The Modern Experiment To Live Without Religion Has Failed
The existentialist, Albert Camus, argues that if there is no faith, there can be no hope for us, and if there is no hope for us, then we are all doomed to despair. “Up till now everyone derived their coherence from their Creator. But from the moment that (we) consecrate (our) rapture with God, (we) find (our)selves delivered over to the fleeting moment, to the passing day, and the wasted sensibility.1
Fritz Schumacher, summed up our contemporary sense of “wasted sensibility” by saying, simply, that it showed that “the modern experiment to live without religion has failed”. Schumacher believes that our only chance of any success in developing the communities we need for survival, is by getting back into religion, and reconnecting with others, through the Other, once again.
According to Schumacher, our problems are not essentially political or economic. They are relational. The problems with our political economy are a consequence of the unresolved conflicts in our communities.
Schumacher says we can only build a better world if we begin to deal with our alienation from God, from one another, and from ourselves, by rediscovering our capacity to – (1) ” act as spiritual beings; that is to say, to act in accordance with (our) moral impulses as human beings.” (2) ” act as social beings; that is to say to act in accordance with (our) communal impulses as human beings.” (3) ” act as persons; (that is to say), as autonomous centres of power and responsibility.”2
Dave Andrews Building A Better World p337-8
Camus,A.The Rebel
Schumacher,E.F.Guide For The Perplexed 1980 pp.115-116
We need faith, we need spirituality, we need to realise our connectedness to our Creator and to the rest of creation. I agree relationships are important. I think the life and teachings of Jesus give us a good idea of how we are to live, but I’m not so sure we need religion, at least not a lot of what passes for Christianity and other religions. If we do need religion it needs to be stripped down to the basics, and centred on God and his Way. To be any good to the world religion needs to encourage us to look outwards and not inwards and to embrace difference rather than exclude it and reject it.