Quality
Very quickly – it’s late!
I read this article on Guardian online today. Very interesting and very fairly written article.
As a response, I would say firstly that ‘popular religiosity’ (as the researcher calls it) is a cultural experience, rather than a strictly religious one. You can’t measure the personal or communal desire to seek after a god or higher being by the popular movement of a society. For this reason, apparently secular societies cannot be assumed to have a higher or lower level of faith on a personal or community level than any other. It’s not rocket science – it’s just good social research.
Secondly, if a more secular society really did have less people with a religious faith, this cannot be assumed to be the cause of the lower crime rates. Surely it’s clear (forgetting US for the moment – sorry US) that these less religious societies are the richest places on the planet. As there is less inequality of income, there will be less crime. ‘Quality of life’ will increase. People will feel more self reliant. Their natural desire to look for ’something more’ or a ‘first cause’ will be lessened as everything seems controllable – there is less to be explained. The idea that there is a God eventually becomes too complicated to contemplate as they become accustomed to ease and simplicity. God makes a mess.
It’s that whole thing that Jesus spoke about with the Pharisees. He’s not here to deal with the ones who believe they’re alright on their own – it’s all about the poor and those in need. When He said ’Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted’ it was clear that, in order to be comforted, we have to need comfort – it is a response to the pain of real life.
So Paul (the researcher) thinks: lack of faith leads to moral clarity, leads to higher quality of life, leads to more cash.
I think: more cash leads to improved quality of life, leads to moral distortion, leads to lack of desire for God.
Of course, neither of these can be proved. Also, I haven’t even started on the US. But I’m tired and that’s all I wanted to say!
