Bryan Appleyard has once again stimulated my thoughts – this time with his article Beyond Belief? in today’s Sunday Times.
His article was triggered by Michael Howard’s move to make abortion an election issue and the resulting eruption of advice and instruction from the heads of the various religions in the country. He explored the differences between the way this issue plays here and in America and traces some of the differences to the different ways in which the two countries view religion.
The headline figures on the difference are startling. Here, fewer than 8% go to Church. In America, about half of the population go to Church every week. The US Dollar states, “in God we Trust”. We have the portrait of Darwin on our £10 notes. 78% of Americans believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Here, only 48% could tell you what Easter is supposed to commemorate. And here, 44% of people are quite certain that God does not exist. In America, almost everyone believes in some version of God.
The trends are significant, too. In 1968, 77% of Britons were certain that God existed. Now, a majority are either certain that He does not exist, or are uncertain about whether He does or does not.
Appleyard’s conclusion is interesting. He reasons that, since every civilisation in history has had a religion, the current lack of religion in Britain must be an aberration. He argues that religion must be a human need. Look how it has re-emerged in the communist countries, despite years of suppression, for example. His view is that religion will always come back and that the current secular phase in Britain is not a pointer to a world free of religion in future.
He may be right. But there is one aspect of the subject that he did not consider in his article and that is the relationship between religion and patriotism. As a general rule, the most religious countries are the most primitive ones. As you go up the international food chain, you tend to find religion playing less and less of a part. By the time you get to France, Germany and Great Britain, you find religion playing a very minor role in national life. But then you get the gigantic exception. America which should, following the trend, be totally atheistic is overwhelmingly religious. Even those at the forefront of technology - the astronauts – seem to put their trust in God ahead of science.
It is quite easy to see why a primitive people should be religious. It is not so easy to explain why an advanced people should turn to religion on such a scale. It is true that the early British settlers in New England were motivated by religious ideals, but this was certainly not true of the settlements in Virginia and further south, and England itself was extremely religious in the 17th Century, so the Pilgrims were not particularly out of line with the mainstream. Yet America has remained very religious and England has not.
The clue might lie in national success. England at the height of her power in the 1880’s was a very religious country. At the very point when her industry and science were changing the world, the British people peaked in terms of their religious observance. In Victorian England, every community had several churches of different denominations and we sent missionaries to the four corners of the Earth. Great religious movements such as Methodism and Calvinism took hold and made ripples we still feel today.
At the same time, a strong link between patriotism and religion appeared. Movements like the Boy Scouts arose with a strong blend of patriotism and religion. National songs blended God and Country. “Wider still, and wider, shall thy bounds be set/ God who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet” thundered the words of Elgar’s Land of Hope and Glory. It seemed obvious to everyone that God must be an Englishman, or at least have chosen England as His special tool to spread civilisation and His word.
All the time England was the most successful country on Earth it seemed natural to suppose that God was on our side and it made sense to thank Him for all the good things he seemed to be doing for us. But some time in the 1930’s he seemed to abandon us in favour of his new favourite, America. And then he began to show signs of preferring Japan, Germany and even France to us. And this, despite all we had done for Him in terms of spreading his word and sorting out the mess in the world!
It is undoubtedly more difficult to believe in a God who seems to be more interested in other countries than he is in your own. I suspect that His decision to drop his support for England has a lot to do with England’s decision to drop its support for Him. If this view is correct, then we can expect to see America become considerably less religious in future if, as widely predicted, first China and then India overtake it during the next one hundred years.
