To the editor:

Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, recently addressed the faithful from a 10,000-seat cathedral in Moscow. The patriarch said it was “God’s truth” that the people of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus share a common spiritual and national heritage and should be united as one people — in support of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s defense of the Ukraine war. So, apparently he feels it’s necessary to kill people to defend “God’s truth.” Well, he has a historical example: just read the Bible. Kirill’s statement is an example of the hubris of religious certainty.

Religious certainty leads to the duality of us versus them, them being other races, nations, or people of different religions. Conflict naturally followed. Religious conflicts have existed for millennia and continue to be waged into the present era, with each of the belligerents claiming sanctions by their deity. A few hundred years ago Protestants and Catholics were killing each other over who had the true faith. In the Middle East, Sunni and Shiite Muslims are at each other’s throats over who should be the heirs of their faith. Many other religious conflicts are ongoing today and strife between factions within religions has sometimes gone on for centuries.

Consider what religious certainty has been involved in: the breakdown of families, intolerance, shunning, persecution, imprisonment, brutality, witch hunting, hangings, burnings, disfigurements, terrorism, wars, and beheadings. At times it has condoned slavery, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, homophobia, the Crusades, the Inquisition, arranged marriages to minors, blowing up girl’s schools, suppression of women, ethnic cleansing, female genital mutilation, human sacrifice, banning of contraceptives, book burnings, censorship, and fascist-like social control.

There seems to be a loose correlation between religiosity and societal health and well-being. For example, the least religious countries in the world have the lowest rates of violent crime, corruption, racism, and intolerance. They also score highest for women’s rights, gender equality, and political liberty. They are also more peaceful, prosperous, and have a higher quality of life.

The happiest (most content) countries in the world include Finland (#1 five years in a row), Denmark, Iceland, Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden. These countries are minimally religious and Finland is also rated as the safest country in the world.

The measures used for these findings are healthy life expectancy, GDP per capita, social support in times of trouble, low corruption, high social trust, generosity in a community where people look after each other, and freedom to make key life decisions. Tellingly, these countries tend to be Social Democracies or have a Democratic Socialist government.

In contrast, some countries that are very religious, including the United States, have high rates of violence, poverty, infant mortality, and disease. The above problems also exist among our states, with the most religious states in the south and southwest having more poverty, violence and racism, while the least religious states in the northeast and northwest perform higher on standards of societal well-being. This may have something to say about religion. Of course, correlation is not causation, but being a religious state or country doesn’t seem to help ameliorate societal problems.

It seems to be the height of hubris to insist that one’s own deity is the true deity, and one’s own scriptures are infallible, while all others are in error. It has been estimated that over 100 billion people have existed in the last 50,000 years. Just a tiny fraction of these have ever heard of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, or any other current religions. This illustrates the myopia of divine revelation. It seems religions are a product of human invention and wishful thinking.

This is not to say there is no value in religious belief as long as it gives a purpose to one’s existence, comfort in times of grief, and doesn’t impinge itself upon the legal processes and provisions of a country. The bottom line is that it’s up to us, secularists and the faithful alike, to seek the happiness and flourishing of all our fellow humans. We need to continue the enlightenment started a few centuries ago and reject the repressive religious dogma that some politicians are trying to impose upon the country today.