A WELSH church leader launched a pre-Christmas attack on “aggressive atheism” yesterday.
The Rt Rev John Davies, Bishop of the Church in Wales diocese of Swansea and Brecon, said outspoken atheists had “little grasp” of how stories told in the Bible came about, adding: “One of the great falsehoods perpetrated by the aggressive atheist lobby is that our faith is without foundation and that, in effect, it’s all made up.”
In his annual Christmas message he said: “That lobby quite deliberately times some of its most vociferous outbursts to coincide with two of the church’s greatest festivals, Christmas and Easter.
“Dealing with the Gospel stories in which these events are reflected, they trumpet that ‘things like that couldn’t have happened’.
“Quite evidently, and perhaps because they have little grasp of how and when those stories came to be recorded, they miss a point and overlook the fact that the faith is rooted in the experiences of real people, living witnesses, whose words were distilled, crystallised and developed into the stories which we possess and treasure.
“If one version of a particular story varies from another, we should not be bothered or concerned.
“If, in a strict sense, the stories are deemed not to be historically true in each and every detail, it does not mean that they do not convey truth, the most profound truth.”
His comments came a day after Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams criticised “weary annual attempts by right-thinking people in Britain to ban or discourage Nativity plays or public carol singing out of sensitivity to the supposed tender consciences of other religions”. He said such attempts “fail to notice that most people of other religions and cultures both love the story and respect the message”.
Days earlier, Dr Williams’ predecessor, Lord Carey, condemned the attempt to “airbrush the Christian faith out of the picture at Christmas”.
Julian Bennett, secretary of Cardiff Humanists, who describe themselves as a group of atheists, agnostics and non-religious free thinkers, said not all atheists were aggressive or calling for Christmas carols to be banned.
He said: “The humanist view is to call for change not through aggression but by peaceful persuasion and democratic means.
“We object to faith schools, for instance, because things like sex education are based on religious beliefs not the best health interests of children.
“But we would never object to people’s right to hold religious beliefs or to celebrate festival like Christmas.
“I have a feeling these comments from the Bishop and the Archbishop could be something to do with falling numbers in churches rather than genuine anger.
“I object to being called part of the ‘aggressive atheist lobby’.
“After centuries of aggressive lobbying by soothsayers, when attempts to convince by rational argument have failed, they have turned to legal prohibitions on protecting themselves from criticism and complain about the freedom of thought exhibited by atheists.
“I consider atheists to be disciples of integrity and truth, even when the truth is uncomfortable to bear.
“I agree Christmas stories can be charming and contain some element of truth, like many fairy stories, but as atheists we do not venerate Robin Hood as our saviour and await his return, nor do we condemn the Big Bad Wolf for being true to his nature.”
Emma Bryce, spokeswoman for the National Federation of Atheist, Humanist and Secular Student Societies (AHS) added: “Christmas is now a festival shared and enjoyed by the majority of the non-religious community, focused around positive messages of love, caring, and goodwill. While the stories presented in churches throughout Advent may well be much-loved and traditional, with no extraordinary evidence backing up the extraordinary claims they describe, we must see them as just that – much loved and traditional stories.”
