Gateway religion

Preach to the choir Religion

Crux of the matter

Christianity Judaism Islam Hinduism Buddhism Zoroastrianism Sikhism Jainism

Speak of the devil

Satanism Atheism Antitheism Agnosticism Deism Secularism Humanism Paganism

An act of faith

Infidel Belief in belief Theocracy Sophisticated theology Charity Baptism Atheism v - t - e

Gateway religion is the idea that moderate or liberal religions (and sects within religions) ultimately act as a "gateway" to irrational thinking, regardless of how palatable their politics may be. It's mostly used by antitheists (notably Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion) to argue against the acceptance of any religion.

The evidence for this being a real effect is varying, relying almost entirely on anecdotes — some assert the opposite, that people tend to flip between extremism or fundamentalism and atheism, completely skipping the moderate step in between. Other assertions are that the existence and tolerance of moderate religious belief acts as a gateway that allows extremism to be routinely tolerated.

See also

• Gateway drug theory, a similar idea which argues that "soft" drugs such as cannabis is a gateway to other, harder drugs.
• Religion

Want to read this in another language?

入门宗教是本文章的中文版本

This religion-related article is a stub.
You can help RationalWiki by expanding it.