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title: "Peter Boghossian on Religion and societal harm"
description: "Boghossian argues that faith — the epistemological method at the heart of religion — is inherently harmful because it prevents the self-correction that healthy societies require."
canonical: https://opendoubt.com/people/peter-boghossian/on/religion-and-societal-harm
source: html
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# Peter Boghossian on Religion and societal harm

> Boghossian argues that faith — the epistemological method at the heart of religion — is inherently harmful because it prevents the self-correction that healthy societies require.

Position

# Peter Boghossian on _Religion and societal harm_

Argues againstPhilosopher and author

Boghossian argues that faith — the epistemological method at the heart of religion — is inherently harmful because it prevents the self-correction that healthy societies require.

Boghossian's case against religion's societal impact is distinctive because it targets the epistemology rather than the specific beliefs. His thesis in A Manual for Creating Atheists is that faith — defined as 'pretending to know things you don't know' — is an unreliable method of forming beliefs, and that when a society treats this method as virtuous, predictable harms follow. These include resistance to science, opposition to evidence-based policy, and the inability to revise harmful practices.

He argues that the specific harms of religion — the suppression of women, the persecution of sexual minorities, the obstruction of medical research — are not incidental but structural. They follow necessarily from an epistemology that privileges revelation over evidence and obedience over inquiry. A society that teaches people to accept claims without evidence will inevitably get the moral questions wrong, because it has disabled the error-correction mechanisms that allow moral progress.

Boghossian is also deeply concerned about the institutional protection of faith from criticism. The social norm that religious beliefs deserve automatic respect — that it is rude or bigoted to question someone's faith — prevents the public scrutiny that all ideas need. He sees his street epistemology project as a practical response: giving people the tools to question faith-based claims respectfully but honestly.

Key quotes

> “Faith is an epistemology. It's a way of knowing. And it's a bad one. The question is whether we can afford to keep pretending otherwise.”

Continue exploring

[

Peter Boghossian

Full profile — positions, quotes, and key moments.

](/people/peter-boghossian)[

Religion and societal harm

The full argument — stated fairly, then answered.

](/arguments/religion-and-societal-harm)

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