Letter: Questions of faith
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: The Bishop of London's article proclaiming the resurrection of faith (Saturday Essay, 3 April) completely fails to answer the questions that concern people who look for some version of truth.
Is faith - any faith - true? It's not good enough to say people want faith. They also want chocolate bars the size of Mont Blanc.
Why have people of differing faiths hated one another with more viciousness than any other form of hatred across the centuries? The Bishop mocks "Consumer Unbeliever International", but Voltaire sensibly saw commerce as a way of finding common purpose between Jews, Christians and Muslims "where the only infidel was the bankrupt".
Why are the epiphenomena of religion so startlingly similar to the epiphenomena of metal illness? Anyone who has had experience of knowing someone afflicted by either will know that the delusions of the one (magic, control, irrational thinking) are often echoed in the other.
If religion is a good thing, why is the fundamentalist form today - whether of Judaism, Christianity, Islam or Hinduism - so intolerant, repellent, bigoted and politically intransigent? Surely something which seeks to define goodness should be good in its most extreme form. Yet the manifestations of extreme religion, from the destruction of the Ayodhya mosque westwards, have been events of peculiar horror and badness. How can the Bishop explain that?
CHRISTOPHER WALKER
London W14
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments