You believe in God? Jesus!” The irony was lost on my friend. The only funny thing he’d picked up on was that I could believe in God. I get it. As a leftie, organic pasta, and free-the-gay-whale type, people tend to think I’m atheist.
At a stretch, I’m middle class enough to be a casual Buddhist who found enlightenment in Les Mills’ Yoga room. But in general, I get given the atheist sticker.
In reality, I like going to churches to sit in stained glass sunlit silence. I have been christened, confirmed, and can recite the liturgy from page one to page eight of the service guide.
I grew up in a Christian house. Well. What I mean is that my Mum’s endless capacity to help others, combined with a firm belief in God, meant she was a significant figure in the local church. And my Dad knew better than to stand in her way.
Photo: Steve Bolton
So my brother and I went to Sunday school and church weekly, until we were old enough to ask awkward questions.
When my Vicar couldn’t explain how human rights were maintained in hell, I became disillusioned. I stopped going to church and most of my religious certainty dribbled away. Mum didn’t unleash the wrath of God scorned upon my wicked flesh. She didn’t mind. All she really wanted me to do was think about the topic.
The plea that I just keep thinking was really what kept me believing in God. I couldn’t explain the Big Bang otherwise. But everything else to do with religion was hazy.
I’ve noticed that when I wear my tentative theist hat, I get a lot of stick for it. It ranges from the mildly disappointed look, to the eyebrows raised “but I thought you were smart…”
All the responses are incredulous. Why would you believe in God? You’re a white, middle class, tolerant, vaguely smart city dweller. You don’t even have the cultural background that could legitimise religious belief. You think porn stars should be allowed to be teachers for Christ’s sake!
"And the media love these scandals. Not only that, it loves to film stupid religious people and present it as the face of modern church."
What the responses show me, is that people are increasingly proud of their atheism. In previous generations even if you didn’t believe in God, you kept quiet and had a biscuit. But now, not only are people proud, they want to convince others into disbelief.
(And atheists always say what they hate most about the religious is that they constantly try to convert you… Hmm.)
So why do people think it is ok to openly snub religion? If someone tried a rant about the stupidity of believing in feminism, they’d go down as well as hooking up with your mate’s mum at a party.
I reckon there are three reasons why people dismiss religion. Firstly, think about what the Church would write on their “hobbies and interests” section of the CV. Anti-Abortion campaigning, child abuse, homophobia, terrorism, civil war and looking smug about things. Not exactly great PR.
And the media love these scandals. Not only that, it loves to film stupid religious people and present it as the face of modern church. If we have to legalise something, you’ll hear some fruitcake Vicar talking about the sin, the destruction and how this causes breast cancer in polar bears.
When the topic happens to be something like gay marriage, this makes the church look out of touch, unfeeling and plain loopy.
Plus with all the religious debates on TV, you’ll have the mighty charm and brain of Stephen Fry, up against a stiff necked old woman with a face like a confused toad. Which one looks better?
Lastly, in this age of science and imagination curdling fact, religion is redundant. Religion existed because people didn’t understand rain, death and disease. Now that science has gotten so whizz bang smart, we don’t need to attribute bad weather to God having PMS. Now evolution, the Big Bang and particle physics will unlock the secrets of existence. God just filled gaps like chewing gum.
This growth in science’s social standing has also created the need to prove everything scientifically. We can’t prove religion, therefore it cannot exist. That means we can rip into it like a white chocolate Kit Kat.
The first reason for snubbing religion is the most legitimate. Religion has a bad reputation, particularly on topics like gay rights or abortion. Religious institutions have a history of completely missing how inhumane and cruel it can be seen as. They need better PR.
"Why can’t people just ‘know’ that God exists from intuition?"
But just because the leadership’s iffy, it doesn’t mean all religious people are foaming homophobes.
There are lots of tolerant religious groups out there who couldn’t give a shit whether you’re into boys, girls, both or neither. We can’t stereotype all religious people because of leadership flaws.
So feeling justified in snubbing someone’s Catholicism “because all Catholics hate gays” is just wrong.
And yes, the media doesn’t help with this image. The news reinforces the relationship between intolerance and religion.
But again, the media are looking for scandal. And the masses of normal, liberal religious people who think being gay, abortion, drinking, or premarital sex are ok, don’t make good headlines. Again, we can’t stereotype and say all faith is intolerant so it should be denounced. That’s just ignorant.
Lastly, the God of Gaps theory is shockingly badly argued.
God is not just used as chewing gum, to clog up gaps in the wall of our knowledge of the universe. People believe in God because it gives them strength in rough times. And forgiveness or relief. And gives guidance on how to act.
Science can’t do any of these things. It is proud of its inability to be creative, supportive and personal. It could never replace the role of God in people’s minds; it just doesn’t do what God does.
And the idea that we can dismiss someone’s belief, just because they can’t prove it, is really dumb.
If your friend tells you that Mary-next-door has a crush on them, you don’t demand photographic evidence. You respect the person’s intuition.
Why can’t people just ‘know’ that God exists from intuition? Most of our ‘facts’ about people are from assumptions, hunches and inferences from Facebook stalking. Why is faith an exception that has to be proved to be proper?
So I don’t think we have a right to openly dismiss people who are religious.
Not only is it based on flawed logic, it’s also the height of impoliteness. Why can’t we just mentally roll our eyes and feign polite interest? After all, we’re going to need to practice at that for when we get teenage children.
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