[After reading Christopher Hitchens’ first chapter in God Is Not Great]
As a pupil in primary school in England in the 1960s, I was obliged to attend a daily act of worship. I vividly remember sitting on the floor of the school hall while a teacher — a Mr. B. Wilson — loomed rangily over us and argued:
“Now, some people don’t believe in God because they can’t see Him. But you can’t see air either, can you? Hands up if you don’t believe in air!”
I was greatly affected by this line of argument, but not in the way the teacher hoped. I was seized by a series of impressions as follows:
- Some people don’t believe in God, eh? Not sure I knew that.
- I can’t see air, no, but I can feel it. And when I can’t feel it, I can see trees moving in the wind, and other effects of air. So I have very good reasons for believing in air.
- I can’t see God, no, but I also can’t feel god, or see god in action, or have any other evidence for god or gods. So I may also have very good reasons for disbelieving in God.
- If this is the most convincing argument that Mr. Wilson can find for God:
* any other arguments for God must be pretty duff
* this man couldn’t think his way out of a paper bag.
I have had many other reflections on this event since, including the desirability of a philosophical element in the curriculum for teachers and for pupils, but those first have remained the strongest.
