Download Humans have always asked questions

IS FAITH AN OUTMODED CONCEPT FOR THE 21st CENTURY
A response to the Bishop of Stepney
The ‘Big Debate’ feature.
Published Recorder Group Newspapers 19.12.12 (Newham Recorder,
Stratford Express, East London Advertiser and Docklands Recorder)
Humans have always asked questions. It is a distinctive characteristic of our
species. Religions have always claimed to supply the answers.
However, the ‘divine revelations’ contained in ancient scriptures reflect the
limited knowledge when they were written.
They make no reference, for
example, to the arctic regions, let alone answer what to do when the ice caps
melt and how to stop global warming.
When the world appeared to be flat and endless an edict to ‘go forth and
multiply’ was reasonable. But the holy books provide no answer to an everexpanding world population and ever-depleting resources.
The explosion of knowledge, from DNA to space exploration, has made
archaic religions appear increasingly irrelevant. But, I hear the religious cry,
science is amoral. Only religion can provide the answer to how we should live
our lives.
How, for example, can we live in harmony in a modern multicultural society?
Each religion says that theirs is the only true faith - a recipe for disharmony.
We therefore rely on the man-made Human Rights Act, based on human
experience, not faith, to ensure that all believers, not to mention people of
different gender and sexuality, are tolerated and treated equally.
What about morality? Open media and globalisation in the 21st Century make
it harder for one set of values to dominate. For example, earlier this year we
heard Archbishop Tutu condemn Tony Blair as a war criminal.
How can
religions provide a reliable moral compass when ‘people of faith’ cannot agree
on something as basic as going to war?
It is not surprising that in a modern, educated, open society religion should
lose its attraction; that in less enlightened countries religious leaders try to
suppress freedom of thought; or that religious leaders here seek to create
more faith schools in the hope of turning back the tide.
Paul Kaufman
Chair, East London Humanists
www.eastlondon.humanist.org.uk