Biblical Senescence

The noblest of felines, the lion, is referenced throughout the bible, the lion of Judah was an early Jewish symbol which carried over to Christianity. Revelation 5:5 states ‘‘And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to lose the seven seals thereof.’’ A reference to the second coming of Christ. The Chronicles of Narnia bases the lion Aslan on Jesus, as he is seen to sacrifice himself and then rise from the dead in triumph. Christianity forms a fundamental part of the history and culture of this country. This article is not to establish whether one should believe or not believe in the contents of the Bible but rather set out a case that Christianity and the values that stem from it have created peace and tolerance in this country and the decline of religion will likely lead to much more harm than good and the evidence for this is already there to see. Recent polls have shown that the number of people who claimto be followers of Christianity has fallen from over 80% of British people who identified as Christians in 1945, to 38% according to a recent survey with just 1% of young people identifying as Church of England. This has coincided with a decline in societal morals with crime rates on the rise and polarisation of society along political lines.

British Christianity has always had its own unique spin with Britain being an island nation. The Church of England was founded on 600 AD (not by the reformation in 1533) and after the normal conquest, English bishops could be appointed by the King even with objections from the pope. The Church of England formally split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1533 with the King rather than the pope becoming head of the Church and Christ’s representative on Earth. This was followed shortly in Scotland with a presbyterian (church without bishops) reformation led by John Knox in the 1560s. However, the idea that the King himself was answerable to God created a check on power as, unlike in other cultures such as Japan, the King never claimed to be a living God or the embodiment of God on Earth thus when the King overreached himself, such as Charles I in the 1640s, he could be held to account in accordance with the laws of God. Douglas Murray said this was an “anti-totalitarianism within the bloodstream of Europe”

The recent announcement by the Scottish government that places of worship must close as part of lockdown restrictions would have set off much more of an outpouring of public anger if it had happened around 50 years ago or before then. Indeed, there has never been a mass closure of churches on this scale in the history of the country, but it seemed to be greeted with indifference by the people of Scotland even though places of worship are allowed to remain open in England. When I raised this unfairness on social media, I was greeted with the usual abuse by SNP cult trolls and I realized that Scotland had a new religion and that is the cult of the SNP. The belief that Nicola Sturgeon can do no wrong and a belief that will be put to the test very soon.

Places of worship are a place where during these very testing times of a global pandemic with nearly everyone worries about either the disease itself or their financial futures, an hour a week in a socially distanced church where everyone was masked up really doesn’t seem like too much of an ask. The mental health benefits would be very good and there is little evidence of COVID spreading in churches.

Within every person there is an innate need to have a cause to believe in, that can be the ideals of the nation or can be manifested in a religious faith and the two are often intertwined. In recent years there has been a rise in ‘‘new atheism’’ from a group of four people; Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennet who wrote best-selling books proclaiming their disbelief in and dislike of faith. Christopher Hitchens is one of my greatest heroes, a man with the courage to speak his mind no matter what backlash he would get and I am a follower of the work of Sam Harris and use his meditation app but I don’t think they understand the simple point that in the absence of faith, people will not necessarily act rational and it is difficult to motivate people with a promise of bleak existence and nothing beyond that, everyone wants to have meaning and if they don’t find it in faith they will find it in dangerous political ideologies. The void created by the New Atheists has largely been filled by the increasingly censorious and authoritarian ‘‘woke’’ movement. However, they are not necessarily new atheists themselves as most new atheists I have encountered are politically conservative or classical liberal.

Peter Hitchens in his quite famous 2008 debate with his late brother Christopher pointed out that the new atheist ‘‘horsemen’’ as they styled themselves lived quite comfortable lives in nice parts of nice cities, they had the fulfilment of being respected members of their communities and therefore seemed to enjoy being missionaries of Godlessness in a free society created for them by centuries of Christianity. However, the social decline and collapse caused by Britain’s abandonment of God led to a return to a ‘‘law of the jungle’’ scenario where people act rashly with no regard for the consequences of their actions because if they believe that their existence is a cosmic accident and they will face no judgement for their actions then they what is to stop them kicking someone to death for their wallet and getting into a gang war with knives and guns. I am not saying all atheists behave like this of course but the removal of Christianity from our culture has created an “anything goes” mentality which can become downright dangerous at times.

Religious people are often accused of being irrational but with a few exceptions I have noticed that the opposite is true, religious people tend to be more thoughtful and therefore more likely to consider the consequences of their actions on the people around them while secularists can often fill the void that would normally be filled by faith with genuinely irrational dogmas, be that wokeism or COVID hysteria and these dogmas come with much more intolerance than I have ever encountered in Christianity. They go on witch hunts on social media to find anyone of prominence who dares to dissent from their views and demand they lose their jobs, we are given two minutes of hate against so-called ‘‘Covidiots’’, a term which has been officially used in The Sun headlines for minor infractions such as not wearing a mask to pay for your petrol or wearing it under your nose. Christianity indeed went through its more violent stages in the middle ages and early renaissance but has long got past that and made peace with those who do not believe.

In recent years another intolerant movement has arisen, initially on university campuses but have now spread out into the wider world with these students having graduated into real-world occupations. Whereas politics in this country was done under a set of norms which allowed people to disagree in a civilized way. Morning prayers in the house of commons as well as a swearing an oath to HM the Queen on a Bible or other religious text. Even those who had no faith were allowed to affirm and respect that Britain was a Christian country.

But now some seek to criminalise dissent rather than disagree with it in a civilised way. It’s ironic that the Hate Crime Bill currently making its way through the Scottish parliament abolishes the offence of blasphemy against the Christian religion, which has not been prosecuted since 1842, and replaces it with a new crime of blasphemy against the state and its diversity policies. There has been much concern from the church that it could effectively criminalise the Bible as it could be interpreted as “stirring up” hate against particular groups. Besides, atheist criticism of religion may become criminal due to the heavy criticism of Islam which comes from the new atheists.

Green climate change policy also has many of the makings of a religion. Christopher Hitchens himself said that environmentalism presupposes that man has an original sin which is existing, that an Armageddon is on its way if we continue to upset the air and the only way out of it is through the solutions proposed by radical environmentalists. However, this has been another means by which the void of a national religion has been filled. It is state-backed and it punishes those who dissent from it with loss of jobs and positions and public ridicule. The tithes that were once paid to the church have now been replaced by green taxes payable to the state.

The legal norms of our society have their roots in Christian traditions. The rule of “do unto others as you would have done unto yourself” is the foundation for equality before the law where everyone from the dustman to the duke had the same rights under the law such as the right to freedom of speech and expression, trial by a jury of one’s peers and freedom of conscience. It was protestant Christianity (and I speak as a Catholic) which led to parliamentary sovereignty and the birth of modern democracy in 1689, where for the first time since the Roman Republic, an elected parliament established itself as the supreme law-making body in the land above even the King. High evidentiary standards such as the requirement in Scotland, for there to be two witnesses’ testimonies to convict someone, are rooted in the Bible and inspires by Roman law after Christianity was adopted in the Roman Empire. Even consumer protection laws are rooted in Christianity, the “neighbourhood principle” based on the Christian commandment to “love thy neighbour as thyself” was cited by Lord Atkin in the landmark case of Donoghue v Stevenson which held the manufacturer of a product responsible for its defects and served as the foundation for modern consumer protection law.

Marriage within the Christian understanding of it is the foundation of the right to a private and family life. Many of the norms that were once taken for granted across all society, that everyone rich or poor at least had solace and stability in a private family life has now become a luxury of the middle class. Ideals that young people claim are so out of reach such as homeownership only ever existed because of the married family, the idea that your house is your castle, and the state had no right to interfere in your private life has been lost as a result of the decline of marriage. Parental choice is no longer respected with the courts and law deciding who has the right to custody of a child during parental divorce or even whether parents are allowed to decide what medical treatment should be given to their children. I remember when I was younger it was considered rude to ask people about their personal medical information but the COVID hysteria has put an end to that with government ministers and NHS officials being asked if they had taken a coronavirus vaccine live on air.

I had hoped that the COVID pandemic might see a revival of faith, it showed us that we were not invincible, while the new atheist movement was built on the narrative that we had conquered all problems, however, instead of that the COVID mob has demanded churches and other places of worship be closed and the Scottish government has acquiesced. While Scotland is one of the most secular parts of the UK, a rise in crime, drug abuse and deaths, authoritarian governments and a decline in respect for others has coincided with it. Like Peter Hitchens I have little optimism of seeing an end to this decline and Britain will become a worse place for it.