Ayn Rand on Religion
ryan rand believed religion to be both illogical and immoral and in her famous objectivist novel atlas shrugged has john gold a charismatic inventor give a thundering speech [Music] firstly iron rand was the founder of a philosophy called objectivism which celebrates rational self-interest laissez-faire capitalism and progress rand believed correctly that religion was illogical and senseless ran knew this because gods are an incredible claim to make with very little evidence so rationally one should not have faith in them objectivists declare that just as children stop believing in superstitions like the tooth fairy father christmas and the easter bunny so too should they stop believing in demons angels and gods rand extolled the virtues of what she named men of the mind or prime movers whose genius could and has propelled humanity to greatness think leonardo da vinci henry ford and beethoven she attacked religions because she thought they discouraged society’s best the prime movers from flourishing and thus advancing humanity she thought religion stimmed progress to a large extent this is true as shown by leonardo da vinci being pissed on trial for heresy by christians for saying the earth orbits the sun rand went further and castigated religion for making men into brutes she wrote the superstitious man believes that nature is ruled by demons who possess an omnipotent power and that reality is their fluid plaything she stated this made men apathetic unthinking and unambitious to a savage the world is a place of unintelligible miracles she also thought religion made man subservient to priests she denounced priests in general as the mystics of spirit who for centuries have proclaimed that faith is superior to reason she expands on this man’s mind say the mystics of spirit must be subordinated to the will of god priests emphasis on blind faith over enlightening reason means people think less without thinking humanity does not progress and is stuck in the same miserable status quo of oppressive lord slash priests and downtrodden peasants to conclude ein rand writes you cannot refuse to apply reason to a single matter be it as small or as big as the existence of god because thinking is man’s only basic virtue from which all others proceed thinking is both logical and moral
