I saw this little story on the wire today it's about the Catholic church (or more specifically the Pope) urging it's clergy to engage with people via new media, specifically by blogging. Clearly there is concern that the instruments of these powerful organisations are being overtaken by modernity and apart from the charity aspects of their activities they are being seen as less and less relevant by young people. I also read a piece last week in the Times about the church of England and it's latest round of attendance figures showing a big slump again. Whilst for an atheist like me this is kind of good news a trend which at least in part is going in the right direction it also gave me pause for thought. I would much prefer the sanity and benignity of the CofE to the insanity and violent fascism of Islam (which is growing) so I can't be too smug about it.
I welcome the idea of making religion more transparent; I believe the followers of religion could all do with a reality check in terms of what the dogma of these organisations really means, why it exists, how they evolved and how it's all justified (or not). In the end I suspect what will become clear is that ultimately the whole thing boils down to people, some are interesting, persuasive and utilitarian, and some are not. Ideally increased transparency will expose the underpinning mythologies to be false, primitive and irrelevant by comparison to the humanist angle, just as rationalists have pointed out throughout the ages.
So, religions need to communicate what they really stand for, are they parasitic, self-serving and divisive or utilitarian, rational and relevant, please blog and show us the money..
4 comments:
Did you see Howard Jacobson's TV prog last night? I thought it quite good.
CB, No missed that one, thanks for the tip, I'll try to catch in on 4oD and report back.
Woohoo! I'm sane and benign! Thanks, Steve, got to get that quote on a t-shirt.... if 1% is a 'big slump' then we really are toast, but yes the figures are going down, and the CofE has some serious issues to face.
For those who are already convinced that religions are parasitic and toxic, no amount of blogging about the relevance, rationality and positive impact of faith is going to cut any mustard.
There are examples on all sides: Desmond Tutu and South Africa is an example of religion as an agent of unity and reconciliation, Islamism is an example of the opposite.
Agree with Bill about the C4 prog.
dmk, give yourself a hug ;)
All change is relative of course, I meant sane in comparison with some other possible choices (like Islam) and big in the sense of a large number of people.
I disagree that you can't change hearts and minds, some people are fixed and unshakable for sure, but there is a bell curve of opinion and it moves, there are plenty of examples of such movement in the past (slavery, women's rights, racial equality, scientific enlightenment etc.)
As I've said before if you could accentuate the humanist/utilitarian side of religion and relegate the superstitious/dogmatic stuff then I think you'd reverse the trend, but I understand that's somewhat of an over-simplification.
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