Why the Bible? (Religion)

by George Jelliss , Crewe, Monday, September 15, 2008, 12:23 (5911 days ago) @ George Jelliss

Perhaps I was exceptionally lucky in not being brought up in a strongly religious family. My mother was mildly religious, in that I understand she taught at Sunday School before her marriage, and we were never able to persuade her of evolution in preference to the Adam and Eve story. However her favourite religious book was Pilgrims Progress and, coming from the Lancashire area she was a strong supporter of the Cooperative movement, and thought a lot of the social reformer Robert Owen. My father was a sceptical atheist involved in the trade union movement, an avid reader of H. G. Wells, and detective stories, and engaged in an Engineering trade requiring geometrical understanding (reading blueprints). Consequently I was left to make up my own mind on most issues from an early age, and fortunately had an excellent local library, one of those built by the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie, in which to indulge my thirst for knowledge. It was only when I went to Grammar School at age 11 that I really encountered Religious Instruction and daily religious assemblies with hymn singing, and the occasional church ceremony. Trying to sort out all this theological rubbish caused me a great deal of unnecessary intellectual anguish. Fortunately, in my readings in the library, I found people like Bertrand Russell, A. J. Ayer and other rationalists to guide me on the right lines.