Unthinking faith? (part 1)

Firstly, it's good to see that some people in even the C of E haven't lost their sense of humour over Dawkins: a stray cat found at Southwark Cathedral has been named Doorkins Magnificat Wish I'd thought of that...

Anyway. I read this article about people believing UFO's are responsible for damage to wind turbines, and my first reaction was "some people will believe anything." Even the company that owns the turbines, Ecotricity, have so far refused to rule out the 'possibility.'

To relate the previous two paragraphs together, I remembered something Dawkins had said in when the buses first came to my attention: "thinking is anathema to religion." I disagreed at the time, and still do. But his point of view agrees with the suggestion (was it Marx? I think so, but all of his work I ever read was The German Ideology and it nearly sent me to sleep- and that was before I stayed up all night for an after-show party during the open exam!) that religion is a "crutch" or "opium" that keeps people quiet, happy, and stops them thinking too much. That gives them something to lean on, a promise of help in hard times, of reward, if not in this life then at least after death.

No doubt that's a gross simplification of the argument, for which I apologise. However, I have neither the knowledge nor the time, at present, to go into more depth. My point is that many people today see religion, faith, belief as naive, groundless, blind trust in things which although once incomprehensible, are now explained by science. They see it as unreasonable- against reason or logic, which modernism has led us to see as the only worthwhile way of looking at things.

Apart from my belief that science and religion address different questions and that neither rules out the veracity of the other, I think the people who assume (and many do without even realising it, so common is the attitude in modern culture) that those who have a faith don't are gullible or wilfully deceiving themselves are being highly unfair. Even leaving aside the contribution Christians (and believers of other faiths) have made to modern knowledge, I'd dispute that being a Christian is an easy alternative, a first-class ticket guaranteeing a smooth ride through life and death.

I doubt that many Christians- people who are truly committed to living their lives as God calls them to- would agree with the picture of their faith as a crutch. I doubt that the hundreds of people who have been killed, and are still being killed, kidnapped, beaten, having their homes, cars and churches burnt and their families threatened in China, India, North Korea, the Middle East, parts of Africa would say that it is a way of making their lives easier- and I defy anyone to say it for them. Yes, it gives them hope for the future, hope that there's something beyond death. But they know the risks. Even in the face of certain persecution, of making their lives worse, the church is growing in many of these places. Explain that, if you think religion is the "opium of the people."

Even in the relatively free and open West, I'd suggest that following a faith- really following it, rather than just the surface conformity you meet all too often in churches- presents too many challenges to be an easy option. Jesus taught his disciples to follow a radically different lifestyle, different at the time and different now. That doesn't make for an easy life. I should know. And when you do try to live as Jesus taught, somehow things often seem to go wrong. Because the rest of the world doesn't live like that, and to them what you're doing doesn't make sense.

Christianity isn't putting one's brain on hold or being satisfied with not knowing the truth. It's not even about a 'God of the gaps', where God suffices as an explanation for anything we can't explain rationally. That kind of explanation doesn't wash for me. There are many things about God that I don't understand. That's where I say that I don't understand now, and I maybe never will, but it doesn't stop me wanting, or trying, to find an answer. It's not really that much different from saying that we don't understand this or that about the origins of the universe, or the causes of cancer. We're sure there is an answer, we just don't know what at this time.