Guardian: Contrary to Nick Cohen’s assertion that “civilisation came from the battering that religion took from the Enlightenment”, the initial spin-off of the latter was the horror of the French Revolution. A more positive development of the time was England’s free press, praised by Voltaire. In fact, Christianity has a strong claim to be the moving force behind civilisation as we know it in Europe. (“Don’t look to the pope for Enlightenment values”, Comment).

The game changer was the rise of universal suffrage in Britain from the mid-19th century, which ultimately enfranchised the poor on an equal footing with the rich. When Britain was the richest nation, ruling a vast empire, it criminalised the slave trade at the instigation of William Wilberforce, a devout Christian.

It is unfair to imply that the educated classes at the time were mainly free thinkers. This may have been true of the arts intelligentsia but the vast majority of scientists in the Royal Society claimed to be churchgoers.

In fact, the world’s greatest mathematical physicist between Newton and Einstein was James Clerk-Maxwell, a believer, while Michael Faraday was devout. As regards Cohen’s references to the atrocities committed by Christians, it is unsurprising that the ruling class (lay and religious) ignored the inconvenient truth that Jesus supported the poor and weak and excoriated the abuse of power by the rich. Strenuous efforts were made to ban vernacular versions of the New Testament, including burning the translators. The King James Bible was to influence many trade unionists, including the Tolpuddle Martyrs.
Catherine Dack
Leicester

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