Two Approaches, One Theology

I have tried for the last five days to summarize this entry into a short blog post, however my recent interactions today, perhaps I can cement a frustration many atheists have with large religious organizations.

For a long time, I have seen religions all around the world create problems, only to sell the solutions at the behest of the pulpit with threats of damnation and scare tactics. Sin is a perfect example of this. Invent sin, sell purity; Invent hell, offer heaven; Invent the mystery, offer truth.

Another problem emerges all together when you have found ways to intellectually overcome the scare tactics and yet stick with said scare tactics to maintain followers. This is what I have found recently with the Bison Catholics, NDSU's higher-education Catholic group.

After spending Sunday morning and afternoon as a guest of Mass and afterwards, social interaction, I have to speak very highly of my hosts and their tolerance to have an atheist present to play the Devil's Advocate. We discussed a wide range of issues, and throughout a majority of them, there was some level of disagreement, however there was also a level of intellectual honesty that I rarely find. This side of theology is rarely presented in followers of faith-based organizations in my experience, and despite some flawed logic, there was a considerable effort to remain honest to my eyes.

This is a common effect I get when there is a skeptic present, or at least when someone has prepared for a skeptic to be present. It is when no skeptic is expected is when we see the other approach. Last Wednesday, catholic speaker Viki Thorn spoke to a catholic crowd in the Memorial Union on campus and delivered a combination of gender stereotypes, America-centric observations, and complete scientific falsehoods all under the flag of science and medicine.

Using the unscientific language of a layman, she entirely dismissed the nature/nurture discussion by announcing that men and women are born to fill specific roles. Men will never be able to multitask, women are not expected to do anything well while menstruating, and men are unable to process emotion. Using poorly-worded explanations of real scientific studies ("They tested monkeys","Pornography is not sex; pornography is addiction.""From the moment of conception, 'babies' are already communicating their desires."), she laid out why she thinks Pornography leads to rape and sexual deviation, contraception will lead to the destruction of your relationship, it will kill you because of blood clots, and all men hate shopping.

She continued to deliver all manner of unfounded propaganda with assertive and authoritarian tones, while claiming her qualifications for this is that she has had six children. Thankfully, I was sitting with biologists and sexual education experts who COULD tell me how science presents these topics.


So here is the crux of it... After the presentation, many of the people who we talked to often proclaimed ignorance of the knowledge, yet felt she was compelling. In other words, when the echo chamber of religion is thorough, critical thinking does not seem to hold much weight. Yet when we get personally involved, I hear often of how they promote their followers to do their own research. Which is it, and would you please be consistent? What I witnessed on Wednesday was pure catholic propaganda mixed with a dash of science for effect. Today I enjoyed a philosophical discussion that bridged gaps. Let's stop hearing what we want to and engage in critical thinking.