Monday, 22 February 2010
a happiness of atheists
That's the collective term coined on yesterday's ‘the big questions’ on bbc1, which featured the poser, ‘should religion be more fun?’ Alongside a friendly track suited vicar who meets up with a group of blokes for a pint, go-karting or paintballing, and a loquacious muslim cleric, there was a row of hand-picked atheists who countered the idea that faith should be more partnered with joy. They pointed to examples of child abuse, mistreatment of women etc. Fair enough, but it doesn’t take a phD in dialectics to note that they’re attacking a distortion of religious values and practice, not core truths, of Christianity at least. The 14 feb episode of ‘the bible: a history’ on c4, about women in the bible, was another interesting counterpoint. It highlighted the portayal of strong women in the bible of different kinds of strength, from the guerilla warrior leader Deborah to the quieter, inner fortitude of Mary. Gerry adams’ piece last night is a whole other discussion…
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2 comments:
Erm, perhaps you re attacking a distortion?
Why an atheist would state religion should be more fun is beyond me. Religions should be what they are - and if that requires wanting to cut yourself during sermons, so be it.
However, to the people under attack, their view is not a distortion. Perhaps you can come up with a "truth" that satisfies everyone - I doubt it 3 00 odd gods and 38 000 christian denominations and all that
What do you think of Twitchy Todd BTW. I can't stop laughing (is he a distortion?)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8O_7WJIx6c
BTW, its PhD, not phD :-)
>>>attacking a distortion of religious values and practice
They might be a distortion of ideal praxis, but it isn't terribly helpful to claim that worrying actions by Christians aren't 'real' practise. Immoral or destructive actions that flow from a theological position should give us pause (and the misogyny of much Christian history is one of the many good arguments against the Sola Scriptura fundamentalist position). Many evangelicals would object to being called homophobic - yet oppose equal rights (such as marriage, be it in church or elsewhere). There was an instructive article in The Guardian recently on the links between US evangelicals and the Ugandan Church who, as I'm sure you know, were at the forefront of trying to introduce the death penalty for gay people.
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