Here are some selected passages from Dr. Jay Ellis Ransom's monograph, Christianity: Worshippers of the Sun. It won't take you long to see what Dr. Ransom's opinion of religion is.
[NB: Despite harboring deep disagreements with the professor (who, as you'll recall, was my host for a day in The Dalles), I thought we got along famously. Dr. Ransom, with whose daughter I stayed when I was in Longview, Washington, is a true gentleman and scholar. At 94, he retains full independence, living in his own place, driving himself everywhere (this includes the long drive from The Dalles to Longview to visit his daughter and her family), and discussing life, the universe, and everything with half-Korean interlopers. I hope to write a bit more about my time with Dr. Ransom, but for the moment will return to his remarks on religion.]
Without further ado:
1. A religion is nothing but a set of communal beliefs.
2. The key words in all religions wherever over the face of the world are believe and belief.
3. The New Testament Gospels (meaning "Good News") haven't been newsworthy reading for educated people for the last hundred years. Their magic and fairy tale mysticisms offend today's intelligence!
4. ...a single provable fact: There is nowhere in the universe any such thing as a divine One God, or for the matter of historical reference, multiple gods.
5. If a universal One God truly existed to override human history and who "created" the universe and everything in it in six "days" (ancient Egyptian and modern geologists' eons or eras), there would never have been more than a single religion.
[The above selections all come from the monograph's preface.]
6. Every major religion... sooner or later breaks down into regional differences, cults of many aberrant kinds, denominations, and even within these separate churches with variations in practices, beliefs, and rituals. The reason is that people everywhere in small enclaves entertain often conflicting views of natural phenomena, different interpretations, and different ways of living.
Across the world, therefore, there is no such thing as one all-encompassing religion. This leads to the logical conclusion that nowhere in the universe is there one unifying deity, a god or God Incarnate, except in the human imagination!
7. Every business in the world revolves around the selling of a product or a philosophy. Religion is therefore the philosophic "product" to be sold to a congregation. Whatever the so-called "spiritual" content of a system of beliefs may be is unimportant (it varies from one church, cathedral, mosque, or evangelical congress to another). What is of prime importance is that, as a product, religion has to be sold to (or forced upon!) enough customers, the laity, to support the theological chieftains. This monetary system goes back to Ancient Egypt of 5,000 years ago.
That is about all that there really is to religion. It is no more than a commercial business dressed up in spurious "spirituality" with psychological appeal to a specific group of like-minded followers. "Passing the plate" also helps out with donated income to the ministerial personnel! (No question: every church needs financial support; a mythological God does not!)
[NB: The above excerpts come from Chapter 1, the introduction. What follows is again from the preface, and makes for a strikingly conciliatory contrast with everything you've just read. To wit:]
8. Science and religion actually are two sides of the same coin, differently interpreted and understood but with a common goal-- to try to understand and control a vicious and fractious Mother Nature that is forever "wrathful" and unaccommodating.
I have plenty to say about all of this, but will let you have your say in the comments first. As always, I expect comments to be civil and, in this case, respectful of someone who has accomplished much as an anthropologist, journalist, linguist, and teacher.
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4 comments:
I might quibble with some of this (and of course sophisticated theologists would say he is attacking a simplistic straw man) but I'd say he's got the gist of it pretty much right on the money.
To take the most obvious potshot first: Anyone who can say that the nonexistence of God, or the nonexistence of anything whatsoever, is a "provable fact" obviously has no understanding whatsoever of the concept of proof.
Well, yes, Alan, that was one of the "quibbles" I had in mind. Dr. Ransom ought to have left that one out altogether; it undermines his credibility.
With all due respect to Dr. Ranson, I thought his reflections were obvious and trite, and more eloquently expressed by different writers. However, I am sure they are the product of his serious and studied reflection upon the matter-and I commend him for sharing them.
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