The Holiest of Holies: Lent 2021, Day 41

Reverence towards the spiritual has been on the wane ever since mankind got its head around Newtonian mechanics - and the idea that every cause must have a natural, physical effect. Supernatural causes = superstition. Since the Enlightenment took hold in Europe, people have been drifting away from organised religion in ever-increasing numbers as science paved the way for the machines that mass-produce the goods that our materialist societies revel in.

Profanities were once chiefly religious in origin; which we still see in euphemisms like 'jeepers' or 'gee' for 'Jesus'. The name of God, guarded in Judaism and used with care (hence the usage 'G_d', or substitution of Yahweh with HaShem - literally 'the name') is seen as possessing a supernatural power in itself. Taking the Lord's name in vain - using it disrespectfully - is in breach the Second Commandment according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

We've become far more materialistic as a species; the last three centuries of our development have been spent pushing back on the supernatural, replacing it all the while with empirically-proven scientific fact, but a respect for faith still lingers. Intrinsic human kindness, politeness, an understanding of the need to get on with people with different worldviews, prevents us from igniting conflicts against those of a different faith - or indeed of no faith. How different, then, from the times of the Thirty Years' War in which millions of Catholics and Protestants died fighting over matters of religious doctrine. These mattered far more than national sovereignty or borders.

This is a clear sign of human progress, growing tolerance on issues of theology ('Islamic State' excepted), though inter-communal strife still tends to play up religious differences.

Even if we are deeply religious, we are less likely to take offence these days at casual derogatory remarks aimed at faiths unless they are intended to cause offence. The notions of blasphemy (bluźnierstwo) and sacrilege (świętokradztwo) are linked; interestingly the most recent high-profile blasphemy cases in the UK were over 40 years ago were to do with gay rights; the common-law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were abolished in England and Wales in 2008. In Poland, a case was brought to court against three LGBT activists accused of offending religious sentiment by depicting the Black Madonna of Częstochowa with a rainbow halo. All three were acquitted by a Polish court earlier this month.

Sacrilege is somewhat different in Catholic countries where its main meaning is the misuse of the Holy Sacraments - taking Communion without having received Penance is considered sacrilegious under canonical law. In England and Wales, it is more to do with offences against church property, such as burglary, or urinating on consecrated ground. Sacrilege was removed as a separate category of crime from the statute books in 1861.

So what would spark me off in a spiritual controversy? I'd certainly not get irate about such matters! Brexit, Trump. Putin, Xi Jinping all get me going, but politics apart, on issues of human spirituality, religion - religions - I'd be more than happy to engage with a debate with atheist or fundamentalist, although there's little sense in debating an entrenched position. Anyone who can't move on from "the word of God as expressed in the Bible/Koran/Torah is absolute and immutable" or "there's no God, no afterlife, get over it" is a difficult interlocutor.

Let us be thankful that customs have moved on since Biblical days!

This time last year:
"On my planet, there is no disease"

This time three years ago:
A Brief History of Time review (Part II)

This time six years ago:
"We don't need no [tertiary] education"

This time seven years ago:
Arthur's Seat - Edinburgh's urban mountain

This time eight years ago:
Heaven

This time nine years ago:
A wee taste of Edinburgh

This time 12 years ago:
Forward go the clocks