When I effectively retired aged 60 at the start of the new century I found myself free to direct my attention to something that had been important to me since my early teens: religion and the context of religion. I had started out a practising Catholic, but became a non-believer in my mid 20s. Somehow, the moment I became a father myself, the idea of God the Father, and with that all the rest of belief, no longer made sense. Thanks to my explorations, I can see now that my Catholicism had never been about God and such. Rather, my religion had been for me about the Catholic Church, a social and cultural reality that existed at levels from the local to the global, conferring a set of values, a satisfying identity and a sense of participation. These are what I lost when I left the Church and I miss them still. Had I been a scientist, I should not have been able to make a religion out of that. For although scientist may be a satisfying identity and the scientific endeavour may provide a sense of participation, science does not confer a set of values for us to live by. The same with any other consuming occupation. Consequently, I continue to search for a basis for religion, where religion does not mean God and holy books and mystical experiences, but identity and participation and, most of all, values. John C Durham Site specifications
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