The Logical Utility of Church and Religion (Extended Distillation)

And yes, they are different.

For the purposes of this article I’m looking at religion in the context of Christianity.

This feels like a weird thing for me to write about…

But, screw it, it’s my newsletter and I’ve been thinking about it for a while. And others are arriving at similar conclusions.

Small backstory for those that don’t know (skip past the image if you don’t care):

I was baptized as an infant and attended church whenever it was convenient around the ages of 8-14. I did also undergo a confirmation ceremony in high school. From my perspective, we weren’t really a religious family growing up. Nascar was more my dad’s speed on Sunday mornings and hockey practice took precedence over making it to church.

I did later find out that the men’s group he was a part of did have some religious undertones, but he never talked about it.

The tattoo on my left arm “Omnes Pulvere Stellarum Sumus” or “We Are All Stardust” was meant to remind me of the the atheist idea that said creationism was nonsense. We are literally made of the dust from stars.

My point is: I was around religion, I never felt religious.

So far as I can tell, most people have largely become opposed to religion for 3 main reasons:

1. It’s direct condemnation of gay people.

2. It’s narrative to present story as fact.

3. Creationism conflicting with science.

There are other smaller reasons that usually stem from bad behaviour on behalf of small groups (ie. Westboro Baptist Church).

I want to concentrate on the second reason. It is really the crux of the discussion.

A lot of people stop at reason #1 and throw out everything else. But, as someone who has certainly picked the mold spots off my cheddar jalapeno bagels from Costco, rarely do overt blemishes ruin all of anything.

No witch hunts, very much in favour of gay rights. Live your life.

Reason #3 is more outdated information than it is a cause for dismissal. People used to make up stories for everything science couldn’t explain.

The more I come to reflect on this topic the more I’ve realised that wholesale adoption of anything is usually bad and by evaluating individual aspects of large topics like religion you’re more likely to get better outcomes in your life.

A recurring theme in my life over the last 5-7 years has been a pragmatic approach to making my life better. Why should I treat good ideas and traditions within religion any different.

Where is this coming from?

The catalyst for this exact newsletter comes from a conversation in this upcoming Wednesday’s podcast. My guest had started going to church with his family (wife and daughter) rather unexpectedly in 2022 after not being very religious his whole life.

His explanation for attending was that it was nice to have something his family did together once a week. It was also that the message being delivered at the church they attended was not trying to convert anyone, it was simply sharing the positive messages and allegorical stories that exist within the bible.

Remember these two things they’ll come back up later.

These two things were so important to him that he donated large sums of money to the church anonymously, because of the value he was receiving in return.

It had nothing to do with tithing, he valued that hour of his week so highly that if he was paying someone else to teach his family those lessons and have the time together, that is the dollar value he would have assigned it.

The Utility of Religion

So. Here’s an interesting communication disconnect.

If you talk to most religious people they’ll tell you that the stories within the bible are allegorical or parables. And, their concepts and lessons are to be mapped onto existing situations in our lives today.

But if you talk to an atheist or agnostic, they will tell you how stupid religious people are for believing these old stories are true.

This is a consequence of our talking past each other instead of to each other in today’s polarized world.

This really hit home for me listening to Jordan Peterson talk about the story of Exodus.

On its face, as an outsider, the story of Exodus is about Moses leading Jewish people through the desert away from the pharaoh in Egypt. A plausible but ultimately uninteresting story.

Now, change the lens you look at the story through.

Instead of just being a story about being lost in the desert, it becomes a story about how to properly adopt responsibility. How to avoid tyranny. How to set up structures of governance that will allow you to make hard decisions. And, how to provide the most freedom for the most people.

Okay now why is that important?

We’ve already talked about how adopting responsibility is the principle method for finding meaning or purpose in your life.

Okay now why is THAT important?

Meaning is cited as the most important factor for determining happiness in people’s lives.

So if we’re looking at adopting information that is helpful at improving our lives we can see that the information in Exodus must be at least tangentially relevant.

Let’s take a step back.

The bible is a collection 60+ books and letters that were collected and written down over the span of ~1500 years and the stories were passed down orally for many generations prior to that.

Think about what happens each time you retell a story of your own or from someone else. It morphs slightly, right?

But, the core message of the story is the same, it’s just the details or supporting information that changes.

It should track then, that the stories within these books are the refinement and distillation of lessons and traditions from generations of people looking to pass their knowledge along to their children and communities.

Why would we want to ignore 2 millennia of wisdom?

“Tradition is a set of solutions for which we have forgotten the problems. Throw away the solution and you get the problem back.” — Donald Kingsbury

Fun author side note: Go look up the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis and its potential association with the Noah flood myth and destruction of the city of Atlantis.

The Utility of Church

Community.

I could stop there and it would make enough sense.

But…

If there is one thing that I’m 100% sure about, it is that our changing world is outpacing the ability for most people to emotionally and relationally cope with the changes.

What do I mean by that?

Relationship satisfaction is down. Divorce rates are up. Dating problems are everywhere. Single parent households are on the rise. Mental health rates are in decline. Friendship recession is a real problem.

Of course correlation doesn’t equal causation, but the subset of the population who are surprisingly resistant to these trends?

You guessed it.

Religious people.

A large contributing factor is a sense of community and friendship. Having people to lean on in hard times.

Churches also often do a great job of getting involved in their local municipality. Food banks, community clean-ups, donation drives, nursery schools or elderly visits.

The happiest and most sane people I know near the end of their lives all have some level of involvement in a church.

Additionally, presuming you’re dating for the purposes of finding a long term partner — which is what we’re all about here — people attending church on Sunday are likely not the same people at the club on Saturday night.

The marriage advice I’ve found thus far boils down to “be as wholesome as possible.” I don’t remember a lot of wholesome activities occuring at the club.

That’s not a disqualifier. We’re just playing odds.

Also, remember that idea of having something to do with your family once a week?

75% of the hours you spend with your kids are over by the time they turn 12.

90% is over by the time they turn 18.

Finding time to do things as a family has never been more important.

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I didn’t mention God once while talking about the aforementioned advantages. Of course, God is inextricably linked to religion.

My point is to demonstrate that it is possible to adopt practices, communities and lessons from religion without the associated logical dissonance many feel, of needing to believe there is a floating man in the sky.

One scholarly interpretation of the idea of God is “the sum of all things that are good.”

An ideal.

You worship something whether you like it or not.

• Money

• Sports stars

• Celebrities

• Influencers

• Sex

• Cultural causes

• Social movements

The idea of worshiping the sum of all things that are good seems like a much more appealing concept.

The takeaway is this:

I’m not planning on changing my Sunday morning routine. Becoming a born again Christian is not the goal. Not something I’m aiming for. Not the plan laid out in front of most of you.

The goal is to soften your perception towards religion and encourage the adoption of some of it’s practical wisdom into your own life when it presents itself.