Religious skepticism is a type ofskepticism relating toreligion. Religious skeptics question religious authority and are not necessarilyantireligious/clerical but rather are skeptical of either specific or all religious beliefs and/or practices.Socrates was one of the most prominent and first religious skeptics of whom there are records; he questioned the legitimacy of the beliefs of his time in the existence of theGreek gods. Religious skepticism is not the same asatheism oragnosticism, and some religious skeptics aredeists (ortheists who reject the prevailingorganized religion they encounter, or even all organized religion).
The wordskeptic is derived from theGreek wordskeptikos, meaning inquiring, which was used to refer to members of theHellenistic philosophical school ofPyrrhonism which doubted the possibility of knowledge.[1] As such, religious skepticism generally refers to doubting or questioning something about religion. Although, as noted bySchellenberg the term is sometimes more generally applied to anyone that has a negative view of religion.[2]
The majority of skeptics are agnostics and atheists, but there are also a number of religious people that are skeptical of religion.[3] The religious are generally skeptical about claims of other religions, at least when the two denominations conflict concerning some stated belief. Some philosophers put forththe sheer diversity of religion as a justification for skepticism by theists and nontheists alike.[4] Theists are also generally skeptical of the claims put forth by atheists.[5]
Michael Shermer wrote that religious skepticism is a process for discovering the truth rather than general nonacceptance.[6] For this reason a religious skeptic might believe thatJesus existed while questioning claims that he was the messiah or performed miracles (seehistoricity of Jesus).Thomas Jefferson'sThe Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, a literal cut and paste of theNew Testament that removes anythingsupernatural, is a prominent example.
Ancient Greece was a polytheistic society in which the gods were not omnipotent and required sacrifice and ritual. The earliest beginnings of religious skepticism can be traced back toXenophanes. He critiqued popular religion of his time, particularly false conceptions of the divine that are a byproduct of the human propensity toanthropomorphize deities. He took the scripture of his time to task for painting the gods in a negative light and promoted a more rational view of religion. He was very critical of religious people privileging their belief system over others without sound reason.[7][8]
Socrates' conception of the divine was that the gods were always benevolent, truthful, authoritative, and wise. Divinity was to operate within the standards of rationality.[9] This critique of established religion ultimately resulted in histrial for impiety and corruption as documented inThe Apology. The historianWill Durant writes thatPlato was "as skeptical of atheism as of any otherdogma."[10][8]
Democritus was the father ofmaterialism in theWest, and there is no trace of a belief in any afterlife in his work. Specifically, inThose in Hades he refers to constituents of the soul as atoms that dissolve upon death.[11] This later inspired the philosopherEpicurus andthe philosophy he founded, who held a materialist view and rejected any afterlife, while further claiming the gods were also uninterested in human affairs.[12] In the poemDe rerum naturaLucretius proclaimed Epicurean philosophy, that the universe operates according to physical principles and guided byfortuna, or chance, instead of theRoman gods.[13]
InDe Natura Deorum, theAcademic Skeptic philosopherCicero presented arguments against theStoics calling into question the character of the gods, whether or not they participate in earthly affairs, and questions their existence.[14]
In ancient India, there was a materialist philosophical school called theCārvāka, who were known as being skeptical of the religious claims ofVedic religion, its rituals and texts. A forerunner to the Charvaka school, philosopherAjita Kesakambali, did not believe in reincarnation.[15]
Thomas Hobbes took positions that strongly disagreed with orthodox Christian teachings. He argued repeatedly that there are noincorporeal substances, and that all things, evenGod,heaven, andhell arecorporeal, matter in motion. He argued that "though Scripture acknowledge spirits, yet doth it nowhere say, that they are incorporeal, meaning thereby without dimensions and quantity".[16]
Voltaire, although himself a deist, was a forceful critic of religion and advocated for acceptance of all religions as well as separation of church and state.[17] In Japan,Yamagata Bantō (d. 1821) declared that "in this world there are no gods, Buddhas, or ghosts, nor are there strange or miraculous things".[15]
The term has morphed into one that typically emphasizes scientific and historical methods of evidence. There are some skeptics that question whether religion is a viable topic for criticism given that it doesn't require proof for belief. Others, however, insist it is as much as any other knowledge, especially when it makes claims that contradict those made by science.[18][19]
There has been much work since the late 20th century by philosophers such as Schellenburg andMoser, and both have written numerous books pertaining to the topic.[20] Much of their work has focused on defining what religion is and specifically what people are skeptical of about it.[21][2] The work of others have argued for the viability of religious skepticism by appeal to higher-order evidence (evidence about our evidence and our capacities for evaluation),[22] what some call meta-evidence.[23]
There are still echoes of early Greek skepticism in the way some current thinkers question the intellectual viability of belief in the divine.[24] In modern times there is a certain amount of mistrust and lack of acceptance of religious skeptics, particularly towards those that are also atheists.[25][26][27] This is coupled with concerns many skeptics have about the government in countries, such as the US, whereseparation of church and state are central tenets.[28]
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