An Analysis on Jose Saramago's Criticism of Religion

Nobel laureate, Portuguese novelist and short story writer, Saramago is known for his atheist views as well as for his anti-multinational companies and anti-globalization views. Saramago, who talked frequently about metaphysical concepts like religion, God, evil, destiny, soul, etc. in his works, shaped his criticisms that covers all religions from Judaism and Christianity, which he knew closely and emphasized as religion. Faced with an institutional structure that uses weaknesses in a region where Christianity is widespread, according to Saramago, religions have emerged as a result of human weaknesses and become a fertile land by the institutions and people who use these weaknesses. We see that his focus is on practitioners and abusers and makes his criticism more in this direction rather than to criticize the ontological, epistemological and values fields of religions. This study aims at presenting and analyzing Saramago's criticisms of religion, which he sees as the source of almost all conflicts and exploitation.