This article is part of Eliezer’s anti-religion series, and all of these articles have the pre-written bottom line that religion is horribly evil and cannot possibly have any good effects whatsoever.
In reality, of course, being false does not prevent a religion from doing some good. It should be clear to everyone that when you have more and stronger reasons for doing the right thing, you will be more likely to do the right thing, and when you have less and weaker reasons, you will be less likely to do it. This is just how motivation works, whether it is motivation to do the right thing or to do anything else.
If a person believes “God wants me to do the right thing,” and cares about God, then this will provide some motivation to do the right thing. If the person then ceases to believe in God, he will stop believing that God wants this, and will consequently have less motives for doing the right thing. He will therefore be less likely to do it than before, unless he then comes up with new motivations.
If a person believes “If I do the right thing I’ll go to heaven and if I do the wrong thing I’ll go to hell,” this will provide some motivation to do the right thing and avoid the wrong thing. If he then ceases to believe in heaven and hell, this will take away some of those motivations, and therefore will make it more likely that he will fail to do the right thing, unless he comes up with new motivations.
All this does not mean that without religion a person has no motive to do the right thing and avoid the wrong thing. It simply points out the obvious fact that religions do provide motives for doing these things, and taking away religion is taking away these particular motives.
This article is part of Eliezer’s anti-religion series, and all of these articles have the pre-written bottom line that religion is horribly evil and cannot possibly have any good effects whatsoever.
I think the rest of the series makes it pretty explicitly clear that Eliezer DOES think religion accomplishes the things you mention, and that there are important lessons we should learn from that.
This article is part of Eliezer’s anti-religion series, and all of these articles have the pre-written bottom line that religion is horribly evil and cannot possibly have any good effects whatsoever.
In reality, of course, being false does not prevent a religion from doing some good. It should be clear to everyone that when you have more and stronger reasons for doing the right thing, you will be more likely to do the right thing, and when you have less and weaker reasons, you will be less likely to do it. This is just how motivation works, whether it is motivation to do the right thing or to do anything else.
If a person believes “God wants me to do the right thing,” and cares about God, then this will provide some motivation to do the right thing. If the person then ceases to believe in God, he will stop believing that God wants this, and will consequently have less motives for doing the right thing. He will therefore be less likely to do it than before, unless he then comes up with new motivations.
If a person believes “If I do the right thing I’ll go to heaven and if I do the wrong thing I’ll go to hell,” this will provide some motivation to do the right thing and avoid the wrong thing. If he then ceases to believe in heaven and hell, this will take away some of those motivations, and therefore will make it more likely that he will fail to do the right thing, unless he comes up with new motivations.
All this does not mean that without religion a person has no motive to do the right thing and avoid the wrong thing. It simply points out the obvious fact that religions do provide motives for doing these things, and taking away religion is taking away these particular motives.
I think the rest of the series makes it pretty explicitly clear that Eliezer DOES think religion accomplishes the things you mention, and that there are important lessons we should learn from that.