Who I am and where I came from

Who am I and what right do I have to tell everyone what I think?

After attending an Anglican prep school where there was compulsory chapel every day and pretty much everyone was confirmed into the Church of England, I found I had absorbed the basics of Christian faith without ever thinking about them. In this state I was sent to an equally Anglican boarding school, Marlborough College, and promptly lost that faith. This wasn't hard to do, as even if the school had a chapel the size of some cathedrals, Christianity wasn't really central to our lives there. The chapel just sort of lurked in one corner of the main court and was largely ignored.

I also started to read. The most influential book was Cosmos by Carl Sagan which I found during my long wandering around the school library. Even at thirteen I was clearly a lot better at the sciences than the arts. Not only that, I'd been fascinated by the dinosaurs and space for as long as I could remember. Sagan worked his magic and I rapidly chose to root myself in this scientific world and not some imaginary place elsewhere. And anyone could see the Bible was daft, couldn't they?

My parents were mildly shocked by my atheism but were certainly not going to argue with me. Avoiding religion in England is dead easy so a lack of it isn't really an issue. In 1991, I watched an eloquent attack on religion by Richard Dawkins during the Royal Society Christmas Lectures on the BBC. I was myself mildly shocked by what I heard. That Christianity was untrue stood to reason but it seemed wrong to thrust this down people's throats in the way Dawkins did. Religion was a bit like Jazz - boring and incomprehensible but one felt a sort of grudging respect for people who were into it. I was doing a physics degree at Oxford by then and once again the strong religious backdrop and the magnificent chapels totally passed me by.

In the summer of 1991 I was working in a Macdonald's in New Jersey (as one does) and found I was totally alone and totally independent for the first time in my life. This was both frightening and exhilarating. But it brought about what many people call an existentialist crisis. It is a sense of profound isolation that is difficult to cope with. It was in this state that God found me again.

Having convinced me He existed, God then sent a very eloquent young man to speak to me. He worked in the same Macdonald's and was a college evangelical away for a summer of sun and Jesus by the coast. Being evangelized is no surprise to an American but in England it just didn't happen and I did everything I possibly could to argue against him. He convinced me that Christianity was internally consistent but not that it was true

Back at Oxford I explored the various religious offerings available and eventually settled at a Catholic Church that still used the Latin liturgy. Several friends went there and if it wasn't true, I figured, at least the show was worth it. I remained in this in-between state for years. I believed in God and felt leanings towards Catholicism but never took the plunge. Finally, in 1998 I knew I had to make a move. I was afflicted by doubts that meant I had to know. I devoured books and surfed the Internet in search of the answers. They were often hard to find but in a few months I was happy that the only option was to cease flirting with faith and be received formally into the church taking Bede as my confirmation name. My interest is in the history of science and its relationship to religion.  I have completed a Masters in Historical Research at Birkbeck College, University of London and a PhD in History of Science at Pembroke College, Cambridge. 

In August 2009, my first book, God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science was published by Icon Books.

I remain heavily influenced by my scientific education but flatter myself into thinking I have a better idea of science's limitations than do most people. Reason is a vital tool but alone it is unable to account for the breadth of human experience. More important is love even if, on its own, it too can be dangerous. I am also ecumenical and do not think any creed, not even Christianity, can claim a monopoly of the truth. God is so far beyond us that he created religion to give us a chance of forming a relationship with Him. The different religions He gave us reflect the different needs of humanity. To me, a Moslem or Baptist claiming only they know God is as offensive as the atheist telling me I am irrational. That said, I do consider myself as orthodox Christian and subscribe fully to the creeds. It is one thing to respect other religions and see God working through them.  It is another to say that they are all 'equivalent'.  For the avoidance of doubt I have printed below the Apostles Creed which is the oldest and simplest. In my opinion it is the minimum that one can say and remain within the broad Christian fold.

I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth

And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord

Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary

Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried

He descended into hell

The third day he rose again from the dead

He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty

From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead

I believe in the Holy Ghost

I believe in the holy catholic church, the communion of saints

The forgiveness of sins

The resurrection of the body

And the life everlasting.

This web site is intended to bring together much of the information that I found hard to find when I wanted it.

Yours

James Hannam

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© James Hannam 2009.
08 December, 2009