Karen Armstrong The Case For God Summary

The human condition: seeking answers without truly understanding them. At a certain point in a person’s life, one faces an existential crisis that leads one to question much of what was blindly believed to be true including religion. The purpose of religion is a question that always emerges from this period of self-reflection. During her own crisis, Karen Armstrong questioned the notion of religion and voiced her findings in the book, The Case for God. In the chapter, “Homo Religiosus”, she addresses the purpose of religion. She states that humans “created religions and works of art to help them find value in their lives, despite all the dispiriting evidence to the contrary.”(38) Armstrong then continues to give the reader her perspective on religion.

She believes true religion is a trait unique to man: it is the defining feature that separates man from beast, thus the name, Homo Religiosus.

She states that religion was an invention of the early humans to reach a level of transcendence and with religion came rituals; however, as time went on, the practices held in such reverence to the early people were replaced by a rigid set of beliefs used to live a life of spiritual “perfection.” Is religion simply a set of laws used to compel obedience, or is religion an opium used by people who cannot accept oblivion? People fear what they do not understand, and they cling to hypotheticals and religion to mollify the idea of nothing: no Nirvana, no Heaven, nor Hell. Perhaps, the appeal of religion is the false notion of self-importance. Each religion tries to appeal to the people by stating that they are, in fact, the chosen people. Religion has become a safe shroud used to cover the eyes of people too afraid to see the

truth..
People would rather blindly follow religion than discover their truths for themselves. Nature, in its very essence, cannot go against the grain. Even water would rather flow smoothly than hit a rough patch. So knowing such information, can one really expect humans to act any differently? In a time where religion has an impact over most aspects of life, some people question why so many would willingly give up their individuality to follow the masses. One such person was Solomon Asch. Asch conducted an experiment on human conformity to address such an issue and the results were as expected: “on average 75% of the participants conformed to the group at least once. Most said they conformed for one of two reasons; the [first] being that they believed the group was better informed than they were and most wanted to fit in.” (Asch Experiment) Having separate ideas from everyone else scares many people, like the participants in the Asch study, because it most likely means ostracization. People are too afraid to be different because they fear that they will not fit some kind of mold that makes a person worthy of human companionship. Moreover, people believe in something they don’t truly understand just to feel as though they are part of something bigger than themselves. In a poll conducted by the Barna Group, “26% of Americans [said] they read the bible on a regular basis (Huffington Post), however 83% of Americans identified as Christians.”(ABC News) How can one truly identify as a certain religion when the person has no idea what its doctrines teach? This ignorance leads to blind faith, which contradicts the promise given by a higher deity: salvation. Faith cannot truly be faith when one does not know where their devotion is directed. A person must be knowledgeable in their faith for it to hold merit as true faith.
People come up with biblical excuses as to why events happen in order to protect themselves from what these events might actually mean. 9/11, the Holocaust, World War 1and II, and slavery. The most common excuse uttered by most religious people has become so ubiquitous that it is heard almost everywhere. It is all a part of Gods plan. This excuse and, many just like it, have been used to justify all the cruelty seen in the world. People turn a blind eye to such tragic events and put all the responsibility on God as a type of diffusion of blame. This removal of responsibility has become less about ignorance and more about self-preservation. The general population would much rather believe that a mystical being was puppeteering such heinous events as part of some master plan because the alternative is much more sinister. Regular people losing their humanity and committing such crimes means to the observer that he or she also has the potential to do the same. It would be so much easier to blame a god rather than accepting the fact that anyone could be able to disregard their humanity without a second thought. Then comes the warping of tragedies to further the belief that there is truly no control in the hands of humans. This irrational excuse removes the blame of a freak accidents from the hands of the people, where it rightfully belongs. They instead put the responsibility in the hands of a god when the have been prevented by humans. The argument is that no matter what you do, there would have been no different outcome because it was preordained by a higher power. The population believes that they do not possess the power to rear different results than the set outcome. This type of reason hinders the progress of any thriving civilization because it allows people to do nothing.
Furthermore, people chose to be blind to logic and reason because it threatens their religious beliefs. The same logic was explored by Plato's Allegory of the Cave. In the allegory, a group of people are chained to each other inside a cave. They only see shadows, which become their entire world. Like the occupants chained in a cave, people only see what they have seen their entire lives. They cannot believe that there is something more than what they know is true. Even though theories like evolution have more than enough evidence to prove it is worth attention many religious people chose to ignore it. They refuse to believe anything that could threaten their faith. However, there has been no evidence found to prove any religion. Instead of focus on the concrete and tangible many people choose to believe in something that may or may not be true. People live, die, and even kill for gods who might not even exist. They build their lives on the fact that there is a higher deity, so many would rather be right than come a peaceful ceasefire. Mnay people would rather hide in the darkness of their own cave watching the familiar shadows, in an almost child-like manner, than come out to and see the sunlight: the truth.
The concept behind religion is to give people just enough to hold on to. There is just enough to feed the hungry mass but there will never be enough to satisfy their never ending hunger. So the followers, instead of realizing that they will never truly be satisfied, keep going back hoping that this time the crumbs they are given will be more than the last time. As religion gains more and more power in the developed world, people need to be able to see reality as it is rather than turn their backs to them before they are completely robbed of their sight just for a sense of value.