Regular readers of this column will know that from time to time we temporarily cast aside our natural light heartedness and turn our attention to the deeper things of life. With this in mind, I remind you that in March I mentioned that Harold Camping a Californian Pastor had forecast that the world would end on May 21st. As this date coincided with our return from Devon, I was pleased to find our sheep still peacefully grazing the water meadow by the river Leadon at Payford Mill. They, of course, had been blissfully unaware of Pastor Camping’s prediction and so for them the dawn of May 21st gave no cause for concern.
I have always been doubtful of apocalyptic prognostications, and this may be because the idea of Armageddon is so well rooted in ancient literature. For example, Muslims have a concept of Jihad linked to a day of Judgement when believers will be given a drink to make sure they are never thirsty again, whereas Hindus believe a flood will end it all. The Buddhist kalachakra tantra (Wheel of time) on the other hand, predicts a war prior to a golden age whilst not to be left out, Norse mythology predicts a cataclysmic battle (Gotterdammerung) between the Gods, and the Persian Zoroastrians, (modern Parsees) see it all ending in fire. Finally, some suppose the world will end on December 12th 2012 simply because the ancient Mayans closed their calendar on that date.
Despite historical reasons for doubting the certainties of apocalyptic predictions, I really think my scepticism arises not because of history, but because my mind cannot accept that any man or woman, however clever, can encompass the sum total of the present time let alone the future. Our brains may be wonderful things, but the human brain exists in the world and, as such, is not above and beyond it.
This conclusion makes me realise that Pastor Harold Camping and the proselytising atheist Professor Richard Dawkins are two of a kind! Despite both living in this world, both men proclaim to have knowledge regarding a world outside this one. The professor is confident that such a world does not exist, whilst the pastor is now expects that world to supersede this one on October 10th.
Such intellectual certainty does not however come without a price, and in the case of Dawkins and Camping, the price of certainty appears to be at the cost of that childish ability to be in awe and to marvel at creation without the need for the mind to contrive a ‘final’ explanation. For me, and I hope, for most readers, life is not so much a time to establish certainty, as it is a journey through an awesome creation with a lifetime to marvel at the natural beauties around us: Not to mention the sculptured beauty of art, architecture, and the glorious structures of music and words in literature, poetry and liturgy.
Thinking about how some minds seem to need certainty, might explain why many politicians seem desperate to be sure that we are doing what we are told. It must boost their confidence to festoon us with a miasma of rules, codes, regulations and laws. And so I was surprised to read that central government is proposing to give Parish Councils greater powers to deal with lesser planning issues and minor social misbehaviour.
If this latter proposal goes ahead, readers might be interested in how their parish council intends to deal with minor malefactions. Will they follow the dictates of the metropolitan elite and assume that because perpetrators carry the genes of their parents they are not responsible for what they do. Or will councillors consider that people who buy fish and chips in Newent and then dump detritus in the hedge-bottom are responsible for their own actions?
Anti-social behaviour is, by definition, behaviour against the interests of society as a whole and so, because the lives of country folk are blighted by litter in the lanes, they may ask what councillors will do. Will they tax the chip shop and use the money to employ a road cleaner, or will they remember how miscreants were dealt with by village courts of the past? To help their deliberations, readers may want to advise an appropriate old fashioned remedy for a local ne’er-do-well.
However, whatever happens most readers will be aware of the tendency of authorities to over react, and so are advised to keep a wary eye open for signs of over-exuberance or back-sliding. Readers might for example want to be sure, that the ducking-stool is reintroduced only for councillors guilty of manipulating their expenses.
To close. I mentioned to a friend that my mind could not subscribe to the certainties of Professor Dawkins or Pastor Camping, and that our sheep at Payford Mill also appeared unmoved by the apocalyptic predictions of the pastor. This led him to pen the following:
He rides upon his tractor
down by the river Leadon
the end is nigh
I hear him cry
He’s known as farmer Geddon !
View from the Pew 