Religion, reward and punishment

By Perhelion [CC0], from Wikimedia Commons

To pose a sensitive question

This article is a bit more of a thought experiment than a statement. It is also a somewhat uncomfortable article to write because it's about religion. I have friends who are Christian and they are good friends, and I respect them. I know how upset people can get during a discussion of religion, so I have tended to avoid discussing it. But a big part of life is getting out of the comfort zone, exploring the world, and in the case of writing, exploring old topics from a new perspective.

For those who are "believers", I offer the following quote from Alan Watts, an excerpt from the book, The Wisdom of Insecurity (a book that completely changed my outlook on life):

We must here make a clear distinction between belief and faith, because, in general practice, belief has come to mean a state of mind which is almost the opposite of faith. Belief, as I use the word here, is the insistence that the truth is what one would “lief” or wish it to be. The believer will open his mind to the truth on the condition that it fits in with his preconceived ideas and wishes. Faith, on the other hand, is an unreserved opening of the mind to the truth, whatever it may turn out to be. Faith has no preconceptions; it is a plunge into the unknown. Belief clings, but faith lets go. In this sense of the word, faith is the essential virtue of science, and likewise of any religion that is not self-deception.
[...]
The present phase of human thought and history … almost compels us to face reality with open minds, and you can only know God through an open mind just as you can only see the sky through a clear window. You will not see the sky if you have covered the glass with blue paint.

But “religious” people who resist the scraping of the paint from the glass, who regard the scientific attitude with fear and mistrust, and confuse faith with clinging to certain ideas, are curiously ignorant of laws of the spiritual life which they might find in their own traditional records. A careful study of comparative religion and spiritual philosophy reveals that abandonment of belief, of any clinging to a future life for one’s own, and of any attempt to escape from finitude and mortality, is a regular and normal stage in the way of the spirit. Indeed, this is actually such a “first principle” of the spiritual life that it should have been obvious from the beginning, and it seems, after all, surprising that learned theologians should adopt anything but a cooperative attitude towards the critical philosophy of science.
(Emphasis mine)

It is with this attitude that I write and post this article. This is not an attack on religion. Even in the gentle prods of humor below, there is no intention of offense. This article posits a single question as a theme, which I shall get to later, and it is all done in good faith.

I also want to preface the remainder of this article by noting that a general theme of my writing in the last 2 years has been about reward and punishment. I have also made the following statement several times in various forms:

Punishment and reward do not teach any skills. They only reinforce behavior, good or bad.

I practice this principle in my life everyday with everybody I come into contact with. To put it simply, rather than take offense to inappropriate behavior, I consider a person exhibiting inappropriate behavior in the context of that person's skills and capacities to adapt to the demands of his/her environment. By framing my observation of human behavior in this context, I never have to take anything anyone does or says, personally. It is in such a frame of mind that I am best able to help, if help is requested, and I am best able to help myself and remain calm during such a disturbance.

Here is the question

Does religion teach the skills required to meet the standard of behavior it professes?

I've tried to read the Bible and I just cannot take it seriously. It reads to me too much like a fairy tale. It was written and re-written by many, many people along the way to the modern forms of the same. There are many versions, each fashioned in the eye of the person with the most power at the time a given version was written, in the place it was written. The Bible was written by human beings who are prone to error (thanks, Tom Paine). The Bible was written by people who did not know what happens to the sun after it sets (thanks, Bill Maher).

But still, there is this God, this concept of an almighty, all knowing deity that knows everything about me. He knows if I am sleeping, he knows if I'm awake. He knows if I've been bad or good, so I'm good for goodness sake. It was presented like that to me when I was young.

The modern Christian conception of God is central to Western Materialism. This concept seems almost perfectly designed to get people to work, to behave, to be nice. Such a god, if it really exists (I'm agnostic), is all about reward and punishment and let's not forget about the Protestant Work Ethic. I think it fair to say to any Christians who happen to read this, I am not criticizing you or religion per se, I am criticizing the use of religion for social control, or as Thomas Paine put it in his book, The Age of Reason, "tyranny beyond the grave." It seems obvious to me that the primary purpose of any religion should always be enlightenment. Is that obvious to you?

I've been to church a few times. I've read some scripture. But the thing that seems to be missing from all of that is skills. It's like the entire motive of Christianity is to rely upon God with His coercion in the form of punishment or reward to make me a better person, a good worker, a good husband, an obedient person. This concept of a jealous God (no graven images, please!) meting out punishment or providing rewards is without any consideration of my capacity to comply, and is in complete opposition to the concept of a loving, benevolent god, that forgives us of all sins.

I think this is my primary objection to religion in general, and Christianity in particular. I can recall learning in high school about the Calvinists who said, "You're damned if you do and damned if you don't." What kind of a god is that? As a boy, I've had people tell me that I will go to hell for what I've done, or if I don't do X. In other words, extortion is OK as far a religion goes.

So if I am to be rewarded for being good and sent to hell for being bad, what happens if I lack the skills or capacity to achieve the standard of behavior so professed? It seems to me that you cannot honestly preach a standard of behavior, and expect me to meet or exceed that standard without teaching me the skills required to achieve it.

In mother's womb, all of our needs are met, and when we're born, we're basically a clean slate. From birth to death, we're in a constant state of negotiation to get our needs met. If our parents are aware of our needs, they will work to meet our needs. If we're lucky, the skills we learned from our parents allow us to get our needs met as adults.

Parenting is about teaching kids how to meet their needs by teaching them the skills required to get their needs met so that they can survive as adults. Parents model the behavior, kids copy the parents and try it on to see if it works for them. Ideally, we'd want to teach our kids how to get their needs met while respecting the needs and rights of others. Isn't that what a god should be for all of his children?

Anarchism vs social control in religion

Christianity in and of itself is probably not a bad thing. I'd like to think that when it was first introduced, it was meant as a path to enlightenment, a way to know our creator, if it can be known. I certainly have that impression about Buddhism. At least Buddha made a sort of scientific inquiry to see what works for him; he was born rich and found it wanting, then he tried asceticism and didn't like that either. So he found a middle way. And he came to know that we are all connected in some way. That seems to me, like a path to enlightenment, and a rather difficult premise for social control.

I think there is ample evidence that when Christianity was first introduced, it was intended as a path to enlightenment. The quote that sticks in my mind, is that Jesus merely said, "Follow me."

Jesus has never been quoted to say, "Follow me or else" or, "Follow me, then take up high office in government and compel everyone else to follow me." There is even evidence to suggest that Jesus was an anarchist. That seems to mean he was not interested in social control. From what I've read so far, he made it abundantly clear that he made an invitation, not a command. Invitations are voluntary.

But, it is apparent that since its introduction, Christianity has been perverted to be deployed as a means of social control more than a path to get to know God. Why else would God be jealous and punitive? Why else would he even bother to bait Adam and Eve with fruit from the Tree of Knowledge?

Ah, I see. We're not supposed to know the skills required to be better human beings. We're supposed to rely entirely upon God for that. Failing that, I suppose we are disobedient of God.

Maybe that's the problem then. Our expectations of ourselves are too high, even for adults. And we all know how well expectations work out.

Skills vs social control

If God doesn't volunteer to teach us the skills to be better human beings, we can either pray for knowledge of his will for us, and the power to carry that out or, we can rely upon each other and share ideas about how to improve ourselves. We can even do both, if we want to. There is nothing inherently wrong with either choice. Neither choice implies punishment or reward. Either choice is a request for help.

That is exactly what happens in support groups and therapy sessions all over the world. And not all of those people believe in God, and not all of them pray. But they often do believe in the power of someone or something greater than themselves to help them become better human beings, even if they're not explicit about that belief. There is a reason why people will pray to a god, or go to a support group for help: everything they ever tried before to help themselves didn't work. And they do so voluntarily.

And when the person still suffering finds others of similar situation, he can at last learn that he is not alone, that there are others who have tread his path, and that there is indeed hope. And he may learn something from those more experienced: the skills required to minimize his suffering and to go on to make his life better.

Life is about natural consequences

Now the still suffering person learns about the natural consequences of his actions. He or she begins to learn how to think through all of the possible consequences he can muster to any act considered. She knows that she can call someone before she acts. She can pray. She can write. She can wait until the feeling passes, so that wisdom may find her.

This kind of relationship with a god, or with a power greater than ourselves is not concerned with punishment and reward. It is concerned with natural consequences. This is a skill: being able to discern the consequences of our actions before we take them. And try as we might, we cannot anticipate every single consequence of our actions. We can make educated guesses to be sure, but the world is far too complex for us to know the future. We can only start with intention to do the right thing and hope for the best.

Faith pays no mind to reward and punishment. Faith allows us to have an open mind and ask for help when we need it. Faith acknowledges that not everyone has the skills to get along with others. Faith allows us to help someone in need rather than punish them for not meeting our standard of behavior. Faith allows us to help someone else without any expectations.

For it is not up to us to decide if someone is good or bad. It is up to us to help our fellow man or woman if we choose to do so. For the man we help today, may save us years from now. All without any need for religion as a means of social control. Upon this realization, we may revert back to the use of religion as means to know the creator, if there is one to be known, nothing more.