Faith: Strength or a Fatal Weakness?

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We are taught from the time we are small children that faith is a very important thing to have. Is it really? To have faith is to believe without question. Is this a good thing to teach a child? Would it not be better to teach them the skills necessary for critical thinking? We are taught that the Bible, the Koran, the Torah or the Book of Mormon are sacred books, which we are to accept, with out question, as the literal word of God. This makes for a fertile breeding ground for fanatics and ultimately for terrorists. Unquestioning faith is the first prerequisite along a road that leads to the belief that it is okay to kill those who do not believe as you do. It was faith such as this that led men to fly airplanes into buildings on September the 11th. 2001. Without the belief in a special paradise reserved for martyrs and prophets, 9/11 would never have happened. Children, given the tools of reason and critical thinking do not grow up to kill people in the name of God. Teaching them to believe in Bronze Age myths, in spite of all evidence to the contrary, robs them of the tools necessary to make informed decisions later in life. As we saw on 9/11 this can have tragic consequences. The perpetrators of the horrendous crimes of that day, acted without reason. They act it out of blind faith. Is religious belief a bad thing? No, it is not if it is tempered with reason. In fact, it is probably an evolutionary adaptation that has helped our species to survive. The problem is that this is an adaptation that is misfiring now. In earlier times, when we lived in isolated villages and small tribes a commonality of belief helped to make us a cohesive group. In modern society, it causes a problem. What was a benefit in earlier times now can lead to isolation. When we set ourselves apart in a small group of people that believe as we do we tend to dehumanize people who do not share our beliefs or are not part of our select group. They are somehow less than us. If they can not see the obvious truths that we hold dear than any way we treat them is okay. After all, they must be morally defective not to see the truth. To be that dumb, they must all be subhuman, and any way, they are all dirty and smell bad. If we are to go forward and end the madness we must make our religion inclusive rather than exclusive. It could be said that we would be better off without religion. Religion can be a dangerous thing in the hands of people who do not use reason to control it. We have seen it before, when it took the form of inquisitions, crusades and genocides, all in the name of God. We see it in today's holy warriors, the suicide bombers and the bombers of abortion clinics. For the sake of the survival of our species we must learn a better way. Religion in one form or another has always been and probably always will be a characteristic of our species. We must teach our children to think critically about it and apply reason to it. We cannot continue to take, without question them, the teachings of the past. It is time for a new age of enlightenment if we are to survive.