What I Learnt As A Stranger In A Pew
What wisdom theology still holds for the un-religious
I initially started spending time in churches during my lunch breaks to escape the hustle and bustle of the city. Churches are a great place to think in peace when the weather outside is too inclement to sit on a park bench, and, unlike a café, I don’t have to buy a coffee or a croissant to justify my presence in them. While in a church one day, my mind inevitably turned to what value religion still holds in this day and age—and if it held any value for me?
As an atheist, I had never, until this point, explored religion and theology in depth and from a good faith perspective. I rejected (and feel equally rejected by) the religion I was born into (Islam). I find the concept of having a personal relationship with Jesus, a historical figure for whom there is little evidence he existed in the way we are told he existed, completely inaccessible.
Yet, religion is a human universal. All cultures have created a framework of didactic storytelling with which to instil rules for life or a sense of morality by which to live on its population. But you can be moral without being religious. Many of the rules of most religions reflect conclusions I had already come to, albeit for different reasons and without their help. If I can learn no moral lessons from…
