Critical Examination of Harari's Perspective on Religion as a Myth and Its Consequences

Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli thinker who, in his analysis of history, the future and human challenges, has frequently discussed the nature of religions and their impact on human life. He has presented the existential realities, religion, and above all, God, into three divisions and devalued them to the mythical nature and collective imagination. From his viewpoint, the imagined reality of religion has applications in human life as well as risks that must be approached with vigilance. He points out that despite its undeniable applications, fictional religion is ultimately an imagined phenomenon and can, if its beliefs are embraced as genuine, become a catalyst for human deviation and the promotion of violence. In this paper, we provide a coherent overview of Harari's scattered theories concerning religion and its various consequences, and proceed to critically examine and critique them. The rational and philosophical approach is mostly taken into consideration, with instances where historical discourses and discussions within religion are integrated as per Harari's claims to subject his assertions and analyses to critical evaluation. It is demonstrated that the confusion between the position of reality as it is and the position of something for us in explaining intersubjective realities, and the failure to distinguish between true religion and existing religion, have been some of Harari's main misapprehensions.