What Mr. Hume said. (And Heather, too.) Whether believers are healthier, better behaved, better citizens, less likely to\u00a0establish totalitarian dictatorships, and all the rest, are shadow questions. I think the ground where all of us on this site stand is, that supernaturalist claims are, as best our judgments can determine, extremely unlikely to be true; and further that the propensities to make such claims and believe in them have rather obvious origins in natural phenomena well documented by psychologists,\u00a0sociologists, and anthropologists. We agree with William James that it is an intellectual sin to believe in something for which there is insufficient evidence.<\/p>\n
Since we’re heading into the Christmas season, here is John Betjeman’s poem “Christmas.”<\/p>\n
The bells of waiting Advent ring,
\nThe Tortoise stove is lit again
\nAnd lamp-oil light across the night
\nHas caught the streaks of winter rain
\nIn many a stained-glass window sheen
\nFrom Crimson Lake to Hookers Green.<\/p>\nThe holly in the windy hedge
\nAnd round the Manor House the yew
\nWill soon be stripped to deck the ledge,
\nThe altar, font and arch and pew,
\nSo that the villagers can say
\n‘The church looks nice’ on Christmas Day.<\/p>\nProvincial Public Houses blaze,
\nCorporation tramcars clang,
\nOn lighted tenements I gaze,
\nWhere paper decorations hang,
\nAnd bunting in the red Town Hall
\nSays ‘Merry Christmas to you all’.<\/p>\nAnd London shops on Christmas Eve
\nAre strung with silver bells and flowers
\nAs hurrying clerks the City leave
\nTo pigeon-haunted classic towers,
\nAnd marbled clouds go scudding by
\nThe many-steepled London sky.<\/p>\nAnd girls in slacks remember Dad,
\nAnd oafish louts remember Mum,
\nAnd sleepless children’s hearts are glad.
\nAnd Christmas-morning bells say ‘Come!’
\nEven to shining ones who dwell
\nSafe in the Dorchester Hotel.<\/p>\nAnd is it true,
\nThis most tremendous tale of all,
\nSeen in a stained-glass window’s hue,
\nA Baby in an ox’s stall ?
\nThe Maker of the stars and sea
\nBecome a Child on earth for me?<\/p>\nAnd is it true? For if it is,
\nNo loving fingers tying strings
\nAround those tissued fripperies,
\nThe sweet and silly Christmas things,
\nBath salts and inexpensive scent
\nAnd hideous tie so kindly meant,<\/p>\nNo love that in a family dwells,
\nNo carolling in frosty air,
\nNor all the steeple-shaking bells
\nCan with this single Truth compare\u00a0\u2014
\nThat God was man in Palestine
\nAnd lives today in Bread and Wine.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt’s a lovely poem\u00a0\u2014 I find Betjeman irresistible<\/a> in most of his moods. The answer to the question asked in lines 31 and 37, however, is “No.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What Mr. Hume said. (And Heather, too.) Whether believers are healthier, better behaved, better citizens, less likely to\u00a0establish totalitarian dictatorships, and all the rest, are shadow questions. I think the ground where all of us on this site stand is, … Continue reading