My post on the old-chum network and economic mobility is generating a lively discussion of established religion in the UK. Let me bring this into the sunlight. The UK is a modern liberal democracy. It is highly multi-ethnic and multicultural. Yet, the Head of State is also the Head of the state's church. Buddhists and Muslims sing "God Save the Queen", apparently without strenuous mental reservation. At many Oxbridge colleges, they say Grace and attend eulogies in the Chapel. Churches all over Britain are festooned with military colours.
Is it reasonable under these circumstances to expect that religion might serve some functions different from that of organized worship? (It serves that, of course.) The English are an inscrutable people, but could it be that they go to Church to bond and gain social advancement? And would this be wrong? Better than the non-established religiosity of many North Americans, I say.
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