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We Must Take Responsibility For What We Believe

With the return of the Eucharistic Congress to Dublin, it seems timely to look afresh at the nature of religious faith – and to stop pretending to be what we are not.

Niall Stokes, 15 Jun 2012

In a recent Irish Times poll, close to 90% of Irish people described themselves as Catholic. Only 26% of these accepted the doctrine of trans-substantiation. A relatively small number participate regularly in what Catholics call the sacraments. Very few go the Mass regularly. Most do not accept the teachings of the Vatican in relation to sexuality. Clearly, these people call themselves Catholic as a reflex response: you bang the knee and they tick the box.

People are, of course, entitled to believe what they like. I am not trying to argue against anything in particular here. But I am saying that we have a fundamental responsibility as human beings to give some real thought to the beliefs that we allow to shape our lives. We know that the world isn’t flat. We know that people have been on the earth for millions of years. We know that countless billions never heard of Jesus or Mohammed. We know that in different parts of the world, very different religious and philosophical belief systems have flourished. We know that science enables us to go beyond many if not all of these. We know that the Catholic Church was a friend of fascism and supported dictatorships to further its own ends. We know that terrible atrocities have been committed in the name of Islam. And so on.

Is it enough to say that I am what I am because that’s what my mother and father were? It cannot be. We owe it to ourselves and to everyone else, to take responsibility for what we believe, to stop relying on the platitudes of the authorities of whatever religion or belief system, to grapple with the evidence of conflicting claims, to reject what does not add up or make sense and, having thought about it all, to adhere only to what we can personally and unequivocally stand over as being right, and unassailably so.

And if, at the end of that process, we are left without the crutch of bogus certainties – is that not a far better place from which to start to build again something open, lasting, reliable and true?



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