Apropos of yesterday's post regarding two MPs supporting David Cameron's pronouncement that the UK is a Christian country.
There are two prime attributes one first thinks of when considering the UK.
- A democracy, and
- A capitalist country.
Neither of these is fundamentally compatible with early Christianity, which was theocratic and communist.
While you're at it, look at the laws in countries that are definitely non-Christian. Take Japan, for example - can you spot any real difference between living in Japan and the UK that are due to Christian influence? No - we have exactly the same basic laws, thus the argument fails.
Look at the major holidays of the UK - Christmas and Easter. These are no more than Christian celebrations that were grafted on to the pre-existing pagan holidays of Yule (or indeed Saturnalia) and Eostre in an attempt to stamp out paganism. Even the word Easter is of pagan origin and has no Christian etymology whatsoever.
In essence, Christianity - and indeed any religion - is a belief in something that is impossible according the the laws of physics and physical chemistry. A bit like homeopathy (or politics), it's a placebo at best and a rejection of reason.
The politics analogy is rather apt in this case.
In essence, Christianity - and indeed any religion - is a belief in something that is impossible according the the laws of physics and physical chemistry. A bit like homeopathy (or politics), it's a placebo at best and a rejection of reason.
The politics analogy is rather apt in this case.
5 comments:
Absolutely agree CB, the comments from these MPs betray an astonishing combination of arrogance and ignorance; although this utterly disconnected (from reality) perspective seems to be typical of cherry picking establishment "Christians" like Grieve..
Discordians believe that you should not believe anything you read. Why is this impossible according to the laws of physics? :p
Your very rejection of the 'Christian nation' concept is embedded in the cultural traditions of Christianity or - better - Kierkegaard's Christendom, the mauling of Christianity by nationally instituting what was essentially an anarchist movement.
If you don't believe that the UK could be judged a Christian nation in *any* sense, this is probably because you haven't spoken much to people from other cultural backgrounds who live or have lived in the UK... the atheists in the UK, including yourself, are unmistakably participating in the practices of Christendom - including, of course, a rejection of Jesus' actual teachings! :p (Interestingly, despite only a 1% Christian population, Japan also participates in Christian cultural practices - in part because of the reformation of Japanese culture after the US occupation post-World War II).
This whole topic is a non-issue, I'm afraid, it's just a move by Cameron to try and punch UKIP in the knees and cut off their 'traditionalist' support. It only feels offensive to you because *Christianity* is offensive to you and you don't want to be associated with it because your own nonreligious beliefs are so strident.
Personally, I really enjoyed how this went down - the early outraged were all "shocking lack of inclusion! offensive to other religions", then all the other religious groups turned around and said "well, yeah, of course the UK is a Christian nation - what a dumb thing to get upset about". Priceless.
You gotta love our nation man, everybody's crazy but can only see why *everybody else* is crazy.
Hoping to blog more this Summer - and chance of getting you back in the comments?
Take care,
Chris.
I suppose it all boils down to what Christian actually means. What has come down to us is Pauline (with a heavy layer of Greek philosophy) and not what Jesus actually taught.
If the UK followed Christ, we'd all be Jews - for a start.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you? Few Western nations did this to the Jews, England included.
Abandon judgement? A recipe for chaos, but very hippy.
Love one-another? Very Christ-like but not that easy to do in the real world where you have to make a living.
In what way is Britain a Christian Nation? It's part of our heritage, I agree, but only bits of it, and even then those bits are quite universal and are not owned exclusively by Christians.
I was just thinking about Christianity (specifically Protestantism - or Anglicanism in particular) versus Judaism and Islam.
It seems those cultures having an unforgiving and stern father figure as God have a greater degree of religiosity, whereas the wishy-washy Anglicanism has spawned an anything-goes religiosity.
It's a bit like the stern parent versus the hippy parent - it's all about boundaries. If there are none, like in Anglicanism, you get a very lax religion. With the stern parent who provides very distinct boundaries, you get a child who generally conforms.
Another consideration is the famous quote by Russell; "You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress of humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or even mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."
Thus English law (as applied to a number of moral issues) is based not on Christianity (if the Anglican Church represents Christianity), but enlightenment thinking.
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