sullster

Thanks Amos. It is always great to know that you are out there and willing to say something kind in my defence.

worldling

Sadly that is true. Some of us are doing what we can to remedy that. Meanwhile, I can only apologise for sending you the Alpha group. (But please don't send them back!)

Worldling

sullster

I will give you my own sad observation about this Alpha group now that it is here in the Colonies. It will probably be going strong here after it has disappeared in England.

After you find the remedies for the infection of religious superstitions in the UK, please send them to us. It will make up for Alpha.

Amos

Your suspicion is right sullster. Alpha is just the begining. The problem is that none of them have ever reached past the Beta and that means that they will leave everybody stranded as Alpha freaks.

Egoinos

I think I agree with the others that Alpha seems intended to make nominal Christians go back to the fold. It was started in the Church of England, after all, which has an enormous number of nominal members, people who might say "yes, I think I believe in God and the rest, and I'm CoE", but who know little about their faith and are not involved. The CoE really needs to start getting more people into their church, thus Alpha came along to repackage in a friendly format the main teachings of the CoE - the evangelical wing, that is, for people who say they are Christians but who don't really know what its all about. They'll get the odd agnostic perhaps coming along, but 99% are going to be Christian already.

There was quite an outcry from the Freethinker, or was it the national secular society? about ITV broadcasting Nicky Gumbel doing Alpha on Sunday nights, recently, as I recall.

worldling

It was veteran broadcaster David Frost who fronted a short series of programmes on the Alpha course. They were, in effect, promotional videos. The only critical viewpoints aired were from conservative members of the clergy who didn't like the happy-clappiness of the Alpha crowd. The National Secular Society objected strongly on the grounds that such proselytising was against ITC's code of practice.

The programmes still went out, of course.

Howay the Toon

Nobody ever said that there are NO religious loonies in the UK. Only that the proportions and power of such people are much much lower than in the US.

sullster

I guess I was in need of a correction about my views of the state of religious belief in the UK.
That a group like Alpha could come from the country of David Hume and Charles Darwin is disillusioning. Yet, it is silly of me to think that all the Puritans and Baptists came over here. Obviously, some stayed home.