Criticism of Religion - Criticism of Religious Concepts

Criticism of Religious Concepts

See also: Faith and rationality

Some criticisms have been aimed at theistic religions such as :

  • Religions sometimes posit facts that are conflict with certain scientific models or findings (e.g. evolution, origin of the universe, miracles); for example, the claim that prayer has a beneficial effect on others has been disputed.
  • Religions often require behaviors that are not sensible (such as the Old Testament prohibition against wearing garments of mixed fabrics, or punishing children of guilty parents).
  • Religions often contain multiple conflicting accounts (for example, discrepancies in the Bible among the four Gospels of the New Testament).

Counterarguments against assumed conflict between the sciences and religions have been offered. For example, C. S. Lewis, a Christian, suggested that all religions, by definition, involve faith, or a belief in concepts that cannot be proven or disproven by the sciences. However, some religious beliefs have not been in line with views of the scientific community, for instance Young Earth creationism. Though some who criticize religions subscribe to the conflict thesis, others do not. For example, Stephen Jay Gould agrees with C. S. Lewis and suggested that religion and science were non-overlapping magisteria. Scientist Richard Dawkins has said that religious practitioners often do not believe in the view of non-overlapping magisteria (NOMA).

Read more about this topic:  Criticism Of Religion

Famous quotes containing the words criticism, religious and/or concepts:

    “Nothing would improve newspaper criticism so much as the knowledge that it was to be read by men too hardy to acquiesce in the authoritative statement of the reviewer.”
    —Richard Holt Hutton (1826–1897)

    “It is the responsibility of every adult—especially parents, educators and religious leaders—to make sure that children hear what we have learned from the lessons of life and to hear over and over that we love them and they are not alone.”
    —Marian Wright Edelman (20th century)

    “Once one is caught up into the material world not one person in ten thousand finds the time to form literary taste, to examine the validity of philosophic concepts for himself, or to form what, for lack of a better phrase, I might call the wise and tragic sense of life.”
    —F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)