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title: "Aron Ra on Religion and societal harm"
description: "Aron Ra argues that religion — particularly fundamentalist Christianity — actively harms society through science denial, bigotry, and the erosion of secular education."
canonical: https://opendoubt.com/people/aron-ra/on/religion-and-societal-harm
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# Aron Ra on Religion and societal harm

> Aron Ra argues that religion — particularly fundamentalist Christianity — actively harms society through science denial, bigotry, and the erosion of secular education.

Position

# Aron Ra on _Religion and societal harm_

Argues againstAtheist activist and science communicator

Aron Ra argues that religion — particularly fundamentalist Christianity — actively harms society through science denial, bigotry, and the erosion of secular education.

Aron Ra has spent decades fighting the influence of creationism in public education, and this experience informs his broad assessment of religion's societal impact. He argues that fundamentalist Christianity in the United States is waging an active war against science education, critical thinking, and secular governance — and that the consequences are measurable in declining scientific literacy, the politicisation of public health, and the erosion of church-state separation.

Ra documents specific harms: the teaching of creationism in public schools, the opposition to comprehensive sex education, the persecution of LGBTQ+ students and families, the cover-up of clerical abuse, and the use of religious exemptions to circumvent civil rights protections. These are not isolated incidents but systematic patterns that arise predictably from religious institutions that claim divine authority and resist accountability.

He distinguishes between individual believers, who may be kind and well-intentioned, and religious institutions, which concentrate power without accountability. The problem, Ra argues, is not that religious people are bad but that religious authority structures are resistant to correction — because the authority is claimed to come from God, it cannot be questioned, and abuses go unchecked.

Key quotes

> “The problem isn't that religious people are immoral. The problem is that religious institutions claim an authority that cannot be questioned, and that is a recipe for abuse.”

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Aron Ra

Full profile — positions, quotes, and key moments.

](/people/aron-ra)[

Religion and societal harm

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