Beliefs and values
Published: Wed, 06/22/16
Decision day tomorrow. This referendum has certainly revealed a fault line in British society. I like to think that I have managed to have reasonable and sensible discussions without losing any friends in the process. I hope so anyway. The problem seems to be that hardly anyone seems to see what the debate is actually about. There has been a great deal of intellectual argument about facts and figures and predicting the future but the real issue exists on a very different level.
Suppose we were having a referendum on whether or not to keep an established Church of England. Some people would be very keen to actually make the church stronger and increase its authority over every day life. Some militant atheists might take the opportunity to denounce the church as a symbol of medieval superstition. There may even be threats from some people that God will be angry and great disasters will befall our nation if we displease the deity. Others will claim that sweeping away the ‘opium of the people’ will lead to a great flowering of intellectual and cultural life. For the majority of people? They will wonder what all the fuss is about. If they want to go to church and worship God no one is stopping them. Atheists might admire church buildings, even enjoy the music and be happy to getting married in a church. But non-believers won’t see why a church should have any authority of them or a claim on their time,
money or resources. As an atheist it is hard to see why the church really exists, apart from the fact that it satisfies a need in others that you simply don’t understand.
Three points. One, yes, I am aware of other religions but I am trying to keep my analogy as simple as possible. Two, I am speaking as a Christian who would like more people to go to church than do but I also know that you can’t argue people into believing in anything. Three, there is something much more important than belief and that is values. I mix with a lot of people with a variety of beliefs. Beliefs that may be very different from mine (come to think of it I don’t know many Christians with beliefs quite like mine, but that is another story) but if I do find shared values with people then we can get along just fine.
So, now step back from the EU referendum debate and ask yourself this question. Do you believe in the EU project? Or can you really not see the point in it and therefore have no interest in supporting it?
The problem of discussion between atheists and people of faith is that a person of faith will demand to know of an atheist. “Well, what do you believe?” You might get an answer along the lines of. “Well, I believe in science, or Darwin or the big bang.” The likes of Richard Dawkins will almost claim that they have the science based faith which is better than a religious one. But that always ends up sounding rather ridiculous and a little desperate since there is still a need to believe in something.
The correct answer is simply. “I don’t really understand your question, I don’t believe in anything, life has no meaning, you are born by chance, make the best of living and when you die that is the end.” No amount of intellectual argument is going to convince a real atheist that they should believe in God, or any kind of spiritual dimension. You may convince them that for you being involved in a church (or whatever your choice of faith based affiliation may be) is a good thing which enhances your life. However, the church member’s enjoyment of religious life is no reason for an atheist to accept the underlying reason that the church exists, eg to worship and celebrate a God that the unbeliever simply does not see the point of.
The whole EU project is very similar, those who are committed to the project are true believers who celebrate their status as Europeans in the full sense. Non believers are not particularly against anything, they just don’t see the point of it and if forced to participate, then get resentful. Once a debate starts on whether or not a disparate group of people should be committed to a particular project then it is very easy to get into argument. Nigel Farage does have a tendency to be the Richard Dawkins of Euro Scepticism for example. For most people on the leave side it is more a matter of just not really understanding why the EU exists or why the UK belongs to it. If you are a true believer then you can argue costs and benefits for as long as you like, that really is not the point.
Does this mean that society is always destined to disintegrate along fault lines of belief? Well it certainly does happen, I am well aware of the republican/loyalist, Catholic/Protestant hostility in Northern Ireland to take one of a thousand possible examples. However, it does not have to. More important than beliefs are values, a person of faith and an atheist can share common values of love, compassion, tolerance etc. It is shared values which actually hold a society and community together.
Do the people of Europe share values? I know people from many different places and I would say yes. Do all European people believe in the same system of governance? No, hence the referendum tomorrow.
So, how to approach voting tomorrow? Vote according to your conscience (or gut feeling if you don’t like the c word). Celebrate that we get to air this matter by the ballot box and not the ammunition box. Then on Friday, which ever way it has gone, welcome people with a smile and a hug or handshake. All we will have done is bring our beliefs into the open, our common values are what really matter.
Blessings to you all (however you want to interpret the b word) and see you on the other side.
regards
Graham