Folk are OK
My world-view tells me that despite the often horrendous acts of inhumanity that make media headlines, most folk want to be kind and helpful to others.
Perhaps the unseeing crowd rushes by uncaring; but engage one-on-one with any person, say to ask for directions or to wish them Merry Christmas and almost without exception they will give willing assistance or respond cheerfully. Goodwill is a characteristic of most people in our society.
Ho Ho Ho!
Pretty much everybody, whether they believe in God or not, participates in Christmas and enjoys the season which marks the birth of the man whose values "set the benchmarks by which we judge every aspect of human behaviour".
That phrase is borrowed from David Adams, writing in the Irish Times under the headline "Jesus gave the finest blueprint, whether you believe or not".
David Adams, on his own declaration, does not believe in God, but verbatim extracts from his powerful article eloquently explain the resonance of Christmas for everybody.
David Adams, December 17th 2009
I don't believe in God ........ However, I believe totally in the values that Jesus espoused.
........ I hold a concept of right and wrong that derives entirely from the teachings of and examples set by Jesus, and was passed down to me by my family, my church and, crucially, by the society to which I belong.
What Jesus had to say about how we should conduct ourselves and how we should treat others is in essence what we now think of as civilised behaviour. It follows that if a society is to be deemed worthy of being called civilised it must be underpinned by his values.
....... Most of what Jesus taught us runs completely counter to our natural instincts. Kindness, tolerance, compassion, forgiveness, concern for others, protection of the weak, fairness, understanding, non-violence, and so on.
....... When one looks around the world today, the sense is not just of humanity being far removed from the gospel of Jesus, but of something much worse. It is though we, in our arrogance, have determined that we no longer need his blueprint for humanity.
...... We should never stop celebrating his birth, or ever forget precisely why we are celebrating it.
Indeed.
Arrogance
I detest the arrogance of rabid foam-lipped fundamentalism. Whether it comes with an insensitive, guilt-inducing, Christian rant or with the cold, rapier-like, atheistic, faith-threatening thrust of Dawkins and Hitchins.
Either way, the outcome of this vicious religious or intellectual arrogance is hurt abused people. Either way, it repels me. Either way, they may win the argument, but they lose my respect.
But most Christians are not rabid ranters and most atheists are not fervent faith-killers.
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, one of the greatest English poets, was an avowed atheist, yet his iconic poem of the World War 1 era, "The Oxen", conveys the spirit of Christmas in words that resonate with believer and unbeliever alike.
Christmas Eve, and twelve of the clock.
"Now they are all on their knees,"
An elder said as we sat in a flock
By the embers in hearthside ease.
We pictured the meek mild creatures where
They dwelt in their strawy pen,
Nor did it occur to one of us there
To doubt they were kneeling then.
So fair a fancy few would weave
In these years! Yet, I feel,
If someone said on Christmas Eve,
"Come; see the oxen kneel
"In the lonely barton by yonder coomb
Our childhood used to know,"
I should go with him in the gloom,
Hoping it might be so.
Perfection
For all of us, whether Christian, atheist or agnostic, in this world of ups and downs there is no such thing as a state of perfection; but there are intense moments of perfection - and Christmas is a time when they appear.
Be alert; recognise, savour and share the precious moments when they come.
Today, Old Will is stepping out of his Grumpy persona to wish you many Merry Christmas moments of perfection. And a Happy New Year. So now, my blog friends, post me a cheerful encouraging response and prove my point!
17 comments:
Horsefeathers, Willo. Dawkins and Hitchens are not *wrong* - it is just that their lame-brained detractors lack the arguments, so prefer to launch invective in their direction and DEMAND that we see them as "rabid fundamentalists".
As for kindness and tolerance running counter to our instincts, nothing could be further from the truth. We evolved as a co-operative species; kindness and tolerance (actually Jesus wasn't THAT tolerant) are part of what we clever apes *do*, and have their counterparts in our Great Ape cousins.
Jesus, the nativity story, redemption, salvation, resurrection - these embody themes that are present across the spectrum of world religions - there is nothing new or revolutionary there. What IS new and revolutionary is the idea that PERHAPS, just perhaps, humans can be kind, tolerant, constructive, socially aware, integrative, helpful, and even SMART - right out of the box, before we become contaminated with the silly myths and hatreds that tribalism and religion impose.
If we recognise that, then even religion loses its power to make us do bad things (such as pogroms and crusades), and we can see it for the leisure activity that it is.
Footballers don't rail against rugby players; why should Christians rail against Atheists or Muslims?
Indeed, I think Christians make the best Atheists - http://churchofjesuschristatheist.blogspot.com
Happy Christmas! :-)
Oh - happy birthday to me :-)
Well Happy birthday to you too Jimmy, but your reference to "lame-brained" Christians in the first line rather makes my point about the intellectual arrogance of Dawkhitchens and their fellow travellers. Rather too strident for my tastes and I am not making arguments from either the Christian or atheist position. Lighten up!
Love, Willo
The Archbishop makes an interesting point in his Christmas message - the words "Happy Christmas" should be accompanied by appropriate action to bring about happiness. I reckon this "goodness" does require a conscious effort of will (small W!)whether inspired by humanity or religious faith. I'm not convinced that altruism is part of nature in any species.
So happy Christmas to you and yours - let the celebrations begin.
Hi Willo, partly winding you up, but the New Atheists have invigorated the debate about religion when it was just about dead, which is why most intelligent Christians have no problem with Dawkins or Hitchens (such as Bishop Harries). Indeed, if they're to be called "rabid", then any Christian who talks about the ghastly lie of Hell should also wear the description, even if they think they're promulgating it for the best of reasons.
The reason we all like GOW is that he's a free spirit, not a kow-tower, to minsters (governmental or "faith based") or anyone else.
Let's not stifle debate - even for Christmas. Maybe just leave it until after the turkey is carved, and the sharp implements have been put away :-)
Yes Shane. Jingle bells. I knew that post would bring the wrath of the Hitchdawkins mullahs down on me!
Come on, Willo - you knew I wouldn't be able to resist :-) Great to see you guys last night. Old Willo's still the main man!
Will, we are sympatico on this issue, as we are on so much else. The morals of the Christian teaching have been woven into my fabric. However, I have never needed religion to feel either validated or comforted. If there is a supreme being and he/she/it is who I hope or think he/she/it is, then there will be a pretty clear view of whether I am a good person or not. Far more important is satisfying the person I see in the mirror each night. He is my most important judge....excepting of course she who must be obeyed! See you in London next year and happy holidays to you and your family.
Nigel Gaymond
An interesting blog Will.
GOW says that most folk want to be kind and helpful to others whereas David Adams says kindness, tolerance, compassion run completely counter to our natural instincts. How to reconcile these two truths? Perhaps one looks at the outward behaviour and the other at the heart.
I told my husband the other day that what I wanted for Christmas was the ability to hear what others think. He immediately said "No you don't." He said it a little too quickly for my liking. But on the outside he seems very kind.
I hope you have a Happy Christmas.
Sonic
Hi Sonic,
I do think most people want to be kind etc, and maybe the deeper thinkers put that down to a hard-wired instinct for survival but at Christmas I am tempted to think it may be just good-natured behaviour. But I did say I was an optimist!
Don't wish too hard to be able to hear what others think in case it comes true! Remember Jim Carrey in Liar Liar!! Hilarious. Now your hubby wouldn't like that!
Willo, my problem with Davy Adams' comments is the unwritten implication that we wouldn't know how to be nice if Jesus the Nazarene had never been born. This point doesn't even need to be debated - we *know* it to be the case that people can be nice to each other, and such behaviour is esteemed, without any divinely ordained blueprint.
Christmas is a ChristianISED festival, not an originally Christian festival. It is not dependent on anything "real" about Jesus the Nazarene, but it does embody themes that we all enjoy - the frailty of birth, hope for the future, appreciation of the simple things in life (like Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh ;-), the green shoots of recovery after the winter of our discontent, paradoxical triumph of the Little Guy over Big Enterprise, and much more besides.
These are themes you can pick up in Ancient Egypt, China, Tierra del Fuego, India, wherever you choose to look. But in our culture we celebrate Christmas, not because the Christ-child came "down to earth from heaven", but because this is something *we* made - from the bottom up. All cultures develop their own myths, but maturity comes in recognising this, and celebrating it anyway. In a sense, "Christ" is indeed born anew every year. (perhaps I need to build on this further at http://churchofjesuschristatheist.blogspot.com ...)
Yule never walk alone!
Sure Shane, But many people don't need to dissect the logic of their position for it to be a help to them. And helping people is what drives me. I want to hammer the extremists on both sides of most arguments and accommodate/compromise with/support all the "live and let live" moderate good folks in the middle.
Actually I do agree with you that broadly speaking "niceness" is a survival trait built into our nature, but I'm not about to start debating it with anybody.
Now, pass the mulled wine and mince pies.
Here you go, Willo - MW&MP coming right up. But remember - you're a fixer; I'm a digger. You're a politician; I'm a scientist. For me, it's never enough just to know THAT something works, I need to know HOW it works. Which generally means ripping it asunder and gazing in rapt yet analytical fascination at its still-twitching innards.
If it still works when I put it back together again, that's a bonus :-)
Lordy, your poor patients!!! Should this not be investigated by the General Medical Council??
Very moved by re-reading 'The Oxen'. Learnt off by heart at school but never re-visited (as they say) just considered it a pretty Xmas Verse.
Thank you for putting it in front of me. Claire Tomalin refers to Hardy's loss of faith as being "like shedding a protective skin; intellectually necessary but also a melancholy process". She quotes 'Dover Beach' in which Arnold describes this new faithless world as having "neither joy, nor love, nor light / nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain".
David Adams reflects ,my views entirely (moderating my Dawkins tendency) but 'The Oxen' is a (momentary) triumph of hope over reason.
The family will be subjected to a reading at Christmas dinner today.
Thank you Will. The Oxen Kneel.
Jenny O'Neill
(k.oneill1@ntlworld.com)
Right Jenny. Christmas day and the oxen kneel
yavlcez ahm sbzdy large cocks
bhhzu!
ljykq gvzptf hhi adult models
Post a Comment