Exactly this.snoozeofreason wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 9:16 amThat sort of struck a chord with me because, over Easter, I have been worrying that my mum isn't going to church any more. I'm not a believer, and I am not worried about her soul. It's just that it's been a big part of her life, and it doesn't seem to be that any more - I speak of it as an activity rather than a belief.
It's an odd thing, but atheists often have a more "theological" view of religion than believers. For many practising Christians (and, I suspect, those of other faiths) religion is more about what you do than what you believe, and the conclusions they come to on that score are not so different to those of us who don't believe but still want to do the right thing. When I am with my mum, I generally accompany her to services and hang around for the coffee and chat afterwards. I doubt that anyone in the congregation has twigged that I don't share their theological beliefs, because it's not the sort of thing anyone talks about much.
I wouldn't worry about the tone of Roberts' tweet though, because I doubt that many believers would be bothered by it. In fact I can imagine her tweet being used as the basis of sermons - by vicars who are just as likely to agree with Roberts' view as to disagree with it. Most christians don't believe that the bible is literally true, nor do they believe that it is some sort of instruction manual that will tell you how to live your life in the way that a Haynes manual will tell you how to fix the carburettor on a Ford Focus.
Obviously not all religion is like that. I was brought up in the wishy washy C of E tradition where, as St. Jeremy Hardy used to say, you don't exactly lose your faith, just forget where you put it. There are people who take a more fundamentalist view - people who need there to be an absolute truth, and refuse to believe that anyone can disagree with this truth in good faith. But fundamentalism is as much a way of believing as a belief, and there are plenty of people who have abandoned religious belief, or never had it in the first place, but still operate fundamentalist mode.
For the vast majority, no real thought goes into it. The brain happily holds the contradiction: people never come back from the dead but this person did come back from the dead. The chat after the show and the coffee mornings are what the brain really wants.
A minority worry about the contradiction and give it hard thought. Some come up with fantastical theological solutions involving miracles and Jesus being a tripartite being. Others realise it's simply fiction and move on to considering the ethical framework that christianity bequeathed us.
But it's the christian institution that has the problem - ongping decline. Humanism is a bit weird imo but it's successful in grabbing the ethics while rejecting the fiction. When young people are provoked into thought they are at risk of rejecting their birth religion and moving to a modern less fantastical framework - which is why christianity doesn't want anyone to provoke thought.