Dialogue Well Worth Reading

This dialogue is well worth reading, and so are the pre-debate statements by both Stephen Batchelor and Don Cupitt. I like Don's statement despite his sweeping dart-throwing 'this happened with Newton' type statement. I like the fact that he does tackle the supernatural Jesus, makes his extraction, and then warns that Jesus is not some pre-set authority. Stephen Batchelor also says similarly including in dialogue, that in getting back beyond the traditions to the Buddha, if possible, the object is not to rely on Buddha but just do the task involved. For both, the whole practice of religion is a one life task.

I note that Don Cupitt never mentions the Unitarians (except to refer once to the Autobiography and Deliverance of the semi-fictional character Mark Rutherford). The Quakers, he likes, and Sea of Faith (his baby). He took himself off doing the Eucharist in 1994 and stopped attending church in 2009. In May he said he was 78. The problem is the Quakers don't talk during their worship, except briefly and haphazardly, and they don't sing, unless someone does it alone. So such religion is either inspired by a theistic spirit, or is flat, or is Buddhist without the programme. I like to hear people talk and have a sing. A lot of it might be junk, or from a previous time in cosmos terms, and there are theological dinosaurs in the Quakers as well as in the Unitarians, but at least you can hear them and tell them why they are for their reply - and no one has authority of superiority.