Martin Hannan: Dawkins spouts some Papal bull

Published on Monday 26 July 2010 13:16

MY FEARS that Pope Benedict's forthcoming visit to the UK would prove divisive are already coming true.

The row about the cost to the taxpayer has been unpleasant, while the decision of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to levy a "voluntary" charge of 20 on everyone attending the Papal Mass in Glasgow simply stinks - the Church is still one of the richest institutions in the world, and I always thought money being exchanged for the sacraments was the sin of simony.

As for the latest wheeze of a Scottish historical pageant in Princes Street featuring an actor playing John Knox, I can only think that someone in the Catholic Church has taken leave of their senses and clearly has no concept of Knox's theology. The man himself smashed "graven images" in churches across Scotland, and never sat for a portrait. He would find the prospect of a mummer playing him in a Papal cavalcade utterly offensive, and I suspect more than a few Protestants and not a few Catholics will be angered by this patronising gesture.

Yet the people I most fear are the militant atheists who have mounted a high-profile campaign against the visit. They are led by Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, who has called for the Pope to be arrested as soon as he arrives in Edinburgh to start the trip.

While I agree with Dawkins that something needs to be done about the Church's cover-up of clerical abuse, the fact is that Pope Benedict himself is perfectly innocent of a charge of abuse, and he should be free to visit Britain, not least because he is a head of state, albeit that the Vatican is the smallest state in the world.

Dawkins sees the world from the point of view of evolutionary biology, and thinks Darwinism can explain everything. He airily dismisses questions that might upset his cosmological view, such as why does life exist, which is why I don't think he is a very good scientist.

He also reviles religion and clearly despises the very existence of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and all the rest. He really would impose a secular world, and that's why Dawkins and his kind really worry me. They are the atheist Taliban, determined to destroy religion, and you can bet they will exploit the Papal visit to push their Godless creed.

In their own way, they are as bad as any fundamentalist Muslim ayatollah in Iran or raging right-wing conservative Christian in the United States.

For instance, Dawkins wants "faith schools" to be scrapped. So let's go back and rip up the UN Declaration of Human Rights which is supposed to be the guarantor of freedom across the globe. Article 18 would have to go - "everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion" - and so would article 26, which states that "parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children".

That's the problem for fundamentalists, be they religious lunatics or atheists. They would restrict basic freedoms and re-make the world in their own perverted image.

Were Pope Benedict a fundamentalist calling for Roman Catholicism to be once again the state religion of Scotland, I would be first in line to bar the door to him. But he appears to be a man trying to preach to his flock, and even if some of his views and doctrines are frankly bizarre in this day and age, he should be allowed to do so.

We should offer a warm Edinburgh welcome to the Pope, listen politely to what he has to say, either heed his advice or ignore him, and then wish him bon voyage. That goes for people of all religion and none.

Cheers for Leven

A FEW weeks ago I told you about Edinburgh man Leven Brown and his attempt to row the Atlantic with three colleagues in a tiny boat.

To beat the 114-year-old record of 55 days for rowing the ocean from the US to Britain, skipper Leven and his crew need to cross the finishing line at Bishop's Rock on the Scilly isles by August 12. I am delighted to report that the boat, Artemis Investments, has completed more than 80 per cent of the voyage and the quartet has less than 500 miles to go. It is looking very good for them to finish early next week and set a new record of 50 days or less, which would be an astonishing feat as more than 60 previous record attempts have all failed.

At the weekend, Leven and the crew received an amazing visit from Queen Mary 2, one of the largest and most beautiful liners afloat. Ray Carroll, the Irishman on board Artemis Investments, used to work on the liner and its captain, Nick Bates, decided to make a small variation in his route to see how Ray and the others were doing.

The liner arrived out of the fog and drew slowly alongside Artemis Investments. The liner sounded blasts from its horn in tribute and the passengers lined the decks to give three cheers. It was a moment that the four rowers will never forget. I trust they will get an equally ecstatic welcome when they arrive in Falmouth Harbour.