I think that the current issue for religion, speaking for myself, is that it is an emotional, primal force that can be employed for good ends....but is often used for evil ends. It seems that every politician in the US today refers to the "almighty" to justify whatever political goal that they, or their supporters, are interested in.
For instance, there are two ways to approach the Christian religion:
1. Jesus might be viewed as a deeply wise person who brought a superior system of ethics and morality to the world. He might be a person worth emulating today. His wisdom could be very applicable to present day human dilemmas. A positive force. The New Testament supports this outlook in many ways.....Jesus as a very human prophet who prized tolerance and stood courageously against a rigid religious and social order. This Jesus would not oppose the findings of modern science or view such as a threat.
2. A second viewpoint is a more of a fundamentalist outlook which seeks to bind all human progress to writings & customs which originated in a narrow, superstitious and prescientific culture. For instance, the fundamentalist rejection of the mountain of evidence for human evolution because it doesn't comply with ancient scriptures. Or the way women are viewed by many conservative religions as second-rate citizens based on the rationale that Jesus had no women disciples. The fundamentalist outlook focuses less on the wisdom and tolerance of Jesus & the New Testament and more on the vengeful, eye-for-an-eye attitudes of the Old Testament....a course that will result in a darker and poorer world.
My own viewpoint, as a former geologist, is that we need to be evaluate carefully the religious claims of gods, goddesses, angels, demons, fiery hells, heavenly paradises, the holding of exclusive truth in one's own religious sect, and the rest. These claims should be challenged in the same way that scientific claims are challenged....but never are in most religious environments. Only by availing ourselves of science and it's insights into the nature of ourselves and our world will we be able to tackle the age-old human problems and build a better world.
We live in the age of the Hubble Telescope, supercomputers, and the Human Genome Project. In other words, a rational and scientific age. It's an exciting, fascinating, and often scary time to be alive but we are learning more about ourselves and our world than ever before. This is not the time reject these new understandings and retreat into the dark ages.
StuU
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Ubi dubium ibi libertas:
"Where there is doubt, there is freedom"
-Latin proverb
