YeKengalé

For several years now, decades in fact, I have been a proponent of a generic definition of religion allowing it to apply to some phenomena popularly denied the association, such as Atheism – a religious philosophy (a thing I thought obvious in that the philosophy defines itself in terms of Theos – a religious term) for me a branch of the religious impulse.

 Understanding that impulse to be more about questions of value than of belief – contrary to, in my opinion, the limited insights of many of today’s religionists -the human search for value and meaning (inseparable concepts if distinguishable) I consider the phobia and repudiation of Dawkins, Hitchins, Harris and the New Atheists, an unnecessary if understandable, reactionary disposition to the abuse of those with unclear insights on the relationship between value systems and belief systems – an abuse which, again in my opinion, is better dealt with by education rather than eradication (of religion) as (ill)- conceived by that camp.  An idle and even dangerous idea.

 Defining religion in such a way as to make it intrinsically human, enshrines it in human experience, regardless of what forms or formulations it has taken, is taking or shall take in the hundreds of thousands of years of the human space- time journey.

 For me, the best definition I have heard to date, certainly the most illuminating came from Prof. Marimba Ani (aka Donna Richards); my paraphrasing of which is: Religion is the outworking of group values. Politics is the outworking of group decisions.

 The two kiss and produce our legal system – the system of jurisprudence that protects the institutions produced by both parents. There cannot be, according to these insights, an a-religious or a-political world. Both equate to anarchy.

 So, with some informed respect for all the intellectual capital produced by giants like Dawkins and Hitchens, whose cynicism has converted them into zealots in their own category; and with even some admiration for the more nuanced if less conciliatory argumentation of a Sam Harris, I wish to initiate a conversation among religious practitioners in my own sphere on the nature of and relationship between values and beliefs, which should include an examination of the ways in which our religion may have been contaminated and corrupted due to that ignorance, leaving our activities and intents wide open to the criticism, ridicule and vilification of those who we now accuse of waging cultural wars with us.

 Perhaps a return to pure religion might not only please our Lord but also cause our enemies to be at peace with us.

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