Did European Religion Lead to Racism

ASU Training Video

One of my favorite lines from an ASU employee training video was about the origins of racism in European religion. The claim was that because Europeans were divided among themselves over religion (Roman Catholic and Protestant), they then developed this into dividing humans along racial lines. This is a classic example of the fallacy named “post hoc” which means “after this, therefore because of this.” The Reformation happened, and then not long after this some Europeans engaged in slavery, thus the Reformation caused slavery. It is faulty causal reasoning. Just because one event follows another does not mean the first event caused the other.

How can professors commit such an obvious freshman-level fallacy? Don’t they expect better thinking out of their own students? One of my themes in this series has been that the motto seems to be “do as I say, not as I do.”

Consider the many falsifying points to this faulty causal claim. If divided religion is the cause of racism, then we would expect must worse racism in places like Africa where the religion was even more divided. But these professors think racism is uniquely European. If divided religion is the cause of racism, then the DEI professors, who are divided about religion, should be racist. Clearly, even if their claim about Europe being uniquely racist is true, it does not have to do with divided religion.

And keep in mind the religion we are talking about is Christianity. This is the religion that claims all of us are created in the image of God and sets us on equal footing. This is the religion that claims God’s law applies equally to all. This is the religion that claims redemption is offered to all, regardless of race. By contrast, many of the religions of the world divide humans into better and worse groups and provide philosophical support for the claims of racism. Think of animism, which says some humans have more magical power than others and are closer to the deity. Or systems of reincarnation that say there are levels among humans and even that being a man is a better reincarnation than being a woman.

Exposing the fallacies in these DEI training videos tells us all that it is not a rigorous philosophy interested in critical thinking. Instead, assertions are made, supported by fallacies, and then the discussion ends, and dissenters are called names (phobic, biased, bigoted, etc). We need to expect more out of a university. Using nice sounding words like “diversity” does not mean whatever theory is proposed must be accepted. We can demand logical thought from university professors.

Parents, be prepared for this kind of material to be pushed on students in the classroom. You can be proactive and let ASU’s administration know you will not accept this.