Biiblical Seenescence The noblest of felines, the lion, is referenced throughout the bible, the lion of Judah was an early Jewish symbol which carried over to Christianity. Revelation 5:5 states ‘‘And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to lose the seven seals thereof.’’ A reference to the second coming of Christ. The Chronicles of Narnia bases the lion Aslan on Jesus, as he is seen to sacrifice himself and then rise from the dead in triumph. Christianity forms a fundamental part of the history and culture of this country. This article is not to establish whether one should believe or not believe in the contents of the Bible but rather set out a case that Christianity and the values that stem from it have created peace and tolerance in this country and the decline of religion will likely lead to much more harm than good and the evidence for this is already there to see. Recent polls have shown that the number of people who claim to be followers of Christianity has fallen from over 80% of British people who identified as Christians in 1945, to 38% according to a recent survey with just 1% of young people identifying as Church of England. This has coincided with a decline in societal morals with crime rates on the rise and polarisation of society along political lines. British Christianity has always had its own unique spin with Britain being an island nation. The Church of England was founded on 600 AD (not by the reformation in 1533) and after the normal conquest, English bishops could be appointed by the King even with objections from the pope. The Church of England formally split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1533 with the King rather than the pope becoming head of the Church and Christ’s representative on Earth. This was followed shortly in Scotland with a presbyterian (church without bishops) reformation led by John Knox in the 1560s. However, the idea that the King himself was answerable to God created a check on power as, unlike in other cultures such as Japan, the King never claimed to be a living God or the embodiment of God on Earth thus when the King overreached himself, such as Charles I in the 1640s, he could be held to account in accordance with the laws of God. Douglas Murray said this was an “anti-totalitarianism within the bloodstream of Europe” The recent announcement by the Scottish government that places of worship must close as part of lockdown restrictions would have set off much more of an outpouring of public anger if it had happened around 50 years ago or before then. Indeed, there has never been a mass closure of churches on this scale in the history of the country, but it seemed to be greeted with indifference by the people of Scotland even though places of worship are allowed to remain open in England. When I raised this unfairness on social media, I was greeted with the usual abuse by SNP cult trolls and I realized that Scotland had a new religion and that is the cult of the SNP. The belief that Nicola Sturgeon can do no wrong and a belief that will be put to the test very soon. Places of worship are a place where during these very testing times of a global pandemic with nearly everyone worries about either the disease itself or their financial futures, an hour a week in a socially distanced church where everyone was masked up really doesn’t seem like too much of an ask. The mental health benefits would be very good and there is little evidence of COVID spreading in churches. Within every person there is an innate need to have a cause to believe in, that can be the ideals of the nation or can be manifested in a religious faith and the two are often intertwined. In recent years there has been a rise in ‘‘new atheism’’ from a group of four people; Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennet who wrote best-selling books proclaiming their disbelief in and dislike of faith. Christopher Hitchens is one of my greatest heroes, a man with the courage to speak his mind no matter what backlash he would get and I am a follower of the work of Sam Harris and use his meditation app but I don’t think they understand the simple point that in the absence of faith, people will not necessarily act rational and it is difficult to motivate people with a promise of bleak existence and nothing beyond that, everyone wants to have meaning and if they don’t find it in faith they will find it in dangerous political ideologies. The void created by the New Atheists has largely been filled by the increasingly censorious and authoritarian ‘‘woke’’ movement. However, they are not necessarily new atheists themselves as most new atheists I have encountered are politically conservative or classical liberal. Peter Hitchens in his quite famous 2008 debate with his late brother Christopher pointed out that the new atheist ‘‘horsemen’’ as they styled themselves lived quite comfortable lives in nice parts of nice cities, they had the fulfilment of being respected members of their communities and therefore seemed to enjoy being missionaries of Godlessness in a free society created for them by centuries of Christianity. However, the social decline and collapse caused by Britain’s abandonment of God led to a return to a ‘‘law of the jungle’’ scenario where people act rashly with no regard for the consequences of their actions because if they believe that their existence is a cosmic accident and they will face no judgement for their actions then they what is to stop them kicking someone to death for their wallet and getting into a gang war with knives and guns. I am not saying all atheists behave like this of course but the removal of Christianity from our culture has created an “anything goes” mentality which can become downright dangerous at times. Religious people are often accused of being irrational but with a few exceptions I have noticed that the opposite is true, religious people tend to be more thoughtful and therefore more likely to consider the consequences of their actions on the people around them while secularists can often fill the void that would normally be filled by faith with genuinely irrational dogmas, be that wokeism or COVID hysteria and these dogmas come with much more intolerance than I have ever encountered in Christianity. They go on witch hunts on social media to find anyone of prominence who dares to dissent from their views and demand they lose their jobs, we are given two minutes of hate against so-called ‘‘Covidiots’’, a term which has been officially used in The Sun headlines for minor infractions such as not wearing a mask to pay for your petrol or wearing it under your nose. Christianity indeed went through its more violent stages in the middle ages and early renaissance but has long got past that and made peace with those who do not believe.
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