Rupert’s Blog

At 8.35pm tonight I suddenly realised that I had forgotten to record the program on Ch 4, The Trouble with Atheism. Fortunately, it is on Telewest Teleport for the next 7 days … the wonders of modern technology! It is repeated at 2.30am on Friday morning (22nd) if you missed it.

In the program, Rod Little looks at the growing rise of Atheism, some of whom are “terribly dogmatic … and are becoming as intransigent as the people [religious] they despise.” Liddle constantly draws comparisons between atheism and religion, seeing that Atheism has its own sacred texts and temples, and its adherents also have faith.

Liddle interviewed a number of atheists, Richard Dawkins, author of the “The God Delusion“, the most prominent of them. As a renown scientist, he sees Science as the answer to all questions - its all we need to make sense of the world. Liddle also examines “proof” of the existence of God, science and faith, and origins of the world we live in.

Atheism is not the answer, says Liddle. Take God out of the equation, and you still have the problem of human nature … the capacity for great good, and incredible evil. How can you have morality without some reference to God & the sacred texts?

There is much that I think the atheists don’t understand about “believers” or perhaps they tar us all with the same brush: weird, unthinking, uncaring etc. Perhaps this could be the subject of some future posts: I really don’t see a conflict between faith and science. However, the thing that struck me the most from the program was the certainty with which the atheists spoke: they ARE right! Believers are either a bit simple and conform in some way. The fervour and passion with which they speak sounds like the religious people they criticise! Another faith is emerging!

History has shown us that it is not religion that is the problem, but any system of thought… one group of people that in the right and the others are in the wrong and must be punished.

Maybe dogmatism and certainty are the real evils! The language of “journey”, while in danger of becoming a cliche, is perhaps a new kind of language for Christians to use, in a world suspicious of certainty.

Well we held the Ashes for 1 year, 3 months and 3 days. The illusion of English Cricket renaissance was shattered in 11 days (or nights for us the UK) in Aus. Some shocking batting, poor bowling, lacklustre preparation, safe team selection, unfortunate injuries and late withdrawals have made it look more one-sided than it probably is, but the truth is (as much as I hate to admit it) Australia are the best side in the world and miles ahead of everyone.

There have been some moments when England have competed, and moments when the cricket was a contest, but those moments have not been often enough. It has failed to reach the heights of the 2005 series for tension, competition and drama (but it was never really going to). All a bit disappointing really.

Unless England pull their fingers out, my prediction of an Australia win of 3-1, is looking rather optimistic. Come on England, lets not go down 5-0.

I was born and brought up in sleepy Suffolk, so called because routinely, pretty much nothing of note happens there. It’s not really on the way to anywhere, you don’t really pass through Suffolk, unless you happen to be unfortunate enough to live in Norfolk (some prejudices never die), or you are a lorry driver, taking containers to Felixstowe.

I was born and educated in Ipswich, although we lived a little village called Raydon until I was about 12, when we moved a to an even smaller one a few miles down the road.

If anyone had heard of Ipswich generally it was because of the football team. Less so now, but they were a top team in the late 70’s and early 80’s, and I have many memories of going to Portman Road to watch them as a young lad.
I haven’t lived in Suffolk now for nearly 20 years, so it is pretty weird for me to suddenly see Ipswich as the lead story on the news. No longer a quiet provincial market town, but the centre of an unprecedented murder hunt and media frenzy. All these places, that I remember growing up, suddenly invaded by news crews scavenging for the latest scoop. Hintlesham, the location of the first woman to be found murdered, was only a short few miles down the road, from my childhood home, and we passed by Copdock (location of the second victims body) every time I went to school.

I have no desire to return to Suffolk to live, but there is something that draws me to the genteel part of the UK. It’s not just that my parents live there … but something of my past life there. My memories. My innocence. My childhood. My roots.

I have heard a number of people over the years, say they want to move back home, having been away from home a number of years. I sometimes wonder if that is us responding to something deep in us yearning for our lost innocence, to recapture our childhood, to go back to place where we felt secure, certain, loved, safe (I appreciate many people don’t feel that way about their childhood!). But I wonder if that desire should take us forward to the future, rather than back to the past. Ultimately, in a chaotic & uncertain world, that kind of certainty and innocence can’t be re-created. But is does demonstrate a longing deep in our hearts for that kind of love & security. Maybe that is what the Bible means when it says that God has “set eternity in the hearts of men”. We long for a different home.

While I wait in the “in-between” stage, maybe that is why I find it so unsettling that Ipswich and Sleepy Suffolk is now headline news with “unprecedented” evil.

While brousing the TV listings for Christmas, I noticed an interesting program on Channel 4 “The trouble with Atheism”, on the 18th December, at 8pm.

Here is the blurb:

Far from being an antidote to religious fundamentalism, Rod Liddle sees 21st century atheism as sharing many characteristics with the very belief systems it opposes. As he argues in this authored film, those that turn to atheism for a rational, logical and moderate approach to modern problems are in for a shock; atheism too has its high priests, dogmas and beliefs as much as any fundamentalist religion.

Looks like one of the more interesting programs to watch over the Christmas period.

I could say more, but maybe I will wait until I have watched the program.

I came across a couple of very good posts the other day on community, on bob.blog.

Good stuff.

Community lessons from the megachurch…

The other side of the community thing…

Key quote:

You either throw your life in with others in community, or you don’t. Anonymity or engagement… No one can do these things for you. All the rest of us can do is create an environment conducive to building community. It’s up to you to actually make community happen in your own life. It’s up to you to engage.

While driving along in the car today to a hill, where we were going to go for a walk and play football, Toby, our nearly 3 year old, said:

“God built the hill”. You see we are doing a good job … however He chose to do it, clearly the hill was something that God built. So yes Toby, you are right, God built the hill, and the moon, the stars, and he painted the sky.

All going swimmingly. You are doing a great with your son, Rupert. He knows that God built the hill. Hey, I’m the man! Next question from Toby:

“Who is God, daddy?”.

Stuck. Stumped. No words. Not a thought. Nearly crashed the car. I do this for a living: try and help people understand God, to know God, to explain him to others, to help people see Him for themselves. What do I say? A crucial moment in my son’s development :-), and I haven’t got a clue how to explain to Toby who God is? So, thinking about impressed Toby was the other day at my painting our dining room ceiling or sky (as Toby calls it), I said God is a kind of Big Daddy. I know, not very good; not the best description that you could come up with (and all I could think of was the wrestler from a few years ago, always winning against Giant Haystacks), but it is all I could think of in the moment (what would you have said???). A kind of Big, Huge, Ginormous Daddy to all the people in the world.

Toby sat and thought for a moment and said:

“I like God”.

I have been pretty busy last week, so not much blogging. Lots of thoughts going round my head, but not sure where to start! So perhaps, I will start something that I have been wondering about for the last few weeks … the rise of fundamentalism in our society.

The term “fundamentalism” was originally coined by evangelical Christians, in response to growing liberal wing of the church to assert the “fundamentals” of the faith. However, throughout the mid 20th Century, the movement became increasingly separatist and dogmatic. Recently we have also seen the rise of Islamic Fundamentalist (which many moderate Muslim’s would be as embarrassed about, as many Christians are, of our version of Fundamentalism).

Recently, however, we are beginning to see another group of fundamentalist entering the arena … the secular fundamentalists. Rather than just being atheists, not believing in God, or seeing the need to believe in God … a new breed of atheists are emerging who believe that all religion is evil, wrong, and to be stopped at all costs.

I have noticed in the last few weeks, the rise of this , with the controversy of Christian Unions in Exeter, Birmingham and Edinburgh (I’ll blog something about this later in the week); the refusal of BA to allow an employee to wear a small cross, and just recently the proposed introduction of “sexual orientation regulations” being fast tracked in Northern Ireland. Peter Hain, on last weeks Question Time (30th Nov), was extolling the virtues of this law, that would allow a same sex couple the right to a bed in a guesthouse; he argued that it would be wrong for guesthouses to have a sign outside saying “no gays allowed” in the same way that it would be wrong for a sign to be outside saying “no blacks allowed”. What he didn’t talk about was the concerns of Christian groups that people could be prosecuted for promoting heterosexual relationships, or refusing to “bless” a same-sex partnership.

My point here is not to argue about gay rights, but to appeal for a level playing field of dialogue. Increasingly the secular fundamentalists seem as bigoted at the religious versions they so despise, and seem determined to silence all religious voices. Perhaps it is time for us to put an end to all fundamentalism … but there again, maybe I am just being prejudice against fundamentalism?