[Educational Psychology Essay] Religion Is Invariably Harmful To Society (Made 2023 Fall Semester)

Note that this essay is not inherently indicative of my personal beliefs, it is an essay intended to push a highly specific narrative that is only partially made of my own beliefs. I do not believe religion is innately harmful, that said, I am very critical of it, hence my choosing to write this essay.

Religion Is Invariably Harmful To Society

Elliot Maxwell Sibert-Sweeney

Department Of Education Psychology, Ball State University

EDPS251

Professor Carl Siders

12/3/2023

In this paper, I will argue definitively that religion is harmful to society based on religion’s effects on individual’s beliefs in science, treatment of women, and economic prospects, all rather objective measures of a functioning society, and all things directly and indirectly affected by religion. Note that this will primarily be an explanation of religion’s effects on these things with small counter arguments to my position added in and between each section; also only one of my sources runs contrary to my stance, as most of the arguments against my position are part of the general western zeitgeist and are apparent through common lived experiences. I am simply using this source as a collection of common counter-points, if not a complete one. Let us begin with a look into how religion stunts scientific knowledge and belief in science.

In 2018 Jonathon McPhetres and Miron Zuckerman published an article which indicated, even if it did not outright prove, that religion has a marked negative effect on people’s scientific knowledge and was associated with their attitude towards science (McPhetres & Zuckerman, para. 68-69). The negative correlation between being religious and schooling is extremely significant, and beyond this, while a weaker connection, McPhetres and Zuckerman’s findings point towards “... growing up in a religious household…” leading “... to less positive views of science, resulting in lower levels of science knowledge and less trust in scientific information,” (2018, para. 44, 73). The Bible is noted to say many unscientific things and what else it says opens up the opportunity for Christians to stretch the meaning of the Bible and stand against things not directly related at all, leading to some Christians deciding to “... justify their opposition to some scientific concepts in terms of moral and religious beliefs in the same way that holders of a particular political ideology will oppose an idea in terms of economic or social justification,” (McPhetres & Zuckerman, 2018, para 2-3).

McPhetres and Zuckerman’s article does have flaws, and it does even point out chinks in it’s armor, such as spirituality having a much less profound impact on scientific knowledge, and mentioning a study that found that “... threatening stereotypes about Christians’ low competence in science may lead them to underperform in science,” and previous studies having different findings compared to the ones here (2018, para. 4-5, 21, 73-74). McPhetres and Zuckerman rebuff many of these, pointing out the limited purview of previous studies and the differences between sociologists and social psychologists, but many problems do, admittedly, remain, and it is impossible to consider their findings definitive proof of causality when they themselves admit that it isn’t (2018, para. 5-7, 23). All that said, the evidence clearly shows a correlation between scientific knowledge and religiosity, and anything that drags down one's scientific knowledge is dangerous and as antisocial as it can get, barring, perhaps, perpetuating sexism.

In an article for The Daily Universe by Cassidy Wixom, she explains that in 2019 the Pope himself admitted, as quoted by Wixom,women faced “a fair share of male authoritarianism, domination, various forms of enslavement, abuse and sexist violence,” in the church, yet religious people will tell you that religion provides a guide on how best to live your life, keeping you moral and pure (2021, para. 13; Lesoned, 2020, para. 6-8, 16-18, 29-31). Kate McElwee, executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, is paraphrased as saying that “Keeping women subordinated in the church is “very damaging” for individual women’s… mental and emotional health…” (Wixom, 2021, para. 9, 16). Catholics, like Mormons, deny women priesthood, at least officially, but at least Mormons recognize women as important and equal and give them leadership roles of different, non-male, varieties. That said, Kate Kelly was excommunicated for starting an organization to get women ordained in Mormonism (Wixom, 2021, para. 3, 24-25). Jehovah’s Witnesses have it worse as, to quote Wixom, “A JW support group created a website in 2019 for youth members to have a place they can turn to. The mission of this group is to help youths ‘cope until they are able to leave home,’” a stomach churning thing for any group to need. Further, the support group claims that:

… the Jehovah Witnesses are a patriarchal society where women cannot hold positions of authority and are to view men as their head. It also says that Witness women cannot teach unless no men are available, and when they do they must wear head coverings to show ‘submission to the headship arrangement’ (Wixom, 2021, para. 40-42).

This is especially bad considering that the religion claims quite the opposite (Wixom, 2021, para. 37). To the Southern Baptist Convention women are of equal value to men but cannot function in the same way and, obviously, are disallowed ordination. “A major scandal arose in 2019 when hundreds of sexual abuse victims spoke out against church leaders. Many within the faith were vocal about the scandal… claiming the sexist culture of the church was to blame,” Wixom explains, leaving me to wonder why it is anyone would think laws being based on religion, an all too common practice, is a good thing, let alone promote it as such (Wixom, 2021, para. 43-45, 47 ; Lesoned, 2020, para. 32-37).

All of this is painful and is not nearly the end of religion’s crimes against women, but, of course, there are caveats to this. Wixom points them out throughout her article, but the gist of it is that religions are changing, women are becoming more accepted (2021, para. 56). Evangelical women are growing more and more influential and their cries to be able to become priests are being heard more and more. Most protestant groups don’t really care about gender, at least when it comes to priesthood, and the ones that do are usually just representing their location’s general beliefs (Wixom, 2021, Para. 49-55). The Mormons are especially good to women, despite the obvious flaws in their treatment of them, even being home to “The Relief Society, founded in 1842… the oldest and largest women’s organization in the world and… a core part of the Church’s structure,” (Wixom, 2021, para. 25). What there is no redeeming, for conservative Christians at least, is the economic problems their religion brings.

As already discussed, religion hinders education, so it should be no surprise that across the world and across time religion has been damaging economies and people’s human capital and economic prospects, such as by standing against non-religious education. Across the world many developing nations, ones where religion is exceedingly important, are going through something akin to the second industrial revolution, meaning that, similarly to France in the past, religion will likely be hampering their development greatly (Bocconi University, 2020, para. 1-5). While this is always present, it’s worse the more intense an area’s religiosity. Bocconi University states that “... the relationship between religion and economic development is not inherently negative. Rather, it varies over time, and it becomes negative when religion hinders the adoption of economically useful knowledge,” which is better than nothing, but still is an untenable fact (2020, para. 6). Worse, however, are the findings of Lisa A. Keister of Duke University, whose article brought to light the terrible connection between being a conservative protestant and poor financial outcomes. While only 25% of Americans are conservative protestants, she explains, that group is “... dramatically overrepresented in the bottom of the wealth distribution—particularly on measures of financial asset ownership—independent of family background,” (Keister, 2008, para. 2). Keister found that “In 2000, median net worth for CPs… was $26,000, compared to the full sample median of $66,200,” and that those who convert to being conservative protestants were also affected but to a lesser extent, also adding later that while conservative protestants start out with more assets, they accumulate assets slower (2008, para. 30, 34-35). Worse still, Keister explains that “The results are also consistent with the notion that intergenerational processes contribute to low wealth for CPs…” and, this is in part perpetuated by the fact that conservative protestant children are well aware of how their parents handle their finances and even are encouraged to engage in family prayers over their finances; conservative protestants put their financial status in the hands of God (2008, para. 34, 36, 41-43). Clearly religion is guiding the religious here, but how can one say it’s for the better? Religion tells people to pray and have hope, but clearly that is not enough and to pretend it will only continues this cycle of suffering (Lesoned, 2020, para. 6-8, 13-15).

Like my other sources, this one is not without fault and it doesn't claim that it proves anything (Keister, 2008, para. 41). Notably, this article is very limited in its purview, focusing on conservative protestants and Keister even points out that “... people born in Jewish families tend to have relatively high net worth… We also know very little about the effects of other religious beliefs—including Asian religions, Islam, and Eastern Orthodox religions—on wealth,” (2008, para. 44). Still, the very presence of such strong ties between being a conservative protestant and being poor, slow to accumulate assets, etc. is bad for religions, showcasing that they can, if not consistently, be extremely harmful to people’s well beings. A social institution that has the potential of having the effect conservative protestantism has should not be allowed to exist; it is simply too dangerous, too volatile.

But all of this has been largely focused on America. Surely in a place like the Netherlands religion is significantly less dangerous; after all, so little of the Dutch populace is even religious. Sadly, in the rarely talked about Dutch Bible Belt, in the village of Urk, vaccination rates were lower than 30% during the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing local doctors to start a vaccination campaign just to try and improve the numbers. Beyond this, “Urk was ‘ground zero’ for the Netherlands’ worst riots in decades, which erupted in January over a COVID-19 curfew,” (Gulf News, 2021, para. 1-5, 9). The entire Dutch Bible Belt is filled with strict Calvinists, and Urk is uniquely isolated and conservative even among the belt; the Measles vaccine is also rarer there than elsewhere, leading to an outbreak in the late 2010s (Gulf News, 2021, 11-14). It should be noted that a local doctor claimed that religion only played a small part in the refusal of the vaccines, with fear of side-effects being much more important, but given the lack of education, distrust of science, and lack of scientific knowledge demonstrated amongst even non-conservative religious people, it’s not a far stretch to say that religion likely played a much bigger and indirect role than suggested (Gulf News, 2021, para. 23-24).

None of this should be surprising, really. Religions across the world are a great example of all the things the conflict perspective of sociology expects. Those in power strive to stay in power by oppressing an entire half of their followers to keep the lesser-oppressed half from looking with suspicion towards those above them. Further they stunt the education and scientific knowledge of their followers to prevent anyone asking hard questions and dismantling their propaganda with contradictory facts. They create a strong in-group and out-group dynamic to keep fear focused outside, claiming outsiders to be followers of evil, damned for all time for their nonbelief. Religions keep their followers poor by denying them the education, skills they need to succeed, and disallowing women to work. On top of this they also drain money from followers by demanding tithes, enriching those in power in the process. They excuse this all by deeming themselves morally superior and divinely blessed, but no divinity would support this. Religion is everything a conflict theorist despises in one horrific chimera, and it must be put down so it can never hurt anyone again.

Works Cited

Bocconi University. (2020, November 13). How religion can hamper economic progress. Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-11-religion-hamper-economic.html 

Gulf News. (2021, November 23). Dutch “Bible belt” targeted in covid-19 Vaccine Drive. WORLD. https://gulfnews.com/world/europe/dutch-bible-belt-targeted-in-covid-19-vaccine-drive-1.83907803 

Keister, L. A. (n.d.). Conservative Protestants and Wealth: How Religion Perpetuates Asset Poverty. The University of Chicago Press. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/525506 

Lesoned. (2020, June 30). 9 Reasons Why Religion is so Important in Life and to Society Today. https://lesoned.com/why-is-religion-important/ 

McPhetres, J., & Zuckerman, M. (2018). Religiosity predicts negative attitudes towards science and lower levels of Science Literacy. PLOS ONE. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0207125#sec001 

Wixom, C. (2021, January 26). The changing, expanding role of women in religions. The Daily Universe. https://universe.byu.edu/2021/01/25/the-changing-expanding-role-of-women-in-religions/