Chris ([info]randomchris) wrote,
@ 2004-02-26 10:38:00
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Survey indicates that Britain is the world's most secular nation:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/wtwtgod/3518375.stm

Oddly, my reaction to this is positive.

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[info]pseudomonas
2004-02-26 02:47 am UTC (link)
My reaction is that it's asking the wrong question. Someone who takes seriously the questions of the nature of the universe, the nature of morality, and so on, and comes to the conclusion that there is an interventionist deity, and one that comes to the conclusion that there is not, are not opposites - the opposites are those who don't ask the questions.

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[info]mirabehn
2004-02-26 03:25 am UTC (link)
*nods*

Yes, I very much agree with that!

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[info]nickys
2004-02-26 03:25 am UTC (link)
That is a very good point.

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[info]purplepiano
2004-02-26 04:09 am UTC (link)
I don't quite agree - that's just one pair of opposites, which measures propensity to intellectual querying rather than religiousness. The religiousness of a country, as most people would understand the term in a news article, is independent of how questioning its inhabitants are. Countries full of people who have been unquestioningly brought up in the religion of their culture are unarguably religious.

I think a more relevant dichotomy is between the people who have come to a common conclusion (of any sort), and the ones who haven't. And then allow those conclusions to influence the country's laws. For example, countries where secularism is treated as a national way of life (*cough* France) could also be called religious in a sense!

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[info]pseudomonas
2004-02-26 04:28 am UTC (link)
Yes, I readily agree, it's only one way of looking at things - it just happens to be one that's important to me.

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Go disestablishmentarians!
[info]chillies
2004-02-26 08:14 am UTC (link)
Why exactly is there an established Church? More people go to the supermarket on Sunday than go to Church, and yet we don't have an established Sainsbury's ;-)

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Re: Go disestablishmentarians!
[info]randomchris
2004-02-26 09:25 am UTC (link)
Because nobody's bothered to disestablish it yet? :)

I'd say Sainsbury's is very established! I'm fairly sure they've had government grants for things like organic farming, job incentives, etc.

Also, in Scotland there isn't officially an established Church, just one that's become fairly dominant. It doesn't receive funding as a state-sponsored religion, just as a charity like any other.

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Re: Go disestablishmentarians!
[info]chillies
2004-02-26 02:07 pm UTC (link)
I'd say Sainsbury's is very established!

I agree. David Sainsbury is Science Minister, after all. I particularly like the quote, 'Suspicious minds looked at the 300 per cent increase in the government grant to the Sainsbury Laboratory and pondered whether this might be linked to the fact that Lord Sainsbury of Turville is the Science Minister.'

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