"Significance of Religious Belief", A Review

A parishoner gave me a copy of Howard Wettstein's new book Significance of Religious Belief.  Having studied Philosophy for many years I perked with interest to read Dr. Wettstein's views on the eternal.  I must say now I was sorely disappointed.

This book speaks about anything but what the title proclaims.  I felt a bit of a bait and switch had been performed by the good doctor.  The tome is no more than the usual complaint that religious belief is the problem with humanity and if we all only compromised our beliefs into some melting pot or buffet of religion then we could all get along and utopia would be ours.

Sadly, also there is little Philosophy done in Wettstein's book.  There are mentions of Wittgenstein, Husserl, Bergstrom, and Sartre, but only mention.  Wettstein does not take anything far enough to conclusion other than "the new atheists have a good point to make.  Religion is poisoning belief and people are tired of being condemned.  When belief is reduced to religion then we all fail." (98)

This is as deep as it gets.  Religion is bad for belief because people do not like to be told they are sinners and the price for sin death.  Well, for Christians, Jews, and Muslims that is the point doctor.  Sorry that folk will not bend to your sanitized hand holding but scripture is what guides religion and thus belief.  Your logic fails as thus:

Religion is poison.

Belief is good.

Therefore do not reduce belief to religion.

This fails for the obvious reason - where is the proof religion is poison as you insist doctor?  Wettstein does as the "New Atheists" do - he simply dives right into his conclusion without doing the hard work of first setting up the syllogism, then using proofs, and finally reaching a conclusion.  I would expect such from Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, et al, but seriously not from a profound philosopher like Wettstein.

In the end what you have is another rant against religions in general - Christians in particular - that is a self serving tome on the pile of no more than the hear, hear of Hitchens' 2007 God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.  Having read Hitchens' work there is no need to waste time on Wettstein unless you wish to reread what has been written since 2007.

Religion Bad for Business?

Too much religion can harm a society’s economy by undermining the drive for financial success, according to a new study in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

The study of almost 190,000 people from 11 religiously diverse cultures is raising eyebrows among some of England’s religious leaders for suggesting Judaism and Christianity have anti-wealth norms.

Written by academics at University of Southampton in England and the Humboldt University of Berlin, the study found that religious people in religious cultures reported better psychological adjustment when their income was low.

The study cites the Bible to show how Judaism and Christianity turn upside down the belief that the highest possible income leads to the highest possible happiness and psychological adjustment.

It quotes biblical examples such as Jesus’ teaching, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” from Matthew 5:3.

The academics conducted their interviews in 11 countries, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands and Turkey.

“What the great faiths condemn is the irresponsible use of wealth, not wealth itself,” said Michael Nazir-Ali, the former bishop of Rochester in the Church of England. “The worship of money is the root of all evil and not money on its own.”

The authors said they received no financial support for the research authorship and/or publication of the article.