Religion – I miss talking about it!

Obviously, it’s difficult to be from Northern Ireland and not discuss religion especially after writing about political identity but I will avoid the traditional form of Catholic and Protestant discourse on this occasion.

As I have mentioned previously, I came on my own ‘Road to Damascus’ journey from right-wing conservative Catholic to what I can only describe now as a secular-pluralist-humanist. Perhaps that could be categorised as a religion? I doubt it but if it constitutes such please let me know.

I still understand and recognise the importance of religion in people’s lives and more importantly the need for it. To be honest though, when I hear people make all sorts of religious ‘offerings’ I become ‘logically lost.’ I must confess, I just made that term up, but is does sum up in my own mind, how and why such offerings are made. Let me offer you an example.

Not so long ago I ran into the daughter of a friend in a coffee shop. It was a nice catch-up, albeit a relatively short one, but nice. During the course of the conversation, towards the end in fact, the young lady in question somehow heard me say I had a pain in my left leg, or ankle, or hip – I’m not quite sure which – but wanted to offer up a prayer for me. My thought in that moment, ‘sure, whatever turns you on.’ I wasn’t trying to be dismissive or cynical but as for prayer relieving any kind of perceived pain in my left side, I am of the opinion that no spiritual intervention will alleviate any kind of pain, especially where none exists!

It was of course a kind gesture, and being aware of her religious convictions, and after I realised that she actually thought I had a pain, I said, ‘sure’, I don’t actually have a pain there but if you want to I’m happy for you to go ahead’ or something along those lines. That was until I realised she wanted to place her hand on me in the coffee shop and offer a prayer there and then, also in the company of her friend who was with her.

Now, as tempting as the offer from a beautiful young lady who wants place her hands on me might be normally, in this scenario I almost recoiled, but managed to hold it together enough to politely decline her kind offer with the words, ‘Oh you mean here (as in the coffee shop)? ‘No, it’s ok, it will be wasted on me’ I replied. I thanked her of course for the offer, and reaffirmed that it was great to see her and we parted.

Now, it was a nice gesture, and I appreciated her offer, and also appreciated that for her it was important to make such an offer, just as it was important for me not to be contradictory and allow God into my life in that moment through the charms of a beautiful young lady. It was more important for me to assert, or at least make clear to her, albeit it politely, that her and I were not on the same page as regards God, and not even on the radar as regards the value or veracity of prayer.

The idea of prayer having any kind of effect, at least in my humble opinion, is zero. It is one of the greatest illusions or delusion depending on how you ‘look’ at it ever perpetrated on humanity. It does nothing more than serve the purpose of making people feel better and to honour the idea or notion that you have to do something to help, again, at least in my opinion.

It simply relieves people of the burden that they all too often carry when they feel they should do something but don’t do anything significant, meaningful, visible or tangible. ‘I’ll say a few for prayers you sure’ and if the outcome is positive, well there’s the proof!

Can you imagine going into your GP with a pain in your leg that’s been there for a while and he doesn’t examine it, he doesn’t offer you a prognosis, he doesn’t prescribe you anything and doesn’t refer you to anyone, but promises to pray for you. And, if it doesn’t go away in the next day or two, phone into reception and they’ll light a candle for you!

Now there may be some among you who indeed think I’m cynical, or just more than a tad sarcastic. If so I apologise, I’m not meaning to be, but seriously, if you’ve ever been injured enough to require hospital treatment, let’s say of a serious nature, or if any of your family have been struck down with illness also requiring a hospital visit, I’m sure you haven’t stopped off at a Church, Temple, Mosque, Synagogue or any place of worship en-route in an attempt to muster up some divine intervention first, right?

Tracking back through history, over the centuries, millennia even, it wasn’t humanly possible for people to understand many of the things we now know. The achievements of scientists, physicians, biologists, cosmologists, and many others in their respective disciplines hadn’t been accomplished because they weren’t born yet, or their work hadn’t taken place yet, or the capacity to test theories had been evolved yet, or the technologies to test hypothesises hadn’t been developed yet.

And so, people turned to the supernatural or God, or their respective Gods, in a bid to explain things that just couldn’t be explained. And this continues to this day. When we can’t explain things, we rationalise them as something spiritual, or mystical, or magical, or a supernatural force because that is easier to do than to try and explain something where the technology, instruments or mathematical calculations needed to explain an unexplained occurrence doesn’t yet exist.

One of the reasons I stopped being religious (it wasn’t an overnight occurrence I should point out) was a slow dawning realisation that there were many things I could no longer defend, or justify, explain or rationalise, and not forgetting, also being distinctly uncomfortable with what many people were doing in name of religion.

At the same time, I loved the sense of community that religion brings, I still enjoy sitting in a church - when it’s empty– the solace and calm that it brings is immense. I love much of the music connected with religion, and it was a great place as a young teenager to ‘eye-up’ the ‘talent on a Saturday night! I also recognise much of the contribution that religion has made to humanity for example, in terms of culture.

People however, can effectively claim to do anything in the name of religion and for many it will be accepted. There is absolutely no evidence of the existence of the soul or that prayers work in any manner of speaking. There are so many religions all claiming to be true and right and the demonization of non-believers continues to this day.

Then there is the obsession with sex and with other people’s behaviour whilst orality became the sole property of various faiths and the myth that you need religion to be ‘good’ or that if you confess that you can be absolved from all your sins has been peddled over time, And let’s not forget the dogma of religions that have major health implications, e.g., laws against artificial contraception, Female Genital Mutilation, and even recently, those of religious fervour think they are immune from Coronavirus. Of course, scandals and cover-ups, not one or two, but countless!

Religion provides succour for the masses but equally it has been culpable in many of the greatest acts of violence against humanity as well as perpetuating so many untruths throughout history.

You’re right, I can’t prove there’s not a God, but then again you couldn’t disprove that there isn’t someone somewhere on the planet talking about me right now.