From Sir Ludovic Kennedy
Sir: What is the Speccie coming to? A mini- sermon from Paul Johnson on what he calls the 'truth' of Christianity one week (And another thing, 30 October) and another from Charles Moore the next. When will these two accept, as Charles admits, that we are now living in a post-Christian society, mature enough to make up its own mind as to what is moral and what is not. As my fel- low countryman David Hume said a long
time ago, we should let our view of morals be governed, not by what the headmaster, the chaplain, the bishop, Jesus Christ or God decree, but by what we know to be right.
The number of regular churchgoers in this country has fallen to under a million, the reason being, I guess, that there are now millions more of us (including, I sus- pect, the bulk of your readers) to whom the word 'God' conveys little or no meaning, yet who are no less intelligent or moral than Paul or Charles. It is time these two came to realise that what they call Christian values are in fact human values, common to people of all religions and of none. As the Bishop of Edinburgh confirmed to me at the book festival there this year, morality is a human construct, and so are all gods, including the present one.
Ludovic Kennedy
Ashdown, Avebury, Wiltshire
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