Godless Britain

The other night I enjoyed Cristine Odone's documentary on godless Britian. All I can say is that if she thinks Britain is godless she should try Australia! Oz is a land full of self-made men who love to worship their creator.

What I liked about the doco:

The reason for unbelief ('people don't want to be told how to live their lives') rang true for me. I used to be an atheist/pantheist, not because I had read J.L. Mackie's, The Miracle of Theism, but simply because I didn't want anybody telling me who I couldn't sleep with. I saw Christians (not that I knew any) as overbearing, autocratic moral authoritians who sought to do nothing more than impose their beliefs on others.

More people think of themselves as 'spiritual' rather than 'religious'. That's a line straight out of the movie Monster-in-Law.

What I didn't like about the doc:

Odone has an almost Ritschilian view of religion as being virtually synonymous with ethics. I won't deny that faith and living go together, but I don't think the solution to a decline in church attendance is to get a little more marketing savvy about church so the masses can receive good, solid, objective, moral instructions. You'll end up with a cultural or nominal Christianity and a bunch of people who speak Christianese, but have no real attachment to Jesus Christ and his Church. The people of the UK don't need exposure to liturgy and a dose of moral authoritarianism, instead, they need a redemptive relationship with Jesus the Christ.

Odone is struggling with the question: how do I make people be good? Her answer is, change society, make it adhere to traditional Judeo-Christian values, and people will be okay. I say unto you, transform the people through the redemptive and renewing power of the gospel and in the end, they in turn will change society. Her view fails because, I think, it makes no sense to adhere to Christian values (which seem ludicrious and backwards in this day) if people do not have spiritual intimacy with Jesus Christ.