by Annie Holmquist I recently ran across an interview with author Stephen Asma in The Irish Times. Although an atheist, Asma is a rather unique atheist because he believes religion is necessary, a fact evidenced in his recent book Why We Need Religion. According to Asma, a philosophy professor, religion does not make sense rationally, but it makes a lot of sense emotionally: “Of Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris, he says: ‘I agree with them that religion fails miserably at the bar of rational validity, but we’re at the wrong bar.; Religion is not necessarily meant to be true, he argues, but it’s meant to be useful. ‘Religion helps people, rightly or wrongly, manage their emotional lives’ and especially cope with pain. Asma goes on to say, “Rationality cannot do the heavy lifting that is required in the face of devastating loss. What is needed is positive emotion and pain-reduction – in a word, religion.” At first blush, such an admission seems like a backhanded compliment – a recognition that religion is a useful and needful element. On second thought, Asma’s comment seems simply to echo Karl Marx’s famous statement that religion is the opium of the people. But one of modern…
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