….the sheer sloppiness of Polly Toynbee”˜s tirade (yes, another one) in …[the] Guardian is breathtaking….
So, let’s pick on the worst elements of religious expression (which millions of religious people also find weird and/or dodgy), shall we, and ignore the rest? What response would I get if I used Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao and the other usual suspects as the epitome of secular atheism? Like everything else in this world ”“ the real one in which most of us live ”“ religious institutions or movements comprise huge ranges of agreement and dispute with just about everything the institution or movement lays claim to. There is no objective monolith ”“ not even when leaders pretend there is.
And, just to be really clear, (elements of) the secular world looks on with utter perplexity at all sorts of religious motivation, belief and behaviour: self-sacrifice, humility, generosity, etc. (There I go again ”“ generalising”¦) The mere fact that ”˜the secular world looks on with utter peplexity’ tells us nothing other than that some people are perplexed by other people ”“ it says nothing about the subject of the perplexity itself….
nicely written
A good exchange in the comments. Thoughtful stuff from which this and every blog can get a clue.
Bishop Nick Baines is here again a penetrative analyst of what I also took to be sloppy writing when I read it at breakfast time.
He is an outstanding writer. He is the Anglican rep/chair on the Meissen Commision. Anglican/Lutheran > German Evangelical Church. He preached at the Berliner Dom (Cathedral) 10 days ago, in German of course.
Yes, good points well made