Reply #27: I credit the BBC [View All]

The religion editor of the BBC is an atheist... that says it all.

There has been a campaign of secularization in the public media, with
excellent educational programming on religions and history. Honestly,
when you look at christianity historically, the real stuff about
jesus, what happened in his life, and the real origins of the bible
and the history of christianity in britain related to kings like
hentry VIII, the crusades and all that stuff... it is rather
evident to any modern student of history, that the religion of
ignorance has been driving british society for many years, centered
in churches, allowing terrible ethnocentric strife, wars of racial
repression and some really horrible criminal behaviour.

It strikes me that britain has, as a culture, has learned. British
christians i know, are quite authentic, believing in charity,
goodwill towards all people and all the good stuff. The organized
church of the state deserves to decline, and the religious guys in
the house of lords should be purged along with the formal definition
of the monarch as the head of the state church... its all long
overdue, and the media has been setting the ground for the shift
towards total separation of church and state.

This is a quote from the official british publication for would-be
citizens:
...A belief grew that an individual's conscience was closer to
God than the authority of priests and bishops. Gradually, the Church
of England became more prodestant, although never as extreme as,
for a while, in Scotland. Scottish preachers believed that God spoke
directly to congregations of believers who elected their own
ministers and rejected the authority of bishops.
- Life in the United Kingdom: Journey to Citizenship, pp 23, by the
Home office.

You can see in the quote, that believing god speaks directly to
one's church or self, is "extreme". You can see in the example how
secularization is the editorial position of government in the UK,
no matter the bishops and whatnot.