Contrary to Nick Cohen’s assertion that “civilisation came from the battering that religion took from the Enlightenment”, the initial spin-off of the latter was the horror of the French Revolution. A more positive development of the time was England’s free press, praised by Voltaire. In fact, Christianity has a strong claim to be the moving force behind civilisation as we know it in Europe. (“Don’t look to the pope for Enlightenment values”, Comment).
The game changer was the rise of universal suffrage in Britain from the mid-19th century, which ultimately enfranchised the poor on an equal footing with the rich. When Britain was the richest nation, ruling a vast empire, it criminalised the slave trade at the instigation of William Wilberforce, a devout Christian.
It is unfair to imply that the educated classes at the time were mainly free thinkers. This may have been true of the arts intelligentsia but the vast majority of scientists in the Royal Society claimed to be churchgoers.
In fact, the world’s greatest mathematical physicist between Newton and Einstein was James Clerk-Maxwell, a believer, while Michael Faraday was devout. As regards Cohen’s references to the atrocities committed by Christians, it is unsurprising that the ruling class (lay and religious) ignored the inconvenient truth that Jesus supported the poor and weak and excoriated the abuse of power by the rich. Strenuous efforts were made to ban vernacular versions of the New Testament, including burning the translators. The King James Bible was to influence many trade unionists, including the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
Catherine Dack
Leicester
The freedom to dissent underpins all other freedoms, as Isaiah Berlin pointed out. Yet so many of the people who enjoy the freedoms for which so much blood has been spilled have had the audacity to condemn them for it.
What mainstream religion does not understand is that their whole theology is founded upon dissent and a god who gave them free choice. So why would they then proceed to be deterministic about what people can and cannot do?
Jane Thomas
posted online
While I have no problem agreeing with you on the tyrannical history of organised religion I would query how much of the New Testament you have read. Christ called his followers to love their enemies, he challenged the attitude to women. Christ was a huge challenge to organised religion and it resulted in his martyrdom. Sadly, throughout history, the religion that claims to follow him has failed to even come close to living out his teachings.
Andrew Tomlinson
Auckland, New Zealand
I envy Nick Cohen’s equanimity, implying that, as a true member of the Enlightenment, he wouldn’t allow reason go to his fists when provoked by someone with views contrary to his own. While the Enlightenment introduced a welcome rationality, it didn’t kill off passion and I wonder if Nick would be so enlightened in his response to, say, recent remarks made by Donald Trump.
Phil King
Kingston upon Thames
Nick Cohen is entitled to his cynical views on religious belief. He doesn’t respect the views of millions of believers who have freedom to argue for their own ideas “without being forced to comply by authoritarians”. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive. If I had to choose between Cohen’s version of nihilism and modern Christianity, I would opt for the latter.
Alan Wild
Birmingham
