"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." Or maybe not.

Voltaire as he appeared at
the end of the 18th century
On this Sunday in New Zealand, we savor the delicious irony (smothered in Béarnaise) that many Christian conservatives now find themselves siding with Voltaire.  “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him," insisted the notorious skeptic, advancing his utilitarian argument with a twinkle in his eye.  Clearly, no self-respecting evangelicals would ever invite Francois-Marie to join them at Denny's after Church (or IHOP, Crackerbarrel, or Applebees -- take your pick).  And none expect to see his face during the coming resurrection (for God truly hates the French and their peculiar eating habits).  Yet the fact remains that many of today's conservative Christians are making much the same point as our feisty little philosophe, albeit with the glassy stare that marks the true believer.

Take the Discovery Institute, for instance, that non-profit think tank (one uses the term loosely) dedicated to the promotion of "Creative Design.”  Since any outright pronouncement of religious truth would shatter its thin scientific disguise, the Institute won’t go so far as to make any religious pronouncements about God; it will only insist that a belief in God is good for us.  In an essay published by the Institute entitled the “The Dehumanizing Impact of Modern Thought,” for example, an institute scribe traces a line from Darwin, Marx, and Nietzsche to the gas chambers of Auschwitz (I say traces because he hijacks the words of Victor Frankl).  He condemns the “false conceptions of humanity” spawned by modern thought that "lead to destructive behavior and harmful policies” (like the Holocaust and, worse still, the disappearance of the author in literary analysis).  And in conclusion he points out that:

people who believe humans are created in the image of God will have different values, practices, and institutions than those who view humans as merely the sum total of environmental and biological inputs.

Members of the Salem Community Church
(10 S. Walnut Lane, Schaumburg, IL 60193)
at the local Applebees, 'munching on the
delicious 2 for 20$ lunch meals'
and taking 'a 'nice break from the busy
flow of studying, working and serving at
church.' Note the conspicuous absence of
Francois-Marie Voltaire. And, no, he was
not the one taking the picture

Of course, one might also add that they practice a different kind of textual criticism and read far less interesting books.  Perhaps it is also worth pointing out that far more Nazis went to Church than ever read Darwin, Marx, and Nietzsche.  But that's not the bone I want to pick right now so we'll let it slide. 

Likewise, the Family Research Council avoids making claims of religious truth and states only that:

...from the social science perspective the more an individual practices his religious beliefs the more he thrives in education, health and mental health, marriage and family and the less likely is he to be involved in crime, addiction, abuse or a host of other ills.

I certainly find curious the persistent use of the masculine pronoun -- the scribes are clearly bucking the trend, writing about "social science perspectives" and reinforcing biblical patriarchy at the same time.  Very, very sneaky.  But I digress.

Finally, my favorite piece, which looks like an add for a Tarantino flick, is a graphic by Answers in Genesis in which some young punk holds a revolver to your eye: If God doesn't matter to him, do you?  The text continues:

As a society, we reap the consequences of the unquestioned acceptance of the belief in evolution every day.  It diminishes your worth and reduces human beings from being 'made in the image of God' to being mere players in the game of survival of the fittest.

Faced with such horrific visions of a world without God, one might indeed be tempted to cauterize the brain so as to banish doubt and embrace the ridiculous.

But let us not so hastily concede the point to Voltaire (a man I've always admired, especially his fashion sense).  Let us, instead, take him to the mountain and from lofty heights let him gaze upon the nations of the world.  For one nice thing about utilitarian arguments (unlike religious ones) is that they can be measured.  

Behold, the United States.  Compared to all other first world democracies, the United States exhibits the greatest intensity of popular religious belief.  Of these democracies, the United States is the only society where most people strongly believe in a Creator and most people reject evolution.  It is the only country where most people pray at least several times a week.  It has the highest percentage of biblical literalists and the second-lowest percentage of atheists and agnostics (just slightly more than Ireland).

Religion in
Prosperous Democracies (I)

Religion in
Prosperous Democracies (II)
Religiosity and
Societal Dysfunction (I)
Religiosity and
Societal Dysfunction (II)
Religiosity and
Societal Dysfunction (III)

Likewise, compared to all other first world democracies, the United States exhibits by far the greatest degree of social dysfunction.  Homicide rates are more than 300% higher than in most secular democracies.  The United States has the highest rate of mortality for children under five (something which diminishes in other secular democracies as religious belief wanes).  Sexually transmitted diseases afflict American youth at rates many times those which are found in secular democracies.  Among first world democracies, the United States has the highest rate of teenage abortion (almost twice that of Sweden) – as with infant mortality, abortion rates diminish as religious belief declines.  Americans have the shortest marriages and second-highest rate of divorce (slightly less than Sweden).  They have the second-shortest life spans (a little higher than Italy).  The Americans imprison more of their citizens than any other country in the world (not just any other prosperous democracy): 400% more than New Zealand (which has the second highest rate of incarceration among prosperous democracies) and almost 1000% more than Sweden (which has the lowest rate of incarceration among prosperous democracies).  America has the highest levels of poverty and greatest income inequality.  And Americans work more days of the year than do the citizens of any other prosperous democracy.

Moreover, this societal dysfunction is a found in a country of extreme wealth.  With less than 5% of the world’s population, America controls 25% of the world’s financial wealth and consumes 25% of the world’s energy.  But whereas secular democracies have managed their resources to produce healthy societies and healthy individuals, this has clearly not happened in America.

Where does religion fit in all this?  Among all other factors, religiosity stands out.  Other first-world democracies (Canada, Australia, New Zealand) have a frontier heritage and are culturally diverse; all first-world countries have a media saturated with violence and sex.  What distinguishes America from the other first-world democracies is fervor of its faithful.  To a certain extent, religiosity in other democracies has waned as individuals in those societies have increasingly enjoyed the benefits and security that came with increasing prosperity; and to some degree, the high levels of religiosity in the USA are the result of material anxiety.  But powerful religious lobbies in the United States have persistently resisted efforts to advance societal health in the United States and they continue to do so.  Promoting abstinence-only sex education, impeding health care reform, denigrating social services provided by government while trying to secure public funds for faith-based social outreach, opposing progressive tax-reform,  favoring retributive punishment rather than rehabilitation -- the list goes on.  Religious conservatives identify any progressive agenda with socialism and the welfare state, which for them are tantamount to atheistic communism and a threat to Judeo-Christian values.  They are, in fact, much more interested in creating a society that is pleasing to God than one which is good for human beings.  And this, more than anything else, has poisoned American political discourse.

Voltaire as he appears today. The
longevity of the philosopher (who
has traded in his pen for a guitar)
has convinced many Christians that he
is actually demon-spawn. Others believe
that he's the wandering Jew. In fact,
he's a vampire -- the inspiration for
'Spike' in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I doubt very much, however, that any of this matters to those who fill the mega-churches in Colorado and Alabama or take their families to Florida's "Holy Land Experience" to bathe in blood of an ersatz Christ, up close and personal.  For them, the utilitarian argument is really just a ploy, a point of entry for political debate, a Trojan Horse.  Voltaire himself, however, would have changed his mind --  inventing God may not have been so necessary after all.

[sources are papers published by Gregory Paul -- "The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions," Evolutionary Psychology, Volume 7 (3) 2009; and Cross-National Correlations of Quantifiable Social Health with Popular Religiosity and Secularism in the Prosperous Democracies," Journal of Religion & Society (Volume 7) 2005.]