Sing Like You Know the Words by martin sowery Read Free Book Online Page B

of
himself as a practical man. It was not that he was against
religion, in its place. He would go to weddings, funerals and
baptisms and remember to look serious in the right places;
listening to all the nonsense that was spoken and looking at his
shoes when he felt like laughing. Churches were alright for that; a
bit of formality to the rites of passage, a little comfort for old
people and others who couldn’t cope with the truth that once you
were dead, it was the finish.
    But this Patricia of David’s,
when she talked about “her faith” - well for a start, to use a
phrase like that without blushing didn’t seem natural to him. In
short, she sounded sincere about the whole business and that could
only be dangerous.
    But if I say anything against
it, he told himself, that will only make David more set on the
idea.
    He knew that the boy’s
resentment of him had carried over from childhood. There were lots
of reasons for it, he supposed, but he was painfully conscious that
the loss of a mother was something that he had not been able to
make up for, with his clumsy kindness, his common sense and he
supposed his lack of imagination.
    I only hope he never starts to
take all that god rubbish seriously himself, the father
reflected.
    He might have been more worried
if he had heard David arguing with Matthew about religion. David
had taken to describing himself as an agnostic, which Matthew
claimed meant he was more than halfway ready to give in to the god
superstition. David denied that it was so. From time to time they
discussed their respective positions in the earnest way of those
who are young enough to believe that their opinions matter to
anyone.
    But just now they were at home.
They‘d started to watch a game of football. It was supposed to be
an important match. Important to who? Tim had demanded to know. He
despised the game, and had left the house to avoid its taint.
Patricia regarded football as an acceptable manifestation of the
male need to spend time away from women: She didn’t consider it a
threat and was content to feel harmlessly excluded. However, the
game turned out to be so dull that even the TV commentator admitted
to being bored. An exchange about cities with Catholic and
Protestant football teams started them talking about religion
generally. As usual, David was on the defensive.
    -It’s not that I’m religious or
a believer or anything like that. Of course I’m not. I’m just
saying that if I were, I would have to agree with Patricia that the
Catholic version is the only sensible form of Christianity. The
other sorts make an appeal to reason you see; and obviously that’s
nonsense. How can you believe based on logic?
    -You can’t, but there’s a good
reason why rational belief is not possible. That’s not an argument
for irrational belief. Just because you might want to believe in
something doesn’t make it any true. I’d rather cold reason to blind
belief.
    -Well suppose you are right, who
knows? All I am saying is that you could only experience knowledge
of god through faith, and faith is knowledge of the heart. And
because of that, religion should be tied to beauty. It’s when you
are moved by beauty that you have the awareness of spirituality,
whether it’s from painting, or a piece of music; whatever. And at
least the Catholics have a feeling for beauty, not like the Church
of England. So grubby. Did I tell you about the time I went to
Westminster Abbey? A thousand years of history and they have broken
furniture lying around the corridors, and hand written posters for
restoration appeals on the walls. There’s no aesthetic to it. It’s
so mundane
    -You mentioned it before. But
please, don’t give me that guff about knowledge that’s not based on
reason. I don’t know that feeling; but I’m sure it’s not knowledge.
You shouldn’t trust it. And in any case you can’t help but see that
all this beauty that has passed down the ages has come at a price.
From where I stand,