Confession

Having been a member for many years, I think it is about time that I made a confession, which I am told is good for the soul even if it is not very good for my continued membership. I am a committed church member, even though the word “committed” makes me think of mental institutions and prisons. I think of the scriptural stories as parabolic and written to guide one's behaviour, definitely not intended as a scientific text. Therefore when a story is physically impossible or extremely unlikely, I simply shrug my shoulders and think that it is a fable and the important part is the message it is portraying. I would never think of using the Bible as a physics or astronomy textbook any more than I would use the physical science texts as a moral guide. Interestingly, I note that many people who have no religious affiliation take great comfort in thinking that when they die they will meet up with old friends who have “gone before”. I think it would be churlish of me to tell them of my doubts in that regard. Also, I have enough humility to recognise that we are still very far from knowing everything about the physical world.

I know that the Bible is an old book and society has changed in this time and in this part of the world, but I have noticed that in the last 70 years as the country has got more secular, it has also got more discontented. Now I know better than to argue “post hoc ergo propter hoc” but I do think it not unreasonable to postulate that there might be some connection, perhaps a case of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Sadly, I can see no way of distinguishing baby from bathwater, so I can't come up with any reasoned hypothesis. In the meantime, I meet with a lot of very pleasant people who incidentally have helped me very willingly when I have had minor accidents.