Interior Odyssey…Into the depths…

This image, which I have included in Ruminations, was published in the edition of Jules Verne’s famous story ‘A Journey to the Centre of the Earth’, a book that I first read as a child. The picture shows the adventurers on their initial descent into the Snaefells volcano of Verne’s imagination. I have since come to understand that the story can be read on more than one level – as it were!

Verne’s explorers made their descent into the depths of this immensely atmospheric Icelandic volcano as Verne imagined them and plumbed the passageways therein. These led ever downwards, eventually to an undiscovered primeval world. Given what is known about human brain structure, need this, I ask, be so very unlike a journey into our own minds?

The famous psychologist / analyst / healer / writer Carl Jung made just such an epic (and hazardous) descent into his own personal unconscious and described his interactions with the ‘archetypes’ that he believed that he discerned therein. He also made his 'discovery' of the Jungian collective unconscious and gave a description of it.

This was an interior odyssey, a Snaefells journey par excellence. Fortunately, for us lesser mortals, it is not necessary to imitate Jung’s high risk exercise to find what we may be looking for within the depths of ourselves.

Our own interior odysseys should be conducted with open-minded awareness and could use some of the approaches mentioned in earlier posts. With the addition of observations from trusted others, we will surely find abundant imperfections - and lopsidedness too - but some of these aspects will also have good positive possibilities if integrated into the personal whole. And some of our own lost worlds may be rediscovered.

Such an inward, integrative journey of rediscovery, transcendence or integration of self is likely to be a long one, but don’t expect it to be a ‘Road to Damascus’ experience - mistrust it if it seems as if it is. Outside of tales meant to inspire, nothing that good is likely to be instant and effortless. Simply remind yourself that: ‘the road is hard, but I am strong’ and you will complete your own interior odyssey as Jules Verne’s adventurers completed theirs.

Atmosphere

I have long noted that certain places, for me as also for many other people, have what I would describe as an ‘atmosphere’ – a psychological sense of something other, an eventful presence, a lingering memory. I have placed the word atmosphere in quotation marks not to belittle it but to indicate that we may not all have the same appreciation of this ‘out of the ordinariness’ and what it might mean. Out of the ordinary certainly, but by no means ‘spooky’ in my opinion – the location with ambience is nearly always in the open air and is always experienced in broad daylight.

The atmosphere that comes to awareness may have a feeling of events past, though still in some way evident, a characteristic of heightened emotionality or a significance in the light of a person’s particular understanding of the nature of the Cosmos. Other people sensing the atmosphere of a place may also experience a feeling of déjà vu along with the ambience of the location, although this does not apply in my case.

While the presence of an atmospheric location for an individual person will always be affecting for them - and is sometimes disquieting too, for me at least there is a relatively small number of significantly atmospheric places, possibly because I have not deliberately sought them out. Perhaps this is just as well, one would not wish to be overwhelmed. In those atmospheric locations that I have come across however the atmosphere is strong, consistent and persistent over time. Certainly for my part I have no intention of playing down this personal experience and so declining an opportunity to share with others and the insight that may be present as a result.

I think that a lot of people who have had similar experiences of atmosphere are deterred from talking about them for fear of being made to appear foolish by those people who are easily unsettled by any questioning of the ‘ordinariness’ and comprehensibility of their world. If this is so, then let me be the fool on their behalf. In my view the world is very far from being an ‘ordinary’ place and although it cannot be an inconsistent or illogical one, there are many properties that can seem strange to our current understanding, there are multitudinous unplumbed depths and our present knowledge of time, space and matter is far from being complete and is also subject to periodic upheavals as research progresses.

Two of the most atmospheric places that I know are, not surprisingly, quite near to where I live in Birmingham and they are also close to each other. The first location is Wychbury Hill. I’m not referring here to the unusual and precarious obelisk or to the notorious crime that took place near there but to part of the woods further back and some way down from the top of the hill.

Whenever I go to this place I have the sense of a lot of people, as a mind’s eye impression from many centuries ago, possibly during the Iron Age, running chaotically - presumably to save themselves from some threat, real or presumed, emanating from what or from whom I do not know. Although I would dearly like to understand more, I am in truth aware of little else and it doesn’t change.

The second nearby place with a distinct atmosphere is Clent Hills, which is very close to Wychbury and is also possibly connected in its atmosphere since this is the direction in which the ‘runners’ appear to be headed. It is not all of Clent that has the ambiance that I sense, but two particular parts – within the beech trees at the top of Nimmings Hill and an area near to a pool located much lower down. I first noticed this atmosphere when taken there as a child and it has always coloured my thoughts about Clent and conditioned my enjoyment of this beautiful area in the Midlands of England.

Much grander locations possessing an atmosphere that I have sensed at further remove are on a substantially larger scale. They include what little remains of the city of Carthage. The original city was vindictively razed by the Romans, but a fragment of a residential area is still preserved in which you are able to walk and look around, gaining a sense of the time and it certainly does have a distinct atmosphere – for me at least.

But, out on its own for atmospheric magnitude, is Snaefells in Iceland. Snaefells is an ancient volcano with the distinctive cone shape, its own glacier and which last erupted many centuries ago. Many people sense that the whole of the Snaefellsness area is somehow psychologically special and I understand that the mountain itself has been placed on a ‘Ley Line’ alignment, although I am not into this sort of thing myself. But such is the strength of the ambience that it is hard to see how anyone could visit the Snaefells area and not notice something out of the ordinary here. Although it is not clear to me what its character is, there are those who relate its special atmosphere to what they describe as energy.

I suppose that in my case having read and re-read many times since childhood Jules Verne’s captivating novel ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’ I could have gained an expectation of there being an atmosphere surrounding Snaefells from that source. But I think there is more to it than a childhood impression. The atmosphere surrounding Snaefells is certainly compelling and people who have never read Jules Verne’s work also sense that atmosphere strongly. And the question naturally arises as to why, in the first place, Verne chose Snaefells as his location for his story of the heroic descent into the depths.

How could all of this come about and what might its meaning be? Of course, there is always the possibility of self deception – an unconscious effort to achieve personal significance and a special position as a human being. If this were the case however I would probably have gone to more impressive lengths to find something of wider and more unusual scope on which to claim authority! But mention of the unconscious brings to mind C. G. Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious and its connections, one human being with another, which conceivably could take place over time as well as space.

Feelings of oddness could also arise from more mundane causes - an unusual lie of the land, exposure to the elements, the particular flora, an absence of fauna (particularly birds), the behaviour of other visitors or prompting by other characteristics of the immediate natural environment or one’s own personal history. But if any of these elements are present, they may also be connected with things that are deeper and more obscure to which I refer - albeit indirectly. One does not rule out the other.

I think that my personal impressions of atmospheric locations, and those of many other people, are authentic and that this has implications for the nature of reality itself and the part that we can play in it. One thing is certain, the world is not a straightforward, linear, billiard ball sort of place. Nor can there be an infinite, straight line, past to time (or else we would never be able to complete an infinity and arrive at the present) although, in logical if not in cosmological terms the future itself is not limited.

The oddities of the quantum world are legion and include the strangest of connections, such as entanglement. Our stable, consistent, ‘ordinary’ experiences in everyday life amazingly have this profoundly counter-intuitive underworld as a foundation, so should we not be expecting the unusual, or experiencing phenomena that will challenge us for an explanation?

But how could such past events still be perceivable by people today? Is there a record that is laid down in some way that can be accessible to sharing? This may be ethereal or otherwise, perhaps via transmission to a Jungian collective unconscious or etched onto a universal ‘stone tape’ as it were and of which, in certain special circumstances people can become aware.

But these admittedly rather stretched possibilities may not be required if time is not all that it seems. We are in our today. Those runners at Wychbury Hill were in their today but there is a sense in which it is always today – a superimposition of times usually veiled from each other - but perhaps not always and not impenetrably.

That’s about it. I readily admit that my personal perceptions cannot be all that sharp since at Clent I can see nothing specific although I do sense from the definite atmosphere that a dark echo lingers, that there are murmurs from the past, which something profoundly unhappy has marked its presence there. And I am equally sure that other people have had much clearer experiences of atmospheres like this and I shall retain an open mind as to what is signified.

Rollo

Here is the second image selected from Ruminations – my compilation of some recent items on this blog. All of the images have a significance for me beyond the purely literal, but I’ll give a few thoughts on the latter here.

Rollo was a Norse Viking who was the founder of the Viking principality that later became Normandy, of which he became the first ruler and of course his descendents eventually became kings of England. I understand that there is an ancestral connection with our present day Royal Family.

Vivienne and I came across a commemorative statue of Rollo on a visit to Olesund in Norway some years ago. It was a very strange experience to see a figure having such a strong likeness to myself - the sculptor’s envisioning of him bearing a striking if imaginative and co-incidental resemblance.

But could other parallels be formed I am, as ever, tempted to wonder? It is sometimes enlightening and helpful to inter-personal understanding and tolerance to look for something of ourselves in others – but in this case I suppose it would be stretching things a good deal!

But I have nevertheless found it intriguing to look for parallels and correspondences between people, places or situations where there is no purely rational reason to expect them to exist. Some surprising and illuminating insights can arise from undertaking such exercises.

I claim no Norman blood and in fact have always much preferred the long lost Anglo-Saxon culture and its stirring language and heroic tales. But the classical virtue of courage in the face of challenge that was demonstrated both by Rollo and the Anglo Saxons is something that I will always find worthwhile developing further in my own life.

Meanwhile, I have immodestly adopted this image of the statue of Rollo as my current profile picture on Facebook – the original being a version I can scarcely recall! So comes Rollo into the modern age!

Cogitas Ergo Sum

In my last posting I mentioned ‘Ruminations’ which is a spiral bound collection of finalised versions of some of the more, for want of a better description, philosophical items that I have produced recently for this blog. As an integral part of this composition there are a number of accompanying images a few of which I intend to post in separate brief items here.

The first of these is a sketch that I came across many years ago – decades ago in fact. I have no remaining record of the source of this intriguing drawing and as far as I can recall it did not have a title attached to it. So for my own purposes I called it ‘Cogitas Ergo Sum’ which, if my feeble Latin suffices translates as ‘You think therefore I am’.

This is for very interesting reasons that I think are there to be seen, as it were, inspired of course by Descartes’ famous philosophical proposition of 1637 ‘Cogito ergo sum’ – ‘I think therefore I am’ which implies that an ‘I’ exists to do the thinking.

But, you may wish to consider, can we take a further step towards identifying the presence of entities that we think about other than ‘I’? Probably not in the strict terms that were laid down by Descartes, but if people act as if such an entity has an existential standing then in so doing they effectively imbue it with power and creativity in our world so that its status is in at least in one important respect equivalent to existence. Since we come across this phenomenon every day, we should at least ensure that we use it for the better.

Other substantial questions around the Cogitas ergo sum idea will remain of course, perhaps notable amongst these is this: ‘Who is the speaker and who is ‘I’? A fruitful question to contemplate - I think.

Ruminations

It has now been quite a while since my last posting on this blog. The main reason is that I’ve been concentrating my available energy on producing a printed and bound compilation of finalised versions of recent items on the blog. To these I’ve added various images that are meaningful to me and which have deep level relationships to the text. If this sounds a bit mystical then it probably is, since my personal and highly tenuous understanding of the Cosmos is that there is something about it that goes beyond the solely rational – it is not irrational, but is simply more.

I’ve called the collection ‘Ruminations’, a title that reflects my cud-chewing thought processes. Unfortunately Blogspot doesn’t allow the uploading of PDF files – a serious limitation. Nevertheless I’ve produced PDF versions (files that you can read or print out from Acrobat – on most computers) of the complete text and images and I’d be happy to send anyone interested copies by email. My address is MWi8327963@aol.com  

If you decide to have a look at Ruminations you may feel that some of the phrases I’ve chosen to use are interpretable at more than one level. Unintended instances apart, this is because I want them to be this way. Doubly so in terms of the images where, beyond attaching brief personal descriptions of them, I don’t go into detail as my intention is that readers should be free to come to their own understanding of the significance and attach their own labels.

In my view strict requirements for narrow precision and restriction to a single layer of meaning in some topics in Ruminations would produce an incomplete understanding of human qualities and the nature of the Cosmos of which we are an integral part. Like other dreams, memories and reflections, there are times when depth of meaning flows from richness of interpretation, which can bear fruit at many levels.

I want to set out a few thoughts and intuitions on life and its meaning, my views on our place in the Cosmos, on morality and mortality, on our society and some other deep questions that have intrigued me over the years. Wildly ambitious no doubt, but I’m talking about views rather than comprehensive analyses.

In doing this, even at a very short length, my hope is that I may connect with other people ‘out there’ puzzling over the same things but for whom useful discussions are hard to find. Certainly, I’ve found this to be the case myself. I’m sure I stand to be corrected on a number of matters, but my hope is that, nevertheless, there may be one or two points that people will find interesting and helpful in their own explorations.

One risks looking foolish when, at this stage in life, putting out something like this. If this is so, then so be it and I hope that I will find myself amongst those who I think should be suffered gladly! It is unfortunate that many people who may have interesting things to say are silenced by such anxiety, a fear often put into them by critics who, superior beings that they are, would much rather hear echoes of their own voices.

But each person is one-of-a-kind and has a unique experience in life. So I believe we should take courage and say what we think, since we all have something to contribute. So, for what it is worth, Ruminations is my personal offering.

To conclude this piece, I’m not sure how many more postings I will be able to make on this blog, but we will see as time goes on. Thanks for taking an interest.

Omar Khayyam

Omar Khayyam was an 11^th/12^th century Persian philosophical poet, astronomer and mathematician. He wrote many short poems some of which were translated and gathered together as if one piece by Edward Fitzgerald and termed by him a Rubaiyat. Khayyam advocated charity towards all and warned of the temporary nature and dangers of wealth – a message fitting to our times if ever there was one. He was not afraid to depart from orthodoxy and express doubt on fundamental issues – a hazardous pursuit in that part of the world then as now – though broad learning was greatly valued at that time in his culture.

The Rubaiyat has been one of my favourite poems all of my life. Oddly, I was introduced to this by my mother who in all other regards departed little from her standard religious creed. It clearly has a deep resonance with partly conscious and unexpressed uncertainties about life and its meaning. This speaks to my own condition and outlook and I have always turned to the poem if in need of  what I think of as ‘angry consolation’. If you read the whole, I think you’ll see what I mean by this expression.

I once had the good fortune to be able to refer to Khayyam’s mathematical work in an academic paper of my own and have had a lifelong interest in astronomy so I have these reasons too to connect with his great work. This, and Khayyam’s critical approach to riches and his view of their distribution I hope have found an echo in some of the pieces I’ve written and in my own political and moral philosophy. Here I want to share with you just three verses (not in order – they are verse 32, the famous verse 76 and verse 35). They speak profoundly of life and repay the investment of much thought.

Into this Universe and Why not knowing,

Nor Whence, like Water willy-nilly flowing,

And out of it, as Wind along the Waste,

I know not Whither, willy-nilly blowing.

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

There was the Door to which I found no Key:

There was the Veil through which I could not see:

Some little talk awhile of ME and THEE

There was – and then no more of THEE and ME.

A Citizenry of Good Intent

What makes for a ‘Good City’? Is it architecture? No. Its plutocratic wealth? Certainly not. Where power is concentrated? No. Rather, it is a citizenry of good intent. What makes for a citizenry of good intent? Shared values, harmonious relationships between individuals, cultures and communities, and their joint endeavours towards the common good.

For one instance of a city that possesses this enormously important but almost always overlooked quality and one which has many other fine characteristics, I would say that Birmingham stands out. It is a good city, and a cosmopolitan world city. These qualities mean that it is growing steadily, and Birmingham is home to 1.1 million people, covering 150 square miles and including much that is green with over 100,000 publicly owned trees and 150 public parks. The Greater Birmingham area has more than double this population.

Although there are local archaeological finds going back to the stone age, far as we know, the continuous population began about twelve hundred years ago when a group of people led by a man called Beorma first settled here. The name ‘Birmingham’ means ‘Home of the people of Beorma’ (Beorma Ingas Ham) and ever since those earliest times the city has welcomed people from all over the world who wish to make their home here too and enrich the community through their work and culture and achieve fulfilment as individuals.

It is on these principles that Birmingham has become the country’s premier city outside the capital. It is the largest local authority in Europe, or, put even more expressively, the largest local authority this side of the Urals. This is something to be proud of rather than, as we're told by those intent on needless change and the further diminishment of local government, a bit of a problem.

Birmingham also has one of the youngest populations of any major city in Europe and there is pride in the open and democratic traditions on which the city’s prosperity was founded. Over 130 years ago the Council made clear that Birmingham knows: “No distinction between her citizens by birth or adoption.” And, as a city of tolerance and respect for all of its citizens, this is constantly reaffirmed. To adapt a famous expression: ‘E Pluribus Birmingham’, ‘From many – Birmingham’.

The city's motto is ‘Forward’ and it lives by this. So even in difficult times when the common good is not to the fore nationally, there will be more opportunities to improve the quality of life for everyone and preserve the city's extensive heritage. This would be in addition to an excellent cultural environment both at the highest level and throughout its communities. The city will continue to do all this along with other beneficial developments while remaining, by all objective accounts, one of the friendliest cities in the country.

All Birmingham’s citizens are encouraged to embrace the common values of our society. For example, our faith communities can maintain their essential traditions and beliefs while integrating into, and fully contributing towards, the common good of the city -  just as their predecessors have done throughout Birmingham’s vibrant history. Community has many dimensions, locality obviously but it is on the faith aspect of community that I wish to focus here.

I have taken part in a number of multi-faith events and have seen the good work of faith leaders and communities throughout Birmingham. While in my personal outlook on life and its meaning I choose to hold a greater degree of uncertainty than most people, like everyone else I seek knowledge, understanding and, where possible, personal meaning.

I am also a harvester of wise sayings – the concise wisdom of others! I take the view that we should accept truth from whatever quarter it may come and however uncomfortable it may be, revising our outlook in the light of the facts. As J. M. Keynes put it: “When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?” So tradition should have a vote but not a veto. The main challenges are how to be part of modernity without losing essential values and how to fully incorporate in wider society without losing cultural identity.

In terms of common ground it is worth looking for what I call the ‘sentiments within’. What I have in mind here is a constructive 'reading between the lines' of scripture or other significant texts which can expand the range of those who are reached by the essence of the message. This can certainly be unifying. In any text, we should ask ourselves what is the core intent rather than be distracted by the surface wording or contextual particularities. As Shaw expressed it: 'There is only one religion though there are a hundred versions of it.'

In most cases the principal divisive factor turns out to be ignorance, but the good news is that that part of ignorance that is not wilful or deeply indoctrinated can be dissolved – much more by friendly and informal contact than through formal education. The residual prejudice that is not dissolved by the removal of this lack of understanding is a deeper seated problem, but numbers will be reduced as communities as a whole move forward. The key questions remaining are what creates such prejudice in the first place and what sustains it.

At both individual and community levels there is much to be gained by distinguishing carefully between identity and belief. So faith and the traditions associated with it should not represent the whole of identity. The same consideration applies to those individuals with a truculent atheistic outlook – it does not make for a harmonious society, nor does it promote understanding or the common good if people see themselves or others as being defined by these positions and need constantly to put up aggressive challenges.

The question also arises as to what extent identity can be sufficiently secured with a tempering of the surface elements of religion – what I term the 'particularities'. With this in mind, there is also the question as to what extent can the initially disparate identities of communities converge over time? This would be a gradual process in which individual freedoms would have a major role.

And common to all groups, every generation needs to relearn how to live in ways that both satisfy themselves, their communities and promote the common good. In these distracted days when we can so easily become preoccupied with inessentials and become the 'tools of our tools', a highly relevant question is whether or not human beings are related to the infinite.

Birmingham has always seen good interfaith relations as vital. Opportunities for people of different faiths, or none, to learn about each other and overcome suspicions are to be welcomed. So many good things can be achieved by working together in which it soon becomes evident that the core values of the world religions (and those of many thoughtful agnostics) are common ground. Broad based knowledge and understanding are important – those who know only their own side of the case know insufficient of that.

The Cosmos contains subtle and multi-faceted truths towards which religions are pathways, so they should not, at a deep level, conflict with each other. The seeming clashes of doctrine and practice need not be calamitous and may be in fact be opportunities. What would seem on the surface to be antipathies sometimes reveal hidden affinities. Apparent discord can be harmony not understood.

Peace is the greatest good and, like its dreadful opposite, is a human concept. Peace can only come into being when people are in touch with their humanity and this I think is what the mainstream religions seek to achieve. Beyond the political realm, peace depends on harmony between all religions and this is a goal in which we all share. Harmony will have amongst its sure foundations the qualities of knowledge, tolerance, respect and love as we strive towards a world without enemies.

There are those to whom faith is a stranger. Some have this as a preference. Some, while not seeking it, are at least at ease with this state but for others it is unsettling. Wise counsel can assist them, and prayer too since the process of and preparation for prayer is valuable to people of a devout disposition but without specific faith. Preparation involves a gathering of the self, and in providing a release from the urgencies of the moment, allows a focus on a point beyond the self.

All that we do, especially in commercial life, should be done with the guidance of a moral compass knowing that all individuals are important and should be respected and that a single act of generosity or brave intentions can change the course of a life or a part of the world. We should carry our moral values into community and representative life too and thereby continue to play a major role in making us the great city that we are.

Today Birmingham is home to many religious traditions, ranging from varieties of theism through to the many strands of Hinduism and the godless spirituality of Buddhism. There are also many degrees of agnosticism adjoined to core moral values, some of which combinations are difficult to distinguish from un-dogmatic versions of faith.

The power of the state and religious power are both enormous and in the same hands amount to far too great a concentration of authority. So while state and religion should be separate, this does not mean that faith should have no say in government or that government must necessarily be conducted by faithless people. What must be avoided is the situation where religious parties legislate for sectional interests. Faith based values can be advocated with passion but should not be imposed by legislation – a point that is taken up in Appendix A on Lord Justice Laws’ ruling. Appendix B suggests a possible elements in an inter-faith compact.

There is of course a great deal more that should be kept to the fore, for example the contribution of literature and the immense value of the aesthetic sense. Art is a universal language regardless of form. Art can take us to an inner place, hinting at the thoughts that lie hidden in our hearts. Art is a global language that knows no nationality and favours no race, creed, age, class or gender. So a good city will encourage art in all its communities – as does Birmingham.

Finally, in sum what is required from people for harmony? A warm decision by the intellect, and the most rational decision that the heart can take and magnanimity - greatness of heart and mind. These individual qualities are the keys to good relationships between all communities.

And amongst many broad issues there is the necessity of sustaining the good earth, locally and globally, restoring integrity and traditional decent values in politics as well as business and embedding them right throughout society today. And vital international relief and development work will flourish all the more on the foundation of harmonious communities and the generosity of the common good.

In all of this it is relevant to ask: what is the basis of belief? Why do we believe what we do? And, equally importantly: what represents a reasonable basis for changing our minds and what makes for a context in which this can be done? The sociological view is that belief rests on the foundations of family or culture. In psychological terms belief gives the individual a sense of meaning or purpose – but may also be constraining.

A scientific foundation for holding a belief is reason and evidence and, quite opposite to this, there is deference to authority – believing something when told to do so by a person held to be significant or through having read it in an authoritative text. The rational foundation for ‘belief’ requires this to be held provisionally, in the light of the current evidence. But these distinctions are by no means as sharp as may first appear. For example, as the Bible reportedly says: Test everything and hold on to the good!

I am certainly for the common good – the common wealth as it were – enhancing the well-being of everyone, with no-one being marginalised, where the meek get some inheritance today rather than promises for delivery much later, and where well-being is defined in a broad way to include all aspects of the quality of life, not just consumption. In fact we should dispense with the vain quest for emotional well-being to be gained through material consumption. In fact ‘consumption’ is a word that was once used to describe a state of ‘ill-being’ - a wasting illness – ironically still appropriate today.

And I am equally certainly against 'sin'! To my mind sin is socially pathological behaviour. Fundamentalist violence is the worst possible example, representing that which is all too literally mortal. I wish that our language had a secular word that was equivalent to ‘evil’ – for this is surely it. But more commonplace aggressive self-righteousness, intolerance, excessive consumerism and greed are examples of social pathologies that can detract from the well-being of all communities and diminish the qualities of a good city.

But any such negative impacts will be reduced to an absolute minimum and ultimately eliminated through shared values, harmonious relationships and joint endeavours oriented towards the common good. These are all much in evidence in the good city of which we have spoken, and long may it be so.

Appendices

A: Lord Justice Laws’ Ruling

Lord |Justice Laws’ wise words in a marriage guidance case merit careful study. In his ruling Lord Justice Laws wrote:

“We do not live in a society where all people share uniform religious beliefs. The precepts of any one religion – any belief system – cannot, by force of their religious origins, sound any louder in the general law than the precepts of any other. If they did, those out in the cold would be less than citizens and our constitution would be on the way to a theocracy, which is of necessity autocratic.

The law of a theocracy is dictated without option to the people, not made by their judges and governments. The individual conscience is free to accept such dictated law, but the state, if its people are to be free, has the burdensome duty of thinking for itself.

In a free constitution such as ours there is an important distinction to be drawn between the law’s protection of the right to hold and express a belief and the law’s protection of that belief’s substance or content.

The conferment of any legal protection or preference upon a particular substantive moral position on the ground only that it is espoused by the adherents of a particular faith, however long its tradition, however long its culture, is deeply unprincipled”

“It (a faith) may of course be true; but the ascertainment of such a truth lies beyond the means by which laws are made in a reasonable society. Therefore it lies only in the heart of the believer, who is alone bound by it. No one else is or can be so bound, unless by his own free choice he accepts its claims.”

B: Possible elements in an inter-faith Compact

1. We accept each other for what we are without trying to change one another.

2. We will identify and promote our common core values and resolve to be people and communities of reconciliation.

3. We commit ourselves to work together for a cohesive society in the spirit of mutual respect and openness.

4. We will work together for understanding, respect, justice and peace.

5. We seek to promote the common wealth, the common good and a harmonious common life within a good city and a virtuous economy.