by Theo Hobson, Spectator
Many Brits who were raised as Christians have abandoned their faith, according to a report by the Pew Research Centre. The survey found that 38 per cent of those brought up as Christians are ‘religiously unaffiliated’, while 4 per cent had converted to other religions. The verdict on religion seems gloomy. But I have a slight quibble with this finding: were these people really raised as Christians? Or did they just glance in its direction now and then as children?
Consider the evolution of Richard Dawkins. He would have us believe that he thought his way out of the shackles of religion. In reality, he went to a public school – Oundle – where there was some vague Anglicanism, mixed with imperial pride. Dawkins, it seems, felt a bit pious for a while, and the fading of this piety gave him a heroic self-image, for decades to come, that he was a free-thinker, trusting in science rather than myth.
The average British agnostic has a similar story. Maybe he attended a nominally church school, or was taken to church a few times by granny. He or she chooses to spin this as being indoctrinated – for then they can feel they have chosen a noble path of rejecting an oppressive orthodoxy. Doing so brings meaning.
The more mundane reality is that Mr or Ms Agnostic has simply gone with the flow of secular liberal culture, shrugging at the question of meaning, because no other response is required. Instead of honestly saying: ‘I’ve never really engaged with religion, just drifted along with the dominant agnosticism of my culture’, he or she would rather sound purposeful and brave: ‘I have seen through the oppressive delusion that was foisted on me, and dared to think for myself.’