Religion, the Reformation, and Not Shaking off the Past
I’ve been watching a Channel 4 series ‘The History of Christianity’. Each programme is presented by a different person and focuses on a particular time of importance in the history of Christendom (it’s more or less about western European Christianity and it impacts). The latest episode was presented by Ann Widdecombe and covers the reformation - with a somewhat natural emphasis on the English experience.
It reminded me why I still identify with a religion that I no longer believe in. I am a baptised Catholic and was educated as such, although clearly now I’m not exactly a member in good standing. I disagree strongly with many of the pronouncements of the pope, the restrictions of Catholicism and the attitudes of the church hierarchy. I also strongly dislike the politics, opinions and religious views of Ann Widdecombe, a right wing Conservative politician who converted to Catholicism when the Church of England allowed the ordination of women priests.
The reason that I still identify - when Widdecombe converted to Catholicism she received hate mail describing her as a traitor. Similarly when the Queen became the first monarch to visit Westminster Cathedral (RC) members of the crowd cried out that she was a ‘betrayer’. In commemorative events in the West Country, they still burn the Pope in effigy because of something that happened nearly 500 years ago.
I might no longer be a believer, and I have never experienced overt anti-Catholicism, but it would feel like I was somehow condoning the attitudes of people who think that being Catholic and being British are incompatible. Because they aren’t, at all. I’ve always been English and British, and I’ve nearly always been Catholic and I’ve never had a problem. Somehow, being atheist doesn’t give me a free pass.
Popularity: 70% [?]
Interesting Investgating Atheism Website
Cambridge University Department of Divinity has an investigating atheism website. As befits an esteemed scholarly and academic institution, it seems to me to be impartial and unbiased (as far as these things are possible).
It covers atheist history, arguments for atheism, atheist views on morality, meaning, violence and science and has a particular focus on the ‘new atheism’ of Dawkins, Hitchens et al. If you check it out, let me know what you think.
Popularity: 53% [?]
Atheists and Religious Tribalism
It’s funny, but even though I’m not a believer, I still retain a degree of affection for my former faith. I’m not alone in this, Irish comedian Dara O’Briain shares my feelings. From a recent stand-up tour:
I’m not a religious man. I don’t even believe in God. But still Catholic.
Maybe I’m wrong to do this. Well, actually I don’t think that there’s a maybe in there. But I genuinely hold no dislike for it. I enjoyed my upbringing, which was only moderately religious, and the local religious community that we worshipped with.
I didn’t de-convert as much as I simply realised that I didn’t believe and probably never really had. Like many people, I didn’t have a bad experience realising that Father Christmas (probably) wasn’t real, and it felt exactly the same to realise that God (probably) doesn’t exist.
My feelings are a little like the converse of the famous quote from The Godfather, except that it’s “if you mess with my family, you mess with me”, and my family are my ex-co-religionists.
But, religious tribalism is one of the really, really bad things about religion. Arbitrarily splitting people into Us and Them is not good for society, and I think, deeply unhealthy. So I should probably get over it.
I wonder if, with the space of time, my religious tribalism will decrease. Since only the older generations of my family are now religious, perhaps once they die I will no longer feel a sense of belonging. That would be a little sad, I do like belonging, and I do like them. But it would probably be better not to think tribally.
Popularity: 13% [?]
