Many of those who lose interest in religion nowadays do so because they come into contact with religion in a form that does not appear to be fulfilling people’s needs. Such a person was Bob Hawke, the present Australian prime minister. Brought up in a Congregational household, Bob Hawke became an agnostic during a visit to India in the 1950’s. Explaining this, he said that while in Kerala he noticed that the people “were devout church-goers. It played a large part in their lives. On the other hand, I could not help but notice how irrelevant the church was to what the people really needed.”

Due to the failure of Christianity, and other religions, to fulfill the needs of modern man, people have turned more and more away from religion. An opinion poll in the country that Bob Hawke governs, Australia, showed that more people believed in him (74%) than God (72%). A recent poll in France showed that “faith and religion” figured last on a list of values that the French considered most important in their lives: only 50% of those questioned, and 40% of the under-35’s, attached any importance to those two values.

There is no doubt that the present unpopularity of religion is, to a certain extent, due to a distortion of people’s aims in this world: they tend to want too much, or the wrong things, out of life, and they find religion unable to provide these things. But the predominant factor in this drift away from religion is the fact that religion has been presented in a false light. If people were to be shown religion as it really is, then they would find that it answered the call of their own inner souls; better able to define their aims in life, they would find religion in a unique position to provide them; people who now turn away from religion would be attracted towards it.

Browsing through a book-shop the other day, I came across a book that put a smile of delight on my face. It was entitled

“How to Be Happy Without Money”

I was about to buy it and live happily ever after, but I discovered that it cost 10 pounds sterling, and so I lost my chance at happiness.

Jihad Khazen, Arab News (Riyadh) 19-3-1984