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A Christian revival is under way in Britain

5 points by chippy 3y ago

yawpitch 3y ago
> But Christianity is not just a useful lifeboat for stranded intellectuals. An intellectual need not be stranded, nor if stranded be in want of a lifeboat… but it’s entirely possible for it to “just” be a useful lifeboat if that’s all one needs of it. > If it isn’t literally true, it isn’t valuable. It can certainly be valuable without being true. Or, to be more precise, if valuable at all then it certainly must be valuable without being literally true, because what it certainly is not is literally true. > Whether Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead matters. To those who have predicated their meaning on that fact. It’s perfectly workable to have meaning without it. > It mattered to St Paul. Who never met Jesus in person, and who Jesus never said or implied Jesus would appear to. > ‘If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.’ Ahh, good old Saul of Tarsus… always and ever skewing the word to reflect the meaning he wants it to have. > And it should matter to us. No, it should not. It could do, but should is an overstep unless the literal truth of any and every other religious text “should” also matter to us. > C.S. Lewis wrote … absolutely nothing of moral value to anyone not already smoking from the same weed.
- mrkeen 3y ago
  > > Whether Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead matters. > To those who have predicated their meaning on that fact. It’s perfectly workable to have meaning without it. But that's the core of the grift. "Thou shalt not X" is in no way more authoritative than "Make up your own mind about X" unless it's an order from the supernatural. One might as well commit their life to following the teachings of The Big Lebowski's "the dude".
  - yawpitch 3y ago
    > One might as well commit their life to following the teachings of The Big Lebowski's "the dude". One could do a lot worse. Or at least, yeah, well, that’s just, y’know, like, my opinion, man.
bell-cot 3y ago
A pretty good article. (Sadly, that feels rather exceptional for the Spectator.)
Festro 3y ago
> All that our post-Christian society has delivered so far is confusion, a mental health crisis in the young and the culture wars. I don't think we're far enough past Christian society in Britain to blame atheists/agnostics for these issues. In fact, we could posit they are a sign of the times changing. Confusion because people are moving away from ancient beliefs to unproven modern ones. People are having to find their way instead of rely on old superstitions. Mental Health crisis because we have more awareness of issues and because the old ways are totally inappropriate for modern problems. In the same way a Modern Theist is different to an Old one, we al have to adapt to the way the world is changing. And Culture Wars, in large part because society is now far more split between theism and atheism than it ever used to be. There are plenty of other aspects to modern identity politics too though, it's not all religion vs secularism.

5 points by chippy 3y ago

> But Christianity is not just a useful lifeboat for stranded intellectuals. An intellectual need not be stranded, nor if stranded be in want of a lifeboat… but it’s entirely possible for it to “just” be a useful lifeboat if that’s all one needs of it. > If it isn’t literally true, it isn’t valuable. It can certainly be valuable without being true. Or, to be more precise, if valuable at all then it certainly must be valuable without being literally true, because what it certainly is not is literally true. > Whether Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead matters. To those who have predicated their meaning on that fact. It’s perfectly workable to have meaning without it. > It mattered to St Paul. Who never met Jesus in person, and who Jesus never said or implied Jesus would appear to. > ‘If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.’ Ahh, good old Saul of Tarsus… always and ever skewing the word to reflect the meaning he wants it to have. > And it should matter to us. No, it should not. It could do, but should is an overstep unless the literal truth of any and every other religious text “should” also matter to us. > C.S. Lewis wrote … absolutely nothing of moral value to anyone not already smoking from the same weed.

mrkeen 3y ago
> > Whether Jesus Christ actually rose from the dead matters. > To those who have predicated their meaning on that fact. It’s perfectly workable to have meaning without it. But that's the core of the grift. "Thou shalt not X" is in no way more authoritative than "Make up your own mind about X" unless it's an order from the supernatural. One might as well commit their life to following the teachings of The Big Lebowski's "the dude".
- yawpitch 3y ago
  > One might as well commit their life to following the teachings of The Big Lebowski's "the dude". One could do a lot worse. Or at least, yeah, well, that’s just, y’know, like, my opinion, man.

bell-cot 3y ago

A pretty good article. (Sadly, that feels rather exceptional for the Spectator.)

Festro 3y ago

> All that our post-Christian society has delivered so far is confusion, a mental health crisis in the young and the culture wars. I don't think we're far enough past Christian society in Britain to blame atheists/agnostics for these issues. In fact, we could posit they are a sign of the times changing. Confusion because people are moving away from ancient beliefs to unproven modern ones. People are having to find their way instead of rely on old superstitions. Mental Health crisis because we have more awareness of issues and because the old ways are totally inappropriate for modern problems. In the same way a Modern Theist is different to an Old one, we al have to adapt to the way the world is changing. And Culture Wars, in large part because society is now far more split between theism and atheism than it ever used to be. There are plenty of other aspects to modern identity politics too though, it's not all religion vs secularism.