Michael Shermer on Religion and societal harm
Shermer argues that while religion has produced some social goods, its net effect is negative due to its promotion of credulity, tribalism, and resistance to moral progress.
Michael Shermer's assessment of religion's societal impact is more nuanced than that of some New Atheist figures, but his conclusion is ultimately negative. He acknowledges that religion has produced genuine social goods — community, consolation, charitable works, artistic inspiration — but argues that these goods are not unique to religion and can be provided by secular institutions, while the harms of religion — credulity, tribalism, suppression of inquiry, and resistance to moral progress — are distinctive and difficult to replicate without it.
Shermer is particularly concerned about what he calls the 'belief engine' — the human tendency to form beliefs first and seek evidence for them afterwards. Religion, he argues, trains this engine by teaching people that faith is virtuous and doubt is sinful. Once calibrated in this way, the belief engine is vulnerable to all manner of unsupported claims — not just religious ones but political, medical, and conspiratorial. The societal harm of religion, in Shermer's analysis, extends far beyond the directly religious domain.
In The Moral Arc, Shermer argues that the trajectory of moral progress runs away from religious authority and toward secular reason. Every major moral advance — the abolition of slavery, the emancipation of women, the recognition of LGBTQ rights — was achieved against religious opposition. Religion, in Shermer's assessment, is not the engine of moral progress but its most consistent brake.
“Religion provides community, meaning, and comfort — all of which are available without the supernatural claims, the tribalism, and the resistance to moral progress that come bundled with it.”
“The moral arc bends toward justice despite religion, not because of it.”