Days of excess perfection

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I’ve had a nice few days. Steve has been on nights so I’ve had to either be real quiet or be out of the house during the day. So on Wednesday I went and helped out at the Wednesday afternoon tea my church puts on for mums in the community, then went to the Eagle & Child for coffee. I sat all alone in the Rabbit Room, where the Inklings used to meet

Comments

[alasthai]

We went to a similar gathering here, some years ago, and the results were much the same: the initially-polite questions soon degenerated into demands for apologies for actions in which the speakers themselves had no part.

Christianity and Islam are certainly the dominant faiths, and largely, as you say, because of their evangelistic practices, which has left Christianity currently representing a little over 2 billion people, or a third of the global population, and Islam representing a little over 1 billion people, or a sixth. In other words, more than half of the population of the planet belong (with widely varying degrees of personal adherence) to one of these two. However, all of the others still make up a considerable proportion, and some recent UN figures put the total number of people who self-identify as religious in some way at 90-95% of the global population.

Secularism is a complicated matter, because it is more evident, and more powerful, in some sectors of society, and in some countries, than in others. There is especially a problem in that secularism and religion are far from being mutually exclusive, and so many people act and apparently think in secularist ways in some parts of their lives, and in religious ways in other parts. In that category, I would especially place the considerable number of academics who hold to some kind of private faith, but who hide it because of the considerable prejudice in academia against religion.

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secularism and religion are far from being mutually exclusive

That's true, and I think for many Christians (certainly me, and maybe all?) that's the everyday struggle - to choose to do what Christ would have me do, even when the world may think I'm a fool for it, and when the secular way would be easier.

It's also interesting that academics are so prejudiced against religion (which I certainly noticed at university) because you'd think people who are extremely intelligent would surely be able to accept those who think differently. Or do they simply reject the philosophy alone and accept the person? And is it any religion that they're prejudiced against, or just Christianity, in your experience? In my experience, many people are very tolerant of Buddhist or New Age or occult ideology in their peers, and are respectful of "cultural" faiths such as Islam and Judaism, but have no time for Christianity.

[alasthai]

The prejudice tends to be based on the presumption that religion precludes critical thought: anyone who has to believe something is not allowed to question it. The presumption is correct in its operation, but not necessarily its application, because quite a few believers do wrestle with their own beliefs.

The politically-correct imbalance, in which it is acceptable to condemn Christianity but not to condemn any other faith, is less visible in academia than in society as a whole, which is not to say that it is invisible, just that anyone in academic circles who speaks too loudly about the 'naive superstitions of Christianity' runs a fairly good chance of being overheard and dressed down by a well-educated Christian. I have heard far more anti-Christian commentary from lecturers within their classes than in any kind of staff meeting.

Medieval studies, on the other hand, is full of religious people, quite possibly because they spend all of their time with religious people of the past.

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I wrote a reply but it was too long... might turn it into a post instead! But I agree.