The changing context of belief

The return of religion to the public agenda has been one of the major surprises of the new century. However, older people seem not to have benefited so far from this increased attention to belief and its implications. In the UK itself religion, spirituality and belief have rarely achieved coverage in conferences and publications on the needs of older people or gained much from the increasing funds given to research on ageing by the British research councils. It might be claimed that religious older people are no longer the majority of their age group. But there is increasing recognition that minorities need protection from discrimination. Again, it might be argued that religious older people are not stigmatised or disadvantaged in the ways that, for example, black and gay minorities still are. But this may no longer be true. Persons of strong religious convictions tend increasingly to be seen as alien to the UK's liberal and secular contemporary culture. To express or to discuss religious views in public has long been discouraged, partly for understandable reasons stemming from still painful historical memories of interreligious conflict. But such restrictions may also function now more for the ease of the non-religious majority in the population.

One of the benefits of the debate – at times strident – in the contemporary media between atheists and religious believers is that it breaks this taboo, and promotes reflection on matters of ultimate value such as the meaning of life and death. It also encourages genuine enquiry into the nature of religious belief. This is especially important, as religious knowledge within the UK has sunk to appalling levels, even with regard to Christianity, which is central to the UK's historical and cultural heritage. As Grace Davie has pointed out, we live at present in a paradoxical situation of the increasing salience but declining comprehension of religion (Davie, 2000). This tension can only be resolved by a greater effort on the part of civil society to try to understand the religious elements within it, and on the part of religious groups to communicate and create opportunities for discussion with the rest of the population.