Religion Kills Philosophy

It has been observed many times that religion kills science. It slows the progress of science. It refuses to acknowledge the theories of science. It is innately unscientific. Science is a knowledge that we gain from experimenting with the world. Religion is a bunch of superstitious non-sense whose goal is to provide made up answers and impose authoritarian control over the people. Thus, religion is innately unscientific. Science proceeds by working with what we have towards a particular theory, the last-established answer. Religion already provides an answer and then uses apologetics to "prove" why such a first-established answer is true. Religion is afraid of science. Religion has used its power to silence science and to persecute the scientists who spoken it. Religious followers both fundamentalist and moderate are anti-science to some degree. They may respect science and be interested in it. But they will always find a way to dance around religion to make science compatible with religion, if they cannot do so they outright reject science. This is why religion harms the progress of science.

But it has been observed much less that religion also kills philosophy. It is innately unphilosophical. Philosophy is an attempt to arrive at truth from reason (and sometimes inspiration from science) by applying it to various first-principles about the world. Philosophy does not begin with a first-established answer and use apologetics to "prove" it. Philosophy uses reason and sometimes inspiration from science to come towards an answer, the last-established answer. Religion is afraid of philosophy. Indeed, the harshest attacks on religion came from philosophers themselves, not from scientists. Scientists of the Enlightenment and pre-Enlightenment were for the most part religious, just scientific and not afraid to contradict the Church on science. Philosophers, however, of the Enlightenment and pre-Enlightenment were for the most part anti-religious, either deists, or agnostics, and even atheists back in those days. It is philosophy that killed God, God is dead, God stays dead, and we have killed him. Religion to defend itself from philosophy has used its power to silence, kill and oppress the philosophers who dared challenge it.

I believe that the anti-philosophical attitude is much more stronger than the anti-scientific attitude. Because philosophy is a lot more poisonous towards religion than science is in its whole history. This is why religious people are not capable of deep philosophical though. The highest degree of philosophy that religious people are capable of is theology. But theology is not philosophy any more than alchemy is not science. Theology might have inspired philosophy in some ways but it is not philosophy, just like alchemy might have inspired chemistry in some ways but it is not science.

All the philosophical ideas that I have now I never had when I was religious. My religion killed any room for my philosophical thoughts to develop in my soul. People speak of the tragedy of religion as being innately anti-scientific, and they are right. But there is another tragedy that many people forget or do not realize, and that is that religion is innately anti-philosophy.