box of soap, I have one

**I don't usually write here about religion or politics, but at least this once I am going to. If you know me well enough to think that my opinions might offend you, tune in later for all the latest in cooking, laundry, sewing, and vacation photos.**

A friend recently posted a photo on Facebook, which I would like to address here. Alongside a rather well done caricature was this line, attributed to Bertrand Russel "Religion is something left over from the infancy of our intelligence, it will fade away as we adopt reason and science as our guidelines."

Now, I am really, really tired of hearing this. Not angry, because repetition lends an unfortunate dulling effect, but tired. As a religious person I find it insulting, and as someone who values reason I find it insulting. Neither "reason" nor "science," if they were somehow to operate on their own, are capable of inspiring love, mercy, or truly civil society. Period.

Science is a tool for finding out things about the world. The human mind wielding that tool requires a way to make decisions about what is acceptable and what is not. Some of this decision-making is the direct operation of reason, some of it is learned norms and unconscious beliefs. Whatever mixture of elements drive each decision, ethics are unavoidable. It is objectively better that scientists operate with knowledge of their own fallibility and with a strong adherence to a moral code (a moral code that came from somewhere outside their own minds, corrupt machines cannot fix themselves). "Religion" does not hold back "Science" from doing things truly worthwhile for humanity, quite the opposite. The examples of science unrestrained by mercy doubles as a list of atrocities. The same cannot be said of science working through the hands and minds of the merciful.

Every single human being has a code by which they operate, that helps each of us deal with the physical world and with other people. Hopefully these codes are guided by reason, by our higher faculties, but reason alone cannot explain love, or employ it to anyone's benefit. Like science, reason is a tool. Those who respect their tools learn how and when to use them properly. I wouldn't use a screwdriver to hammer nails, and I won't use reason unguided by morality to determine my beliefs or my actions.

The assertion that religion is juvenile or primitive seems to follow from one of the following syllogisms:
1 - "As a child I thought my parents were gods, but I didn't like their rules and they turned out to be just people, therefore anything that requires belief in a higher power will be equally corrupt and meaningless"
2 - "Back in the religious days before the Enlightenment people were sad all the time and didn't have technology or good medicine, I like technology and medicine, therefore I should outgrow religion."

Neither of these stand up well under further examination:
1 - The whole point is that God isn't a fallible person like your parents, and that His will (*cough* rules *cough*) is objectively and eternally true. Whether you find following those rules difficult or uncomfortable is irrelevant to their being true. You have to clean your room because your mother said so, but also because wallowing in your own filth is bad. Ordering your mind and ordering your room are directly related concepts.
2 - I like foreign foods, dental hygiene, and living past 60 as much as the next person, but there are more important things. Being able to read past dark is awfully nice, but if I am only reading garbage novels and neglecting my education (not to mention my eternal soul) then the light bulb is useless. Any serious student of the ancient world can tell you that on the human level it looks a lot like ours. Sophocles, Dante, and Shakespeare are completely readable because people haven't changed; we haven't "evolved" or matured out of needing to relate to other people and to the divine. The Enlightenment made not believing in God sound justifiable, but it did not make it a good idea.

Pretending that you can use a screwdriver to hammer nails is juvenile. Knowing where the hammer is, and where the nails need to go, is the province of religion.

Reason and science cannot fix broken human nature, because they are parts of that broken nature. Only religion can do that. And I don't mean "religion" in the broad sense, or fuzzy happy pseudo-religious feelings. I mean my religion, which I truly believe to be the best and therefore the only answer to these questions.

This is just a cursory glance at very large issues, and is as much an exercise for me as it is intended to instruct anyone else. I welcome private discussion of these and related topics. Questions might include "why are you a (small r) republican monarchist agrarian" or "why don't you think that universal adult suffrage is a good thing" or "can I please have that vegan biscuit recipe you keep going on about."  The last one will be the easiest to answer, but I'll do my best with the others :o)