Nascent Religion.

This morning my five year old grand daughter Cerys, [Katy is her nickname in case you're wondering if I have another one] asked, ‘What’s the importantest thing around?’ [Reminds me of my son when he was seven while observing the stream of people crossing in front of us while stopped at an intersection, 'Dad, What are people for?] Even so young they are aware of the ‘big’ questions, and unless you’re fully into some ideology or other, in which case the answer would be a form of cheating and therefore cheating them too, what do you say? I tried, ‘the air we breathe, the sun, you’, but those didn’t wash. I was flippant, ‘ice cream’, maybe there was a hint of a smile, more than I deserved. Then, ‘Some people would say God’, which seemed to set her thinking, I left it at that. Anyone have any better ideas as to how you answer these questions without being being too didactic? I think perhaps the system I was brought up under whereby we had religious instruction in school plus some church going also with the school was OK, this was Church of England which is less dogmatic than RC which I understand but maybe not for infants, otherwise we were free to decide for ourselves, but at least we were given the requisite knowledge on which to base such decisions.

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Update. The Religious Instruction we received, later changed to Religious Education in an early example of Political Correctness, was mostly the story of Jesus, the Beattitudes, the Good Samaritan, that sort of thing, plus Christmas Carols and Hymns. Those hymns were part of our lives, we lived in a small village surrounded by farmland, We Plow the Fields and Scatter had real meaning. Living on an island as Britain is, the sea is also part of the culture. We lived in Deal in Kent on the East coast for a while, just a couple of miles out from shore lie the Goodwin Sands which rise to a few feet below sea level. Ships would run aground from time to time, specially at night in stormy weather whereupon we’d be woken by distress rockets exploding and the lifeboat, manned by volunteers from the herring boatmen would be launched to the rescue of the ships crew. We would sing ‘For Those in Peril on the Sea’ with a sense of dread, feeling the helplessness of those seamen. Mustn’t forget what is a great song for kids, All Things Bright and Beautiful. It took a while to find the old version we used, found Harry Secombe singing it. Now Harry S was a member of the famous Goons, a fore runner of sorts of Monty Python who did a parody of it, All Things Dull and Ugly , any atheist will find it hilarious, for others, don’t take life so seriously. What makes it funny too are the Cockney urchin voices, compared to the super refined diction of the usual English choirboy. And of course There is a Green Hill Far Away, when I was seven years old this one gave me a sadness I still feel when I hear it. Partly from the words and what they portray and partly from the music. The sophistication of the melody which in my unmusical state I take to be shifts to the minor keys should be compared to the simple songs kids get now from childrens’ tv shows in which by the way they don’t even employ people who can sing. I guess that’s part of the dumbing down so that kids who can’t sing don’t have their little feelings hurt because they can’t sing in tune, the result of that you can see by the thousand on American Idol.

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Posted by ligneus1 on Feb 21, 2009 in Uncategorized | 2 comments

2 Comments

  1. Eleanor
    Feb 21, 2009

    The Dalai Lama might say “compassion.” My first thought was “God” but I said something silly, because I’ve always said there’s nothing an agnostic can’t do if he really doesn’t know whether he believes in anything or not. Seriously though, I think it’s something you have to experience for yourself – it’s like trying to describe the taste of oranges to someone who has never tasted them.

    Then there’s how the brain creates God. So maybe it’s the brain. ;)

    Eleanors last blog post..this lousy world

  2. zee
    Feb 21, 2009

    What a rich post Lig, evoking many responses, tugging at the heart as well. Is this the Deal that you speak of? It is exceedingly lovely, though no doubt looked a bit different when you were young. What has befallen England must break your heart. You have already gone through, I would imagine, the mourning for country that many Americans are now experiencing.

    As for God. Well, I have this thing for sovereignty. Even love the word. Gonna do a post on it actually. (Yes, I actually do intend to post again)

    Separate. Independent. Individual. Free will. The spirit. The soul. Destiny. Fate.
    Crossroads. Paradigm shifts. Epiphanies.

    All states of being, mind and inquiry that we have experienced because, as a free people, we have not had the constraints put upon our imagination or spirit that those under a totalitarian system are, from youth on, crippled with.

    Imagine the muslim child for whom music is forbidden, who has never heard the symphonies and melodies and lyrics upon which dreams, hunger,and quests are launched.

    You know I am ignorant musically, having butchered my soul with hard rock for decades. Perhaps that is why something like Handel’s Messiah has the power to bring tears to my eyes and raises goose bumps, even now, as I type this, as i listen to it. Even when I was a raving, god-cursing atheist the power of that piece or simple Gospel tunes called me, summoned in me hunger.

    I think that response issues from a God-hunger that is deep within us all. I remember that when I turned away from God, I had nowhere to deliver my reverence and gratitude. You know that overwhelming feeling we get when enchanted by a child, or amazed gazing at a mountain range, or witnessing something of stunning beauty? That swelling up of gratitude to whomever or whatever was so generous and brilliant as to allow us the experience. When I turned from God I had nowhere to deliver that gratitude, that need to revere the creator. It is the God-hunger. And what if the only gods on the table for a child to review are either the castrated Jesus of the Christian left, the grotesque war god allah, satan, or the secular gods of knowledge and power? It seem blasphemous not to tell children, yet untainted by the world, of a god who gave us free will, gave us life, gave us earth.

    In the West, we have had the greater freedom to quench that hunger. We try on religions like wardrobes and many gods beckon for our worship.

    So the freedom to embark upon the quest is enormously important because when you finally, in your inner chambers, know who your God is, the journey to that discovery is authentic, made not under duress or compulsion, but in full intelligent, informed inquiry.

    Over the years I have explored many ‘isms. I was attracted to the principles expressed in Taoism. I liked the idea of karma, because , hey, it’s a second chance. But in the end, the chambers in my heart, empty for so many years, resonate only to the words of the God of the Jews and the Christian.
    My search revealed no other symmetry, no other design,, no other beauty that exceeds the beauty, balance, and power of the god i once scorned but now hunger to meet again.

    But what if there is no freedom to explore? What if the notion of god and omnipotence and grace and bounty are alien to our future generations. Where only the dreary mechanics of utilitarianism and survival give purpose to life.
    What obligation does an adult who even holds the merest glimmer of God have to pass that spark of light on to a child in the hopes that the cover of darkness will be waylaid and torn away.

    If one has no divinity to revere, no lofty vision to aspire to, then we become what we see around us today. A grasping, avaricious, hungering beast of sensuality, contorting reality for one more orgasm, one more high, one more sip of power. And willing to anoint a mortal, fallible human, like obama,as savior.

    And scripture would say a man would be blessed to lead a child to God, and cursed to lead a child away.

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