The idea that modernity leads inevitably to a lessening religious belief is being abandoned by theorists in America and Europe – and probably seems fairly clear to anyone who keeps  an eye on developments in India, China,Korea, as well as the US and Europe. Now a new book “Shall the ReligiousInherit the Earth?” by Eric Kaufmann, (Reader in Politics at Birkbeck College)predicts that fundamentalists of all religions are out-breeding moderates andatheists, and will eclipse them quite soon. The most striking example isIsrael, where in the 1950s there were hardly any ultra-Orthodox Jews but,thanks to a birth rate of 7.5 babies per woman, they will be a majority of the population by 2050, with obvious implications for the rest of us. Fundamentalismin Europe is more complex because of the tie-in with ethnic identity and immigration, but there is still an issue with high birth rates, while secular people’s rateis below replacement level. On this basis, fundamentalist beliefs would appear to have an evolutionary advantage.

There’s an excellent article in New Humanist, in which Caspar Melville interviews Eric Kauffmann  http://newhumanist.org.uk/2267/battle-of-the-babies.

One of Kauffmann’s conclusions is that moderates among both the religious and the non-religious should make common cause: “Non-believerscan still have a rich conversation with moderate people who believe in God. You can’t have a conversation with a fundamentalist.”

Echoing that, though from the other side of the fence (as it doesn’t sound as if EricKauffman is religious), is an article from the Christian “Third Way” magazine reproduced on Ekklesia's website (they’re a moderate religious think-tank), which acknowledges that “religious voices do not have the monopoly on morality” and goes on to express concern about the various concessions that the government has made to religious lobbies recently: “Readers may determine that these concessions do in fact work for the benefit of society. We might even agree. But in being so ready to make them, the government frustrates non-religious voices and drags them yet further from any meaningful dialogue with faith – with us. And whatever the merits of exception, ultimately this may even mean leaving our organisations in the hands of people whose faiths – for this applies to Christian and Muslim alike – are, for them, excuses to behave without decency or honour. A minority, doubtless, and we by no means suggest that most of those who oppose these bills wear those labels. But history suggests that this is the case and sadly some of our fellow believers are still there.”

We’ve drawn attention to the excellent Kivamicrofinance web service before. It enables people like you and me to makesmall loans to groups and individuals (in many cases women), mainly indeveloping countries. The loans can make a huge difference to them, and there’sa very good chance of being repaid. There’s a Humanist “Team” on Kiva, who haveso far made 1015 loans totalling $28,675, which makes them the 88th largest interms of members, out of 13,420 Kiva teams globally. If you want to know more,go to www.kiva.org .  

Believe it or not, there’s a Christianlads’ mag. It’s called “Sorted” andaims to offer an alternative to the more earthly (and earthy) charms of “Nuts”,“Loaded” and the like. They’ve recently run a survey jointly with Christian Visionfor Men. It gave some interestingresults (1003 online interviews with a representativesample of men, carried out by Christian Research):
42% of men aged 18-24 consider themselves Christians, against 84% for the over-65s. Another 15% of the youngest cohort claim to follow other religions (2% among the over-65s), while 44% have no religion at all, versus 14% for the over-65s. 
Apparently the average young British male feels less at ease in a church than in a ladies underwear shop, a library, a council office, or a hospital. They especially don’t like hymn-singing. 58% of 18-24 year-olds said they felt uncomfortable in church – even 41% among professing Christians - but 22% of the over-65s.
Sorted magazine’sfounder, Steve Legg claimed that: “Jesuswas a radical on a mission. Ordinary blokes - real men's men - flocked tofollow him and even laid down their lives for him. Somewhere along the way Churchhas become all about wet handshakes and weak tea. Jesus has turned into a womanwith a beard. It's absolute madness and you don't have to be Columbo to figureout why the average bloke doesn't buy into it.” [I wonder how many under30s, even under 40s, know who Columbo was - Ed.]
According to a report on the survey by British Religionin Numbers, concern about lack of men in church – and how to address it –dates back at least to the eighteenth century.

On a more eruditenote, there’s an excellent piece “Indefence of the secular state” in the Royal Society of Arts journal by Cécile Laborde,professor of political theory at University College, London. In it she argues that, far from being hostile to religion, a secular statefosters the norms of democratic citizenship by enabling atheists and religiousbelievers to speak a common political language, so religious believers can besecularists and secularists can also be religious believers.

Inthe run-up to the May 2010 General Election, conservative Christians launched the Westminster Declaration,according to which: “Protecting humanlife, protecting marriage, and protecting freedom of conscience arefoundational for creating and maintaining strong families, caring communitiesand a just society. Our Christian faith compels us to speak and act in defenceof all these.” It gathered over 60000 signatures. “Life” in their casemeans “from conception”. “Freedom ofconscience” means: “We will not beintimidated by any cultural or political power into silence or acquiescence andwe will reject measures that seek to over-rule our Christian consciences or torestrict our freedoms to express Christian beliefs, or to worship and obeyGod.” The leading signatory is the former Archbishop of Canterbury, LordCarey. 

Thisis the same Lord Carey who attempted to put the declaration’s “conscience”clause into practice in the case of Gary McFarlane, an evangelical Christian,who was appealing against his dismissal as a relationship counsellor forrefusing to provide sex therapy to same-sex couples. Lord Carey claimed in theCourt of Appeal that the fact that "seniorclerics of the Church of England and other faiths feel compelled to intervenedirectly in judicial decisions and cases is illuminative of civil unrest."He called for special "religionsensitive" judges to enable Christians who do not wish to recogniseequal rights for gay people to receive favourable treatment in discriminationcases. 
Lord Justice Laws disagreed: “…theconferment of any legal protection or preference upon a particular substantivemoral position on the ground only that it is espoused by the adherents of aparticular faith, however long its tradition, however rich its culture, isdeeply unprincipled. It imposes compulsory law, not to advance the general goodon objective grounds, but to give effect to the force of subjective opinion.This must be so, since in the eye of everyone save the believer religious faithis necessarily subjective, being incommunicable by any kind of proof orevidence. It may of course be true; but the ascertainment of such a truth liesbeyond the means by which laws are made in a reasonable society. Therefore itlies only in the heart of the believer, who is alone bound by it. No one else isor can be so bound, unless by his own free choice he accepts its claims.”About as clear and articulate a rebuttal of Lord Carey’s position that anAppeal Court judge could give.

We will no doubt hear of more such cases being used by evangelicals to create thefalse impression that Christians are suffering discrimination in the UK. Butthey are getting little support from those at the other end of the Christianspectrum. Here’s a link to a commentary by the Ekklesia think-tank on theWestminster Declaration, which they summarise as “a flawed document…Some of thetheology which underpins it is highly questionable…some of the proposals areimpractical, and it may do more harm than good to the church.”

Click here for the full July 2010 newsletter, including: our new campaign on faith schools in the area, and what you can do; the Pope's visit to Twickenham in September; how to make small loans to people in developing countries, and some interesting data from a Christian lads' mag....