"I’d be the first to admit that all religion is relative, and that means there are also irrational aspects of religion. Mother Theresa might even have been superstitious about some elements of her religious practice. But her faith that the love of God can be shared with and experienced by those who are suffering is not a superstition. It’s a fact."

"You mean, religion may have some superstition in it but still be rational, and therefore not just superstition."

"That’s right. In this sense religion and physics are not so different. Most of what we experience is relative to where we are and what we are looking for, but there are exceptions. Through experience, we come to know better the relationship between our observations and the reality we perceive. That knowledge becomes the basis of what it means to be rational."

"So, the key to understanding whether something is superstition or not has a lot to do with understanding what it means to be rational."

"Precisely. Religion may be more or less rational, more or less adequate in expressing our experience, more or less effective in creating and sustaining the world it envisions, more or less meaningful. Religion may include superstitious elements, but it is not merely superstition. It may be rational."

"Well, Dad, you did a lot better with this question than anyone in English class."

"Thanks, Emily. Coming from you, that means a lot."

__________

This conversation with my daughter on 13 October 1995 is the basis of a chapter entitled "Religion may be Rational" in my book, Quest for Truth: Critical Reflections on Interfaith Cooperation (1999).

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