Disaster

The southern United States was plagued with horrific tornadoes last night which leveled cheaply constructed houses and blew away mobile homes. To those who live under the illusion that everything is an act of God, these catastrophes are most devastating. Like abused children, they defend their abusive parent, God the Father, even more vigorously after being punished for some imagined transgression. Stone Age thinking in the twenty-first century.

There are long-studied and understood tornado zones in the southern United States. Engineers, architects and other scientifically educated experts have the tools to design infrastructure to anticipate and minimize the effect of tornadoes on human populations. Then why hasn't this been more thoroughly implemented? The answer is simple. People would rather cling to their traditional way of life than invest the money and time into scientifically improving their circumstances. Religion is a factor that helps them to believe they are doing the right thing by digging in and refusing to move on.

While it is impossible to eliminate risk through science, it is a better gamble than living with the illusion of a caring deity and just doing the same old thing that has not worked before. Learning from disaster is scientific. Resigning oneself to "God's will" is masochistic.

I fully understand that religion is consolation for some of the afflicted. Prayer alone, however, is the last resort of the impotent. Poverty and ignorance incapacitate those who have been stricken by disaster. Religion thrives amid the poor and the ignorant. Why then would those who garner their livelihood from religion promote scientific education? Why would they support technological and scientific advances for day-to-day living in their flock's environment? This would uplift the quality of life and education of the people whose ignorance they exploit.

Disaster can happen anywhere. The recent devastation in Japan, a highly advanced society, illustrates that for all of us. However, unlike the Japanese, many communities which live through disaster after disaster which could be anticipated and mollified by technology refuse to turn to science and turn to religion and conservatism instead. As a humanist, I see this as a greater detriment to social progress than religious bigotry. The cycle of reliance upon religion rather than inquiry in the face of human suffering simply propagates more human suffering.