Rev Russels Governale serves communion during a Spanish-language Easter service at St Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church in New York on Sunday. AP Photo
Rev Russels Governale serves communion during a Spanish-language Easter service at St Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church in New York on Sunday. AP Photo
Rev Russels Governale serves communion during a Spanish-language Easter service at St Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church in New York on Sunday. AP Photo
Just in time for Easter, a new survey revealed an astonishing change in religious adherence in the US. For the first time in eight decades of asking about this issue, the polling organisation Gallup found that less than 50 per cent of American adults belonged to a church, synagogue or mosque. This was down from 70 per cent in 1999, a proportion of the population that had remained almost constant since the late 1930s. Across the Atlantic, it has been reported that in the UK’s most recent census the percentage of people describing themselves as Christian is expected to fall below 50 per cent for the first time.
These findings represent milestones. For, if we leave aside the communist states – which in any case made a kind of “religion” of their totalitarian ideologies – to be human has meant to be religious throughout history. There have always been non-believers too, although miniscule in number in most parts of the world. But all societies have had their gods. That the US and UK appear to be on the road to rejecting theirs deserves more attention than it is getting.
As I've noted before when addressing this phenomenon, the western countries where this trend has been recorded increasingly run the risk of failing to understand the 84 per cent of the world (according to Pew research) in which religious affiliation is clear and growing.
To take one example: Monty Python's Life Of Brian is more likely to be criticised today for Eric Idle's portrayal of a character who wished to change his gender, than for what many Christians said was its blasphemous mockery of Jesus Christ when the film was released in 1979. Western societies have not only dropped any prohibitions against blasphemy; they have effectively dismissed the idea itself as groundless.
So it is no wonder that they refuse to grasp the offence that caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed cause many Muslims. "You shouldn't be upset," many people in the West repeatedly tell Muslims around the world – since they can no longer even imagine that certain subjects should be unthinkably off-limits because they transgress against the realm of the divine.
These countries also run the risk of current and future generations failing to comprehend fully their own histories and heritages, so integral has religion been to both, as the historian Tom Holland described comprehensively in his book Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind.
While it is up to people to think for themselves about such matters, and of course non-believers are perfectly capable of living lives of conscience, what has filled the space formerly occupied by religion is not encouraging.
As the author Ed West wrote in a perceptive essay in Unherd recently: "What is left is not the rationalist paradise some naive public philosophers were claiming at the start of the 21st century, but… endless moral panics, a world seen in stark black and white between good and evil, competitive sanctimony and the sentimental glorification of victimhood."
The “New Atheists” Mr West is referring to – the likes of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Sam Harris – thought, as Professor Dennett once put it to me, that “when it comes to facts, and explanations of facts, science is the only game in town”. But even if most of us, including people of faith, are prepared to accept his point, science cannot be the basis of any morality of consequence; and when the attempt has been made, it has often had murderous results, as the history of the vogue for eugenics in the first part of the 20th century shows.
Millennials are embracing practices such as tarot, astrology and crystals, the benefits of which are unclear. Ryan Carter for The National
Science cannot be the basis of any morality of consequence. When the attempt has been made, it has often had murderous results
Science does not satisfy the hunger for rules and a framework by which to conduct a moral life that religion does. The pure rationalism of the New Atheists is not enough. So many millennials "who have turned away from traditional organised religion", according to a report in the Los Angeles Times, are embracing practices such as tarot, astrology and crystals – the benefits of which are unclear, to put it mildly.
Others suggest, persuasively, that the search for meaning and conviction has been channelled into politics and ideological intensity. There are several problems with this. These new certainties have all the force of religion for many, but are in a lot of ways far more rigid and divisive. They are not the “broad churches” that most religions, with their centuries of debate among scholars, are. And whatever the faults of religions, which have of course been misused frequently over the centuries to justify war, oppression and intolerance, they all situate humanity in a place of humility before something greater. Some of these new certainties, on the other hand, place the "self" above all else. The individual is judge and jury guided by “his or her truth”.
What, to paraphrase the writer and poet WB Yeats, these “passionate intensities” lack are any fleshed-out concepts of forgiveness and redemption. Hardly a week goes by without people being forced to resign from their jobs because of past comments on social media. Fulsome apologies are obligatory; but when are they allowed to return in good standing and cast off the mantle of shame? No one knows, is the answer.
Science does not satisfy the hunger for rules and a framework by which to conduct a moral life that religion does. The pure rationalism of New Atheists, such as Richard Dawkins, is not enough. AP Photo
The Abrahamic religions, on the other hand, all recognise the need to address human fallibility. The Quran states: “Despair not of the mercy of Allah, Lo! Allah forgiveth all sins. Lo! He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.” In the Bible, Jesus urged a crowd not to rush to judge a woman accused of adultery, saying: “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.” Repentance and forgiveness are similarly emphasised in Judaism.
The gulf of misunderstanding between, say, liberal California and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where I live and religion is the norm, is bad enough. But if what is replacing conventional faith in western countries is either the dubious practices of “new age” charlatans, or harsh new convictions that put the individual above the community while failing to acknowledge humanity’s inherent frailty, that is worse. The US, UK and other countries could have reason to regret deserting religion.
Sholto Byrnes is an East Asian affairs columnist for The National
Starring: Anthony Mackie, Aiysha Hart, Ben Kingsley
Director: Rupert Wyatt
Rating: 3/5
The specs: 2019 Haval H6
Price, base: Dh69,900
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 197hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 315Nm @ 2,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Who has lived at The Bishops Avenue?
George Sainsbury of the supermarket dynasty, sugar magnate William Park Lyle and actress Dame Gracie Fields were residents in the 1930s when the street was only known as ‘Millionaires’ Row’.
Then came the international super rich, including the last king of Greece, Constantine II, the Sultan of Brunei and Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal who was at one point ranked the third richest person in the world.
Turkish tycoon Halis Torprak sold his mansion for £50m in 2008 after spending just two days there. The House of Saud sold 10 properties on the road in 2013 for almost £80m.
Other residents have included Iraqi businessman Nemir Kirdar, singer Ariana Grande, holiday camp impresario Sir Billy Butlin, businessman Asil Nadir, Paul McCartney’s former wife Heather Mills.
Hunting park to luxury living
Land was originally the Bishop of London's hunting park, hence the name
The road was laid out in the mid 19th Century, meandering through woodland and farmland
Its earliest houses at the turn of the 20th Century were substantial detached properties with extensive grounds
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
1.
United States
2.
China
3.
UAE
4.
Japan
5
Norway
6.
Canada
7.
Singapore
8.
Australia
9.
Saudi Arabia
10.
South Korea
RESULTS
6.30pm: Handicap (rated 95-108) US$125,000 2000m (Dirt).
Winner: Don’t Give Up, Gerald Mosse (jockey), Saeed bin Suroor (trainer).
7.05pm: Handicap (95 ) $160,000 2810m (Turf).
Winner: Los Barbados, Adrie de Vries, Fawzi Nass.
7.40pm: Handicap (80-89) $60,000 1600m (D).
Winner: Claim The Roses, Mickael Barzalona, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.15pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (Div-1) Conditions $100,000 1,400m (D)
Winner: Gold Town, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
8.50pm: Cape Verdi Group 2 $200,000 1600m (T).
Winner: Promising Run, Patrick Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.
9.25pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Conditions $100,000 1,400m (D).
Winner: El Chapo, Luke Morris, Fawzi Nass.
If you go: The flights: Etihad, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin all fly from the UAE to London from Dh2,700 return, including taxes The tours: The Tour for Muggles usually runs several times a day, lasts about two-and-a-half hours and costs £14 (Dh67) Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is on now at the Palace Theatre. Tickets need booking significantly in advance
Entrance to the Harry Potter exhibition at the House of MinaLima is free The hotel: The grand, 1909-built Strand Palace Hotel is in a handy location near the Theatre District and several of the key Harry Potter filming and inspiration sites. The family rooms are spacious, with sofa beds that can accommodate children, and wooden shutters that keep out the light at night. Rooms cost from £170 (Dh808).
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
Bournemouth 1 Manchester City 2
Watford 0 Brighton and Hove Albion 0
Newcastle United 3 West Ham United 0
Huddersfield Town 0 Southampton 0
Crystal Palace 0 Swansea City 2
Manchester United 2 Leicester City 0
West Bromwich Albion 1 Stoke City 1
Chelsea 2 Everton 0
Tottenham Hotspur 1 Burnley 1
Liverpool 4 Arsenal 0