Has religion become obsolete?
There is a place for religion in modern society as there is a place for atheism, for agnosticism and fanaticism; and I suspect there always will be as for many people it is an essential if not intrinsic part of every day life.
To misquote Salman Rushdie, do we all have a God shaped hole in us, or is it the shape of the hole which is more important? I could get all metaphysical and start wittering on about whether a hole exists if we can no see it? Bu I won’t. Those falling on the pro religious side of this argument will undoubtedly suggest there is and we atheists are just being blind to it. I would counter that by saying that maybe the hole is just an imagined concept, relying on faith, to perpetuate its own existence. Oh no I’ve headed down the proof of faith denies existence cul de sac!
I think there is a very basic need for many people to have something other than themselves to blame for when things are going wrong, to provide a convenient shoulder to cry on and basically offer a neat way of sharing some of the everyday burdens of life. I don’t have an issue with that, we all have our crutches to rely on, I just choose not to share my burdens with a hypothesis.
I think there was ore of a place for religion when science could not explain just how a lot of things worked. For centuries you faced being hung just for suggesting that the world wasn’t flat, or that the human body was not made up of four humours. Now that science has offered credible alternatives for many of the mysteries of life there is certainly less call for a deity figure to supply the solace for when things happen; and I think that was what was happening over the last sixty years or so.
But then an odd thing is happening in many religions, which is a rise in congregation numbers. It is very easy to say that behind ninety-five per cent of all wars has been a religious motivation. In fact if it wasn’t for the current situation in the Middle East the Christian religions would be missing a fair proportion of its new congregation as many churches are reporting an increase flow of people through their doors.
I am not suggesting for one minute there was a religious slant to the invasion of Iraq, though it has to be said that the war appears to have had a polarising effect, gently encouraging many people into taking either a broadly pro Christian or a broadly pro Islam stance. Or maybe that’s just me.
With global warming being high on the agenda maybe what we are witnessing is not in fact a response to global politics but instead a kick back to the science that has explained everything but has also given us the very means to bring an end to our existence?
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