That damn religion again

Narrator from Brideshead Revisted (Evelyn Waugh circa 1945):

Sebastian's faith was an enigma to me at that time, but not one which I
felt  particularly concerned to  solve.  I had  no religion. I was  taken to
church  weekly  as a  child,  and at school attended  chapel daily,  but, as
though in  compensation,  from  the time  I went to  my public school I  was
excused church in the holidays. The view implicit in my education  was  that
the  basic narrative of Christianity had long  been exposed as a  myth,  and
that opinion was now  divided as  to whether its  ethical  teaching  was  of
present value, a division in which the main weight went against it; religion
was a hobby which some people professed and others; did not;  at the best it
was slightly ornamental, at the worst it was the province of "complexes" and
"inhibitions"  --  catchwords I  of  the  decade -- and of  the intolerance,
hypocrisy, and sheer stupidity attributed to it for centuries. No one had
ever  suggested  to me that these  quaint  observances  expressed a coherent
philosophic system and intransigent historical  claims; nor, had they  done
so, would I have been much interested.


Commentary:

Of course, only everyone and his bleeding brother believes that. And this was
written in the 40's, oy! The new popularizing atheist really ought to invest in
some new arguments. (Julian the Apostate had all the good arguments in
his Against the Galileans. Like an old Kraut Professor of Comparative Religion.)
Something like the argument clinic from Python, only this time
instead of arguments or discussions new rational arguments would be sold
for profit. New grist for the mill as it were to ecrasez l'infame.
Maybe something a bit more more cheeky like Atheist's Idol. That's it.
It would play bloody brilliant in the UK. That way that bloke Dawkins can
be a real prick for a reason. We'll have him judge who best disproves the Flying
Spaghetti Monster on the sole ground of the unexamined propositions of scientific
materialism.
of course to make some real quid you'd have to sell it to America
and it would be a real cop there. Yeah,they're mad.  It's not like the
History of the Church of England and all non-conformist sects
could have any baring on the Yanks. Not like having a State Church set the stage
for rampant secularism in the UK or anything, so we could take it all for granted.
So now the Catholics Churches are the half-empty ones as opposed to the
C of E's which are empty as tombs.
I mean, what did the Church and Christianity ever do for us?
They gave us monasteries and libraries and books?
Kept the classics and all that. Started hospitals. Yeah but I mean something
useful. Definitely not that soddin' humanitarian lot.



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