Criticisms

There are a number of common criticisms that people will often come out with. I will attempt to address a few of the most common objections here.

Religion was just made up to control people

Well it's not "just" that, but yes, in part, it was. But is that really a criticism? It is hard to imagine how any civilised society could exist without at least some measure of social control (anarchists may argue with that, but I'd argue back). In fact China, the only officially atheist nation in the world, has rather a lot of it. It seems that some people have an irrational fear of being controlled, but it has a curious choice of target. A religion can't control you; it may tell you what is bad and what is a duty, and it's down to you whether you agree with it or not, but only the state-sanctioned judiciary can throw you in prison. Church and State have not always been separate (indeed, in certain Islamic countries they are still not separate to this day). This is because religions formed the first governments, which eventually gave way to monarchies, which eventually led to democracy. We have religion to thank for modern civilisation. They invented justice. And they have powers for good that the government does not. The government is limited in its ability to tackle crime at its source. The law relies on people avoiding punishments out of self-interest, and social reforms can only address negative social forces - what they can't do is actually give you any real reason to care about others. Only a personal ideological conviction can do that.

Religion is just a set of fairy tales

This is a massive oversimplification of the issue. The Bible, for instance, which is "just a work of fiction" according to some, isn't a single book by a single author but is a large collection of works of various different kinds, and spanning over a thousand years of authorship. It contains historical accounts (of varying accuracy), songs, philosophical works about ethics, and yes - stories (the book of Job, for instance). It comprised people's best understanding of the world at that time. Is it the word of God? No, but neither is a peer-reviewed science journal. What it definitely isn't is "made up to entertain children", despite how they present it in primary school. And then some atheist only goes and tells me I ought to read some Philip Pullman. Guess what? That's fiction as well, but that by no means makes it meaningless, useless or trivial in any way. In fact fiction is often the best way of getting certain sorts of truths across.

Religion is just a crutch for the weak

If you met a man who was on real crutches to assist his mobility, would you try to kick them out from beneath him? Would you laugh in his face and demand he stand back up on his own? I hope not. Religious belief is a tool that some people use to get them through the hard times, and if it does that, why is it so bad? Why is it somehow acceptable to get prescribed antidepressants because you can't cope with life on your own, but it isn't acceptable to cultivate an inner strength through a greater sense of purpose? And it works. An article I read on the BBC News website lately stated that statistics show that regular church-goers actually lived longer on average [citation needed, I know] and that scientists put it down to lower levels of stress hormones - because they are able to cope with life's ups and downs without ever getting to the stage where the doctor would have to put them on expensive and potentially dangerous medicine.

Religion contradicts itself

Well, maybe it does. But you can't say that any specific thing is a contradiction just because you don't immediately understand it. What I often observe is a reluctance to actually think about the problem, and look into it further. When you come across something that appears to be an obvious contradiction - do you honestly think the person who wrote it wouldn't have noticed? People in ancient times may not have known the things we do now, but that doesn't mean they were stupid. Especially not the ones who could write. It is more likely that it has been disconnected from its cultural context by a few thousand years of progress. Neither are the world's religious leaders stupid. You'd be flattering yourself if you thought you'd spotted something the entire religious community had managed to miss all this time. Look into it properly, then decide whether it makes sense to you or not. Far too many people start reading religious works for no other reason than to give themselves an excuse to dismiss it. Although I must admit, there are far too many believers who don't look into it either.

You believe in an invisible old man with a long white beard sitting on a cloud

Well this is just silly rhetoric, and only demonstrates that whoever said it was forced to go to Sunday School as a child. Sometimes metaphorical imagery is used to convey a point, but nobody seriously believes that. At least, nobody worth listening to.

Interestingly, the image of God as "old man with a beard" originates from the ancient semitic religion of Ugarit (c.1500-1200BC), and even the old testament prophets had a hard time trying to talk people out of such ideas.