Religion and logic

For a long time I’ve been a supporter of religion. Organised or otherwise, it has many positive and helpful uses in society. It can unite people in a way that transcends government and culture, even if the claims it makes about the afterlife and the supernatural are untrue.

One of the things I often hear about religion is that it’s irrational. This is quite true. It makes claims that no-one can test or prove. But what’s wrong with that?

Our society is full of irrationality that goes embraced and endorsed by so-called rationalists. Want examples? Funerals. Why on earth do we have little ceremonies when someone dies? They’re dead. They don’t care. How about national holidays? Is there any rational basis for those? That they bring people closer together? That’s an emotional reason, not a rational one. How about teenage love? When you crush on a girl, are you logically working through the possibilities in your mind, thinking “okay, she has good future prospects, a nice family, her genes seem to be in good order” before you decide whether you want to mate with her? Of course not. Your emotions and hormones are making a decision on their own. The logical part of your brain is MIA.

Now, for the most part, rationalism is far better than irrationalism. You don’t want to be irrationality in, say, the sciences. But why must we strive for rationality in, say, culture, entertainment and art? We need to remember that logic is merely a way of finding the truth, not truth itself.