Refutation (I)

Lent 2020 - Day 23

"Michael - you were born into the Catholic Church, you were baptised, taking the name of the Archangel Michael; you have taken the Holy Sacraments - you were brought up a Catholic, you were versed in the Catechism, Sunday Schools, you went to a Catholic grammar school, where you were taught Religious Instruction by priests.

"And yet you have chosen to reject the way of Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, who died on the Cross and rose again from the dead to save your soul!

"Two thousand years of religious doctrine, shaped by St Paul, by thinkers such as St Augustine and St Thomas of Aquinas, you blithely reject out of arrogant pride - believing that you know better? You concoct a story, based on dreams, and choose to shape this into a belief system that explains your purpose within God's creation? And to share this, to propagate it among other people?

"You turn your back on the faith of your forefathers, the national religion of your beloved homeland? This is the religion that saw Poland hold firm against invaders and occupants over the centuries!

"You reject the Holy Bible, the Gospels of the New Testament, the Good News given to Man that he may find salvation and everlasting life in the Kingdom of God?"

I do indeed. I distance myself from the Catholic Church, from Christianity, in my rejection of dogma. The stuff about the Holy Trinity I don't get, and Jesus's divinity and resurrection from the dead, the Virgin Birth I can't accept either literally or metaphysically. I first found myself diverging from the Church as a teenager; as an adult and parent I paid lip-service for the sake of social convenience (as I suspect a great many churchgoers in Poland do). In a universe of a billion galaxies each consisting of a billion stars, the notion of  Terrestrial exceptionalism doesn't persuade me. And I particularly refute the notion of appropriating God, Jesus and Mary for the nation-state. It runs counter to any serious theology.

However, I stand with Christians, Jews and Muslims in believing firmly in One God. Creator of all things visible and invisible. And along with many religious people I believe that there is life after death - although I differ from them as to how I believe that afterlife is defined and experienced. I also differ with most established religions as to how I see that God - certainly not anthropomorphic, not a wise old patriarch with a beard, not a King, nor a Lord. I also stand firmly alongside religious people against atheism in believing that there is something greater than the here-and-now; the notion of an ultimate destiny, a purpose.

Unlike religious fundamentalists who adhere to the notion that there's nothing more to be added to their scriptures written a couple of thousands of years ago - and the scientific fundamentalists who say there's nothing more than matter and interactions between matter - I have an open mind. My Lenten journeys are steps along a journey of continual improvement, ever greater understanding, more nuance, more subtle, not afraid to get it wrong and draw back to explore another avenue. Growth through openness.

We are too small, too limited, too early in our spiritual evolution to have but the slightest idea of God. In a universe as vast and as rapidly expanding as ours, traditional theology falls short of explanations. Over the past century, we have learnt so much about the universe and its structure down to the subatomic level - think how much more we shall know as a species in the next century or ten! Catholic theology, which was so powerful in the Middle Ages, never recovered its intellectual prowess after the Reformation and Enlightenment.

The Catholic Church remains a strong force for social control in Poland and many other Catholic countries, but its influence is on the wane - sadly for the wrong reasons. Materialism and rationalist reductionism I would also side against. It is a simple, observable truth that as societies get wealthier, the number of regular churchgoers declines. 

We are now into the second half of this year's Lent.

This time last year:
Extensive and intensive living

This time four years ago:
Before Spin by Keith McDowall

This five years ago:
Mill town Łódź 

This time six years ago:
Today, a tipping point in European history

This time seven years ago:
Church and state

This time eight years ago:
Scrub fire in Jeziorki

This time nine years ago:
Airbus A380 visits Warsaw

This time ten years ago:
Lenten recipe no. 7

This time 11 years ago:
Poland's economy - upturn in sight?