Love grows despite decline of religion

9:18am Monday 12th May 2008

SIR - George Cowley takes issue (April 30) with my comment that people do not care about Christianity (April 8). I would like to clarify the point.

I made this comment parenthetically in the context of disagreeing with the Bishop of Worcester. The Bishop had exaggerated people's belief in the literal resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth (Bishop's Diary, April 1) based on a rather poor survey from Christian think-tank Theos. Meanwhile, other and better data has routinely shown that public knowledge of some aspects of Christianity is poor and that church attendance is very low.

So, I simply said: "The Bishop neglected to mention these surveys, nor the regular slew of data which informs us how little people know (or care) about Christianity."

I agree with George that Christianity is (at its best) about love, and I agree with him that love has not drained from the world. If anything there has been in the last few years a resurgence of globalised empathy, a wider interest in poverty, human rights, the environment, and the perils of war. This interest has grown in spite of the decline in organised religion, and the values of empathy, concern, altruism, and global responsibility are not unique to any one religious mythology. Rather, they are human values. They are modern, shared, human values. And surely it is more enlightened, inclusive, and future-proof to base these values on reason rather than to take them on faith.

Bob Churchill, Worcester.