Is Religion “Harmful Superstition”?

The headline of a recent article in National Geographic reads, “In Age of Science, Is Religion ‘Harmful Superstition’?” The article includes an interview with atheist author Jerry Coyne. Now, we’ve written about Coyne before. He’s a very outspoken critic of creation and promoter of evolution. Actually, I’ve pointed out that he seems to understand how absolutely incompatible evolution and biblical Christianity are more than even most Christians!

This recent interview with Coyne is intended to show how religion is “harmful superstition” with no place in the age of science. He makes specific reference to the doctrine of creation and how evolution has supposedly disproved the beginning chapters of Genesis. Of course, he completely ignores the major problems with evolutionary ideas about the past. The article also includes a photo and brief description of the Creation Museum.

During his interview, Coyne made this statement: “One of the meanings of superstition in the Oxford English dictionary is a belief that is unfounded or irrational. Since I see all religious belief as unfounded and irrational, I consider religion to be superstition.” So Coyne thinks that religion is superstition because it’s “unfounded and irrational.” But what Coyne would refuse to admit is that atheism itself is a religion. It’s a set of beliefs through which atheists view and interpret the world, and they hold to this worldview with ardor and blind faith—despite the inconsistencies and irrationality of the religion! So, then by Coyne’s own definition, his religion of atheism is nothing more than superstition! And his religion contains irrational beliefs—it goes against the laws of nature, the laws of logic, the uniformity of nature, and observational science, which confirms that the naturalistic explanation for the origin of life is impossible!

Atheism Is Unfounded and Irrational

You see, atheism’s worldview is completely unfounded and irrational. For example, according to atheistic ideas about the origin of the universe, everything came about by naturalistic, material processes. But if everything is the result of material processes, how did completely immaterial laws of nature and logic come about? Where do they come from? And if our universe truly is the result of random processes, then why do these laws work consistently everywhere throughout the universe? And why do they work the same today as they did yesterday? In a naturalistic worldview, there is no answer to these questions!

Later on in the interview Coyne again exposes the irrationality of his worldview when he says, “The less a religion has to do with a tangible God, the less it hands out moral dictates and the better it is. Once you believe in an absolute authority that tells you what to do, you’re heading down the road to perdition, I think.” So first he implies that moral dictates are a bad thing (which, in itself is a moral dictate!), but then he says that he believes in “perdition,” which implies that he believes in moral absolutes or at least morality. But Coyne can’t have it both ways! He can’t say that “moral dictates” and “absolute authority” are part of what make religion bad, and yet still believe in and espouse moral dictates as if he and his religion are the absolute authority! It’s utterly hypocritical, inconsistent, unfounded, and irrational.

Atheism Is Harmful Superstition

So, it’s not Christianity that is “harmful superstition”—it’s atheism! And atheism is harming Coyne and those who read his books and listen to his talks. You see, as an atheist, Coyne believes that when he’s dead, that’s it—he’s dead. But that’s not what’s going to happen when he dies. He will spend eternity somewhere, either separated from God in hell or with God for eternity in heaven. His religion is harming him even now as he lives in rebellion against his Creator, and it will harm him for eternity if he and other atheists and unbelievers like him do not repent and turn to Christ for the free gift of salvation that He offers because of His death and Resurrection.

We need to pray that Coyne and others like him will turn to Christ and be saved. Sadly, he believes a fictional story (evolution) as his justification to rebel against our Creator God.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,
Ken

This item was written with the assistance of AiG’s research team.