The Glue That Binds Us Together - 20th December 2011

On Friday 16th December, notwithstanding the pressing Euro-crisis and the extraordinary slanging match that appears to have broken out with the French, the Prime Minister chose instead to make a speech on the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible –more commonly known as the ‘Authorised Version’. He set out its profound effect on our language, culture, laws and morality over the centuries. He described himself as “a committed – but I have to say vaguely practising – Church of England Christian, who will stand up for the values and principles of my faith…but who is full of doubts and, like many, constantly grappling with the difficult questions when it comes to some of the big theological issues.”

Aside from the Church of England designation, I am not sure that there is any kind of Christian other than one full of doubts. Certainly, I would be deeply suspicious of anyone who claimed to be without doubts. To be honest, I rather approve of the minimal demands of our established church, and the fact that every parishioner –irrespective of their sins, doubts, or record of attendance- has an absolute right to be baptised, married, and mourned at their local parish church.

The PM made his speech in the same week in which the scientists at the CERN Hadron collider under the Alps claimed to have glimpsed the first evidence of the existence of the so called ‘God particle’, predicted in 1964 by Higgs Boson and so essential to our current understanding of the Universe. The particle is responsible for giving mass, and without which nothing at all would exist except individual tiny bits of stuff whizzing about at the speed of light.

For my own part, like the Prime Minister, and as another Christian wrestling with doubt, I have never found scientific endeavour a challenge to my belief. On the contrary, scientific discovery is an insight into the mind of God. I remember the quotation from the King James Bible that was set above the doorway to the science laboratories at my school “There are many things yet hid, for we have seen but a few of his works”. There is however, one profoundly troubling aspect to our observation of the known Universe, it is not the particle physics being unravelled at CERN, rather it is at the other end of the scale. It may not be explicitly stated, but it is clearly implicit throughout the Bible, that we –mankind- are God’s main effort: the creation was for us, and the narrative of the Old and New Testaments is of how God redeemed us.

If this is so, then why has he created a cosmos so vast and of which we occupy such a tiny part? Equally, why is it so old and our appearance in it so very recent? These questions are not really new: they became apparent the moment Galileo spotted that the Sun did not go round the world but that the opposite was the case. The Church was quick to see the implications of this radical challenge and to silence the scientist.

Ultimately, one just has to reject belief, try not to think about it at all, or simply surrender to the mystery. I am glad however, that the PM has made his speech. It was long overdue. We should not be bashful about the profound influence of Christianity on our history and our national life. I have just come from a packed village pub where the regulars and the infrequent drinkers all joined together for an evening of rousing Christmas carols. As the PM said in his speech, it is part of the “glue that binds us together” and long may it remain so.