The Failure of Special Revelation

A great astronomer (a man today known as “the father of science”), was persecuted by his own religion and declared a heretic. He was sentenced to imprisonment for life (though, that was later converted to house arrest), and the book he had written that declared the universe as heliocentric (A model of the Universe that shows the Sun as the center and the Earth and other planets rotate around it) was banned and the copies that were already printed were burned and destroyed. This was all due to an ancient writing written nearly 5,000 years ago. The writing is known as “The Holy Bible”. The man was Galileo Galilei.

The American Religious Identification Survey stated that in 2008 the number of Deists was 12% of the American adult population. The ARIS also recorded that Deism is the fasted growing American religion with a growth rate of 717% in 11 years. While Christianity is losing followers by 10.2% between 1990 and 2008 and Judaism has shrunk by 0.6%, Eastern Religions (Religions who believe in the sacredness of nature, rather than focus on special revelation) has grown by 0.5% and Atheism as grown by 0.9% both from 1990 to 2008. But why are these changes happening? And more importantly, will they continue?

These demographics show a curious, yet exciting, trend. What the “Moral Majority” and the Christian Right call a Godly and Christian nation, seems to becoming less Christian and less focused on the gods of revealed religion. But what causes these trends? I asked this question to a friend of mine who works with Computer sciences. His answer surprised me, but it was very well thought out and had good points I had missed. He said, simply at first, “The Internet.” When I asked him to explain, he replied, “Before the Internet, you wouldn’t get all these opposing viewpoints, proof for this and lack of proof for that. Basically the Western religions were so big because people didn’t really have enough information on anything else and weren’t aware that there were that many atheists/deists.” And he finished with a smile and said, “That’s just my two cents.” But i knew he was on to something. So I asked him why thought Eastern Religions were so popular (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, etc) and not just the naturalistic western religions and philosophies. He replied, “The reason there’s an influx in eastern religions is, in my opinion, due to much of it is about making you better rather than follow this rule and follow that rule”. Another good answer, I thought. While I do believe that both of these are true, I think there is more.

Revealed Religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam are called revealed religions for a reason. They accept special revelations (Holy Scripture, prophets, messiahs, etc.) as 100% inspired by God and without error. This has caused a lot of misunderstandings about humanity, nature and the relationship between them. For centuries humans believed that we lived in a geocentric universe, that is, a universe that revolves around the earth, simply because of sacred writings like these:

Tremble before him, all the earth!
The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.

(1 Corinthians 16:30)

The LORD reigns, he is robed in majesty;
the LORD is robed in majesty
and is armed with strength.
The world is firmly established;
it cannot be moved.

(Psalms 93:1)

My own hand laid the foundations of the earth,
and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
they all stand up together.

(Isaiah 48:13)

After being forced to recant his claims, Galileo died under house arrest, ignored and belittled. And, fortunate as we are today, the modern scientific community ignores the ancient ramblings of a delusional religion, and has made the heliocentric model the official model of the universe. And though, the majority of mankind accepts the facts that point toward a heliocentric model, few people still claim that it is wrong. Few people still believe in the geocentric model of the universe based on the writings of ancient men who had no background in mathematics, physics, astronomy or any other science.

History shows humans the mistakes we have made, and how not to make those same mistakes over again. And yet, like with politics, government, economics and war, we continue to ignore History’s warnings when it comes to religion. The same mistake that revealed religions have made 400+ years ago is being made today. Thanks to two chapters in a book written 5,000+ years ago (Geneses, also known as The First Book of Moses) gallop polls done from 1982 to 2004 show that Adults believing in Creationism (The earth was created in 6 special acts of God 5,000-10,000 years ago) has gone up from 44% to 45% while Theistic Evolution (Evolution with a personal God thrown in) has stayed at 38% and Naturalistic Evolution (Evolution with no help from a God or very little help, includes Deism, pan-deism and pantheism) has only gone up from 9% to 12%. Museums have been created to teach kids and adults alike that humans once rode dinosaurs like people might ride horses. This kind of bull is even being taught in public schools around the country.

These Gallup polls show a continuous rejection and denial of a scientific theory with 200 years of evidence behind it. I think that in an era where evolution is all but a scientific law, people are starting to wake up to the unchanging anti-intellectual irrationality of revealed religions. I, personally, have witness firsthand the irrationality of these revealed religions. For twenty years of my life, I was a Christian. For about four of those twenty years I accept Theistic Evolution as the best theory of how the universe came to be. When I entered a Christian college, I was belittled for my views. These Christians who preached about a loving God could not love me the same as if I were a delusional creationist. It was this bigotry and intolerance that led me to rethink Christianity as a whole. And I am glad I did. The only regret that I have was that it took me so long to rethink what I believed.

I believe that the same anti-science bigotry and intolerance that led me away from Christianity and to Deism is the same thing that is leading the majority of people in America away from revealed religions. People are beginning to wake up to these lies and see the true face of revealed religion.

And It is about time. People, for too long, have suffered under the tyranny of the religious absolutes that are all too often completely and utterly wrong. As Galileo once said, “I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.”