Babies don’t enter the world going ‘Yay, I’m an [insert one of the 4000 religions here]’. Children growing up believing all sorts of that nonsense is down to nurture, not nature. Fortunate are the children whose carers doesn’t indoctrinate them into hokum.
My parents were not religious. My mother grew up in a Methodist household and her sister was devoted all of her life. Time has made me regret not having a conversation with them both to ascertain the difference in their views and why both my parents eschewed religion.
There was a small chapel about a quarter of mile from where we lived. Given its size I surmise that it may have belonged to a small sect. A neighbour’s daughter, I’m guessing aged around 19, somehow persuaded my parents to send me, around eight or nine years old, to the Sunday School there. I don’t blame my parents. Perhaps they wanted a little peace and quiet from a demanding child.
Time has dimmed the recollection as to how long I endured this. I do recall that after a number of weeks children there were given a religious book. A bribe? I was a bibliophile even at that age. It was upon the receipt of my second ‘gift’ that I informed my parents I would no longer be wasting my Sundays by sitting through such nonsense.
The reason? Having been given the same book twice. I still can remember the outrage I felt. A similar outrage remains with me for having unfairly been given a detention in senior school. Speaking of which, not even the compulsory daily school assemblies consisting of hymns and a recitation of the Lord’s Prayer changed my views of religion. Perhaps nature imbues individuals with a natural disinclination toward fairy tales after all.
I once had a partner who, like me, wasn’t religious, but who liked the spectacle of church theatre on occasions such as Christmas. Her best friend, known since childhood days, had a boyfriend who was also, like her, of a Christian bent. My nature towards other people always having been of a non-discriminatory sort this didn’t prevent a social relationship developing.
At Christmas time, after spending a long convivial evening in a pub, we would go to the midnight service at the non-Catholic church which these two individuals attended. My non-religious partner enjoyed the theatre of the occasion. Keep your partner happy, right? Now it would be different.
Around the third year of this ritual, she told me that we wouldn’t be doing the same that year as her friend had informed her that the presence of two atheists, as we were known to be, was ‘upsetting’ to the two Christians at such a ‘sacred’ event. Outrage kicked in again. I was indifferent as to whether we went or not but ‘friends’ don’t behave like that to one another. She was more forgiving and remained friends with them. Love god or else!
DC
No comments:
Post a Comment