amanda advocates

There is an increasingly loud voice of secularism in the West which rejects all religion as at best, irrelevant and at worst, dangerously intolerant extremism.

Certainly, Stephen Hawking, the physicist famous for his insights and intellect who passed away this month, thought God was an invention we no longer needed. Rightly influential as a scientist and writer, Hawking was also well known for rejecting the idea of a personal or creator God:  “Before we understood science, it [was] natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation,” he said.

Hawking reasoned that man had to invent God because we needed to understand the world. But now we can rely on human reason and science.

Am I then a fool for loving the revelations of science whilst also believing that everything cannot be understood by the power of reason?

What has religion done for me?

• A tenet of humanism is that we are making progress as a civilisation:[1] religion holds us back because of superstition but humans who trust in scientific fact will continue to move forward to greater enlightened thinking.

But human experience repudiates this idea. Our cleverness does not make us morally better with the passing of time. We make strides forward in some ways eg we no longer accept child labour in the west but sink into ‘mediaeval’ behaviour when we allow global trade in children’s lives for labour or sex; when we allow guns to be put in the hands of child soldiers or when we turn a blind eye to rich men abusing younger female staff.

How do we account for such actions if we accept no moral compass beyond our own individual benefit?

If we have a moral standard beyond our own, we have a universal and eternal standard of rightness that holds us to account – that allows us to praise good and condemn trespasses in individuals and as a society. I don’t have to kid myself that we are constantly improving – I can work for justice and right whilst also knowing that those things  are imperfect because only God is perfect.

• Many people, not just Christians, accept that materialism and individualism are empty replacements for religion, but they are not sure how to address the mess. Does it lie in mindfulness?

Meditation and other forms of slowing down are good ways to stop our bodies and minds from overload but I have issues with finding the solutions to my problems purely in my own resources.

But believing in God gives me a sense of purpose, comfort and balance that is in my heart and mind but also beyond me. God helps me see my life and the state of the world through a bigger lens.

• Science invites us to measure things and downplays things that can’t be empirically proved but how can we measure the efficacy of prayer? or totally understand why music can calm the agitations of a person with dementia?

I’m OK with some mystery in life, with not being able to understand everything. I don’t think it is laziness, just a sense that we cannot know or control everything, and that if humans did, that might be very dangerous.

Science is grappling with this dilemma now as artificial intelligence gets more ‘intelligent’. Where do morality and goodness fit into the programming of a robot? And if we teach morality to a robot, whose morality is it – a PhD nerd’s in silicon valley?

God’s values put human life above all else, say we should love our neighbours as ourselves, remind us we are NOT the most important thing in the world, and puts sacrificial love as the highest value.

• Believing in God does not make me stupid or superstitious. It helps me to appreciate that I am wonderfully made but also makes me humble when I realise how much God has done to create relationship with me.

In one of my favourite films, Blade Runner, a key question is What makes us human? The simple answer is a very Biblical concept: that love and freedom make us human. Can we experience those without God? Of course. But understanding God is the only way to truly appreciate my ‘spiritual’ humanity and my place in a mysteriously wonderful yet perplexing world.

[1] Steven Pinker says in his new book Enlightenment Now, that the ending of the slave trade coincided with the Enlightenment. But he fails to acknowledge that leaders of the anti-slavery movement in the UK and USA were Christian Quakers and groups like the Clapham sect who were motivated by faith.

The stories pouring out about sexual exploitation and inappropriate behaviour among politicians in the UK, Hollywood directors and in the ordinary experience of women leaves lots of us stunned but not surprised.

The UK Defence Secretary Michael Fallon resigned a week ago, admitting his behaviour had “fallen short” of the standards expected of him. At least forty other MPs are suspected of (unnamed) offences. And then across the Atlantic there is the sleaze of young actresses touched, insulted or assaulted by older men with the power to give or withhold a big break.

So little changes. Power leads to a warped sense of entitlement and wrong sexual behaviour towards women, girls and boys.

Some of it is crude and pathetic – a hangover of some 1970s sexist stand-up comedy routine. It used to be excused – ‘boys will be boys’, ‘can’t you take a joke?’, ‘she’s frigid’.

But the #metoo deluge of stories show how commonplace it is for women to be demeaned, patronised and propositioned.

I must admit that I am reluctant to bring up these issues too often because some people roll their eyes – feminists making a fuss again.

And maybe that’s because the instances of tawdry stupidity have been rolled in with much more serious abuse and it leaves some good people feeling confused. Media treatment favours shock exposé over facts and that does not help either.

But if our hearts feel wearied by daily revelations of immoral or criminal sexism, we still need to talk about the need for change. Statistics about the abuse of women and girls have never seemed so plausible – the stories keep coming because the abuse is around us at work, at college, at home and in the church.

Will the media outrage just fade away until the next crisis? Like the furore that surrounded Donald Trump’s boast a year about grabbing “pussy”?

Inevitably, Weinstein’s villainy will become old news, but we must learn some ways of making our girls safer and stronger.

Criminal activity cannot be ignored by the police or bosses. Victims stay silent because they know their stories will be ignored or their veracity brought into question. We need to protect and affirm people who are brave enough to speak up.

Organisations need to have clear guidelines about conduct – not so that a bit of lewd joking becomes criminal but so that it’s clear that such behaviour cannot always be patiently smiled away.

Parents need to keep talking to their sons and daughters about healthy respect for each other and talk about the risks of a Tinder view of life  – which reduces relationships to a pick up line.

We need some sensitivity – we cannot on the left hand use moral anger to blame all men, or on the right hand, tell women they just need to toughen up.

And maybe we need to mention the M word – morality. Behaviour that exploits or demeans is unacceptable. Not because we live in 2017 and are better people that our grandparents who laughed at Benny Hill (we are clearly not!), but because exploitation breaks healthy and the honest relationships between men and women that God intends.