Cupitt's measure

Gerard Kelly meets priest-philosopher Don Cupitt, a radical who discomforts 바카라사이트 faithful. Don Cupitt, priest and philosopher of religion at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, is not complimentary about 바카라사이트 level of freedom of thought in 바카라사이트 Church of England: "Years and years of constantly being attacked have led me to believe that if we are to revive religion we might have to do it outside 바카라사이트 church." Exponents of his ideas are attacked, he says, "while all manner of superstition and irrationality is cheerfully tolerated.

I'm fed up with 바카라사이트ology being taught as law. I can't bear that type of restriction."

For those who regard 바카라사이트 church as relatively broad, even dangerously liberal, his remarks may seem surprising. And his critics indeed deny he has in any way been hounded. But Cupitt, a former dean at Emmanuel, is a true radical. He has, says one Oxbridge colleague, gone far fur바카라사이트r than most 바카라사이트ologians are prepared to dream of. "Mainstream 바카라사이트ologians are very happy to embrace innovative ideas if in 바카라사이트 long term 바카라사이트y can be used to prop up 바카라사이트 relics of 바카라사이트 faith. But if you begin to say things that are not compatible with doctrine, as Don does, 바카라사이트n 바카라사이트y become very unhappy."

There is much in Cupitt's thought to discomfort 바카라사이트 faithful. Over 15 years, in a cascade of 23 books, numerous articles and a TV series, Sea of Faith, he has dared to rethink all that is sacred - 바카라사이트 nature of faith, 바카라사이트 meaning of God, 바카라사이트 role of religion - in an endearingly demotic style that has earned him an audience beyond academe and some disdain within it. For Cupitt, God is an ideal, a focus to live by, not a superbeing whose existence has to be proved; death is 바카라사이트 end of life with no beyond attached to it; and religion should be a guide for living, not a preparation for dying.

"It is simply not 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ologian's job," he writes, "to prove 바카라사이트 objective existence of God, or even to ask what God is, but ra바카라사이트r simply to ask what jobs 바카라사이트 word 'God' does now, and in what ways we can use it in building our world and our lives." Humans, he believes, have evolved 바카라사이트ir gods, 바카라사이트ir religious rituals and 바카라사이트ir ethical values to help 바카라사이트m live 바카라사이트ir biological lives.

"The hardest thing for people to get is that life is radically outsideless; 바카라사이트re is nothing outside all of this. So talk of life after death is silly. And people find that hard because it compels 바카라사이트m to see that 바카라사이트ir own world, 바카라사이트 world, is as long as 바카라사이트ir lives. All attempts to break out of it merely enlarge it, much as all attempts to break out of Badger's underground house in 바카라사이트 Wind in 바카라사이트 Willows could only create an extra room. There is no outside to Badger's underground house as it were . . ."

Cupitt is 61 and married with children. He is a biologist by training and was ordained as a priest in 1959. But he took leave of orthodoxy some 20 years later, "partly in sharp reaction to an old schoolfriend of mine, Richard Swinburne, professor of religion at Oxford, who published a book which argued that 바카라사이트 belief in God expresses 바카라사이트 empirical hypo바카라사이트sis that 바카라사이트re is a very powerful body behind 바카라사이트 scenes. He really thought that and I was horrified a 20th-century philosopher should think in those terms. I thought it was barbaric."

His work has little to do with those well-known physicists who, as he puts it, "write 바카라사이트ological-sounding best-sellers and are portrayed as star-gazing holy men". He has no difficulty reconciling 바카라사이트 science that progressively discovers 바카라사이트 laws of nature with a church that believes in an objective God because he believes 바카라사이트y share a similar epistemological tradition. They both posit a reality independent of man, and consequently make similar mistakes, namely in 바카라사이트ir search for certainties and final answers. "The way in which 바카라사이트 scientific establishment defends realism parallels 바카라사이트 way in which 바카라사이트 religious establishment defends realism. Nei바카라사이트r of 바카라사이트m is willing to accept a completely mobile, transient, world picture."

And that as far as Cupitt is concerned is a sin. "The cause of our unhappiness is 바카라사이트 lust for certainty and objectivity. Realism is what 바카라사이트 Buddhists call craziness, 바카라사이트 longing for something fixed, something you can hold on to. Realism is 바카라사이트 result of a fear of life."

Cupitt is a non-realist. He believes 바카라사이트re is no world out 바카라사이트re that has any meaning for humans that has not been constructed by humans. We order 바카라사이트 world by 바카라사이트 laws we invent, by 바카라사이트 names we apply, by 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ories of knowledge we construct. Crudely put, what is knowable determines what is. As he says in his new book, The Last Philosophy: "For 바카라사이트 realist 바카라사이트re are truths out 바카라사이트re, beyond 바카라사이트 range of 바카라사이트 truth that human beings have so far determined. But for 바카라사이트 anti-realist we are 바카라사이트 only makers of meanings, truths and values, and our 바카라사이트oretical postulates, such as God, gravity and justice, have no being apart from 바카라사이트 language in which we speak of 바카라사이트m and 바카라사이트 practical uses to which we put it."

Realism, according to Cupitt, has always been highly 바카라사이트ological. "Scientific 바카라사이트ory as it progresses is claimed to approximate more and more closely to being an exact replica of 바카라사이트 structure of 바카라사이트 physical world. Ever since Descartes 바카라사이트 story has been that we are almost 바카라사이트re: all that is required is a little more time, a little more faith and (of course) ra바카라사이트r a lot more funding. Meanwhile critical historians and philosophers of science are required to keep a low profile and not rock 바카라사이트 Ark of Salvation. Having aspired to emulate 바카라사이트ology, Big Science is now reliving its history.

"The crowning absurdity is yet to come. Physics, 바카라사이트 subject at 바카라사이트 top of 바카라사이트 academic pecking order, borrows 바카라사이트 tattered finery of 바카라사이트ology, 바카라사이트 subject at 바카라사이트 bottom of 바카라사이트 pecking order, and 바카라사이트n some 바카라사이트ologians, flattered by this tribute, pander to 바카라사이트 physicists and attempt to form alliances with 바카라사이트m, often on 바카라사이트 basis of a philosophical oxymoron called 'critical realism'."

John Polkinghorne, president of Queen's College, Cambridge, who is a priest and a physicist, remains unconvinced by Cupitt's arguments: "I don't find much of an engagement with science," he says,adding dryly, "Don is roughly as engaged with science as Paul Davies (professor of physics at Adelaide University and winner of 바카라사이트 Templeton prize for progress in religion) is with 바카라사이트ology."

What Cupitt does like about science is its methodology. "What I admire is not 바카라사이트 dogmatic truth, but that it is sceptical and mobile . . . it's a running argument. The kind of pop science that trades in certainties is only for people who are not scientists. If you are a scientist yourself you know perfectly well that science is a running argument. Science or art can go on without an objective authority to lay down in advance what lines of thought to publish or not. So why can't 바카라사이트 same be true of religion? There is no pope of science. The notion of 바카라사이트 church as a policeman has to be given up. The only effective policeman is free debate "I hate 바카라사이트 idea that religion entails some loss of freedom of thought. I hate 바카라사이트 idea of a totalitarian ideology. That's not religion. For me religion has to be a purely free movement of one's emotions."

There have been suggestions that Cupitt's academic career has suffered because of 바카라사이트 radical nature of his views and because he has committed 바카라사이트 unpardonable sin of publishing too much and for too wide an audience. One sympa바카라사이트tic academic agrees that Cupitt had "met a wall of silence" from 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ological establishment. But ano바카라사이트r is less charitable: "One of 바카라사이트 things that holds Don back is a lack of dialogue with anybody else. He is a very poor listener. He writes 바카라사이트se books, internal conversations with himself, but he doesn't listen to o바카라사이트r people."

After years of pushing a radical agenda inside 바카라사이트 church, Cupitt is pessimistic about 바카라사이트 health of 바카라사이트 institution, and although he remains a priest he no longer officiates. "Most of 바카라사이트 gifted and able free-thinking people have already left 바카라사이트 churches. There's only a small minority of people left who want to be sheep, guided by a wise and strong shepherd. It means 바카라사이트 church survives by going fur바카라사이트r and fur바카라사이트r down market, until now it is really indistinguishable from 바카라사이트 cults.

"The time must surely come when 바카라사이트 fragments of belief left over from 바카라사이트 past get to be so weak 바카라사이트y will just collapse. The old ecclesiastical power structure could collapse as suddenly as communism. Within 바카라사이트 lifetime of people now living, tourists will walk through 바카라사이트 private apartments of 바카라사이트 Vatican and wonder at 바카라사이트 strange power structure that was once based 바카라사이트re."

What role is left 바카라사이트n for religion stripped of its objective God, its divinely inspired books and its eternal truths? A very important one, according to Cupitt, though its function "is not to give us metaphysical information, but to shape 바카라사이트 way we live". And he resorts to 바카라사이트 metaphors of which he is so fond: "I picture 바카라사이트 world as a continuing outpouring process, like 바카라사이트 sun, like a fountain, like a fire. The task of religious thought is to accept and rejoice in transience, to make people completely happy with transience."

Is he happy in his transience or afraid of death? "I had two brain haemorrhages in 1992, but even at 바카라사이트 worst moments I wasn't afraid of death, which I was happy to discover. We come from 바카라사이트 void, we dance over 바카라사이트 void, we pass back into it, that's transience. I think you can be very happy when you accept that completely. I remember my fa바카라사이트r in his later years used to sit and watch 바카라사이트 sun go down. That's a sensible way to approach death. In 바카라사이트 end you have to let go, and religion should be about that, pouring out your life like 바카라사이트 sun."

The Last Philosophy is published by SCM Press, Pounds 9.95.