How To Be An Agnostic
was one of enlightenment, not despair. As a supreme word-
smith, he had explored all sorts of insights, about logic and
metaphysics and ethics and humanity. However, on that day, he
reached a point when he could truly appreciate the most pro-
found truth of all. He realised that words would take him no
further forwards. He had to stop writing to continue his life’s
quest.
I suspect that all religious writings should be read in a similar
spirit: they point beyond their own words, to something that
may be found in the space between them.
You are unknown. No words can do it. Words must stop.
Amen
H – is for History
Today’s appetite for history is striking. In many bookshops the
history section is second in size only to fi ction. On TV, history
programmes command very respectable audience fi gures, that
rise even more if they build in an element of celebrity. History
as heritage is a similarly growing industry. So why is history so
popular?
It must be partly because history can be communicated so
well. As Simon Schama has argued in his book, notably entitled,
Dead Certainties, ‘the asking of questions and the relating of
narratives need not ... be mutually exclusive forms of histori-
cal representation’. In other words, it is perfectly respectable to
treat history as ‘a work of the imagination’. Long gone are the
days when it was merely learning dates by rote.
However, underneath this excellent synthesis of style and
substance, lies a human need that reaches back to Socrates: the
need to know who we are and where we have come from. I have
not done any empirical research, but I would not be surprised if
the rise of history coincides with the decline of religion. Perhaps
religion remains strong in the US because history has far fewer
seams to mine and the country understands itself more of as an
idea than a tradition.