Defenders of theism retort that irreligious wars and atrocities, motivated by the secular ideology of communism and by ordinary conquest, have killed even more people. Talk about relativism! It is peculiar to grade religion on this curve: if religion were a source of morality, the number of religious wars and atrocities ought to be zero. And

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The common definition of religion is fraught and can hardly capture the full range and complexities of faiths, spiritualities, and traditions all over the world. Religion itself is an imperialist construct, one that still orients us towards a Western (read: predominantly Christian) understanding of faith. We cannot just apply our rubric of religion... See more

When we throw our hands up at religion and flatten its role in our lives, societies, and institutions, we allow hegemonic power to go unchecked.