rationality and reason

Friday’s (19^th Nov) ‘Thought for the Day’ on BBC 4 was a piece by Chief Rabbi – Lord Sacks promoting Interfaith Week which he describes as “the latest chapter in the history of British tolerance.” I sense a slight touch of mocking irony from Rabbi Sacks in that comment “…the latest chapter…” as though it has been tried times before without success.

He continues to provide us with a brief history of the persecution of Jews in Britain, then offers some brief insight to the plight of Calvinists before giving us a whole paragraph on the European fight between the Catholics and Protestants describing the resulting destructiveness ‘immense’; I suggest you listen to Melvyn Bragg’s In our Time – Foxe’s Book of Martyrs which provides a slightly more detailed & ‘graphic’ account of the religious intolerance between Catholics and Protestants through sixteenth century England.

I write this after reading this morning an article on the BBC website that the Free Church (of Scotland, is) to allow music and hymns; they worry and debate as to whether their God would prefer them to stick with traditional psalms or introduce music and hymns, presumably to attract more customers!? It strikes me as most shallow, the level of some debate, within the Christian church; what about the Big issues? If you happen to visit the British Humanist Association website you will find an organization that debates all these relevant issues from an atheist and agnostic perspective based around reason, experience and shared human values.

Whilst most religious faiths in the UK are in a state of implosion scrambling to keep and put bums on seats, and needing ‘interfaith weeks’ to promote good relations between people of different faiths (something of an oxymoron), it is refreshing to find reason and rationality in Humanism.