I was interviewed this morning on BBC Radio Stoke on the topic of 'Is Religion a force for good in the world'? Or some such. This was during the morning programme of Stuart George (pictured). I only had about an hour's notice of the interview and I was broadcast live just after saying Mass. I had little notice of the questions - though they were quite predictable, but challenging all the same.
Click this link to hear the interview.
I was standing outside the Church in the rain! (You can hear traffic and some noise from the wind on the mic)
2 comments:
I listened to this yesterday and am surprised, upon returning, that noone has commented to say how well you did, Father. I found it very impressive. The real difficulty, it seems to me, is defending "religion" in the sense of any and every religion. Not all religions promote the love of neighbour and it is often an awareness of this very fact that lies behind the blanket condemnation of "religion" by the militant atheists. Nevertheless you seemed to get a lot of very positive points in. Congratulations!
You imply that atheists have had no benefit to society or humanity, however, I find it hard to believe for this to be true. Many great discoveries and advances in science and medicine were carried out by atheists. Discoveries and advances which underpin our modern society today. In the interview you seemed tolerant of other religions in your response (you mention Christianity and Islam working together) but equally your come across as indignantly intolerant of the atheists view.
Secondly, you imply that the Nazi's were atheists - this is simply untrue. Do your research and you'll find that Nazi uniform carried the phrase "Gott mitt uns" which translates as God is with us - sounds rather theistic to me, would you not agree? I really don't understand why you would use the example of Nazi's as a representation of atheists contributions to society.
Furthermore, I was deeply disappointed in your deliberate sidestep of the question on provision of contraception to stem the spread of HIV. That being said, I doubt your opinion will differ much if at all from the Pope's stance on the matter. Perhaps better to deflect that line of questioning since I doubt you have tangible argument to defend the current stance of the Catholic church.
I'd be interested to know your stance on evolution.
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