Definitions

As historical dictionaries show, meanings and association of individual words develop and change over time. The speed of vocabulary shifts has been accelerated by social media usage – new words, and, for some older ones, loss of ‘street cred’ or creeping innuendo, as in the patter of popular comedy.  ‘Woke’ with its 1860s anti-slavery message in US politics was rediscovered in recent decades; latterly it’s become suspect for arrogance. We do well to watch our words.

Nation

‘Rallying round the flag’ indicates a deep-seated sense of collective identity, acquired from birth in a ‘homeland’, ‘father/mother land’. But does that mean “My country right or wrong”, “slavery was never British, was it?”? For some, ‘British Values’ are immediately understood as meaning ‘commonly human’, ‘fundamentally Christian’, or ‘morally basic’. For others, the negative side of Empire, or the shame of Windrush, gets in the way. In the Brexit divide, ‘Remainers’ were careless of any continuing sense of Britishness. ‘Leavers’ were all Little Englanders. Diversity is not nationally new. Historically, our DNA is racially mixed and our religious beliefs plural. In the context of health-care/ refugee-flow/climate-change, whether inside or outside the nation, what are the limits of ‘we’re all in this together’?

Faith

This can be tied to a specific religious tradition or a more general sign of sincerity – ‘acting in good faith’. It can be contrasted with reason, so that faith is ‘anti-rational’. Yet many scientists, both male and female, past and present, acknowledge the element of trust built into the experimental process. They may also identify with a religious faith. It’s reasonable to use the description ‘of no faith’ to refer to someone who does not identify with a particular institutional label. It’s not to imply that s/he lives without any sense of trust or faith in life, in being at all. In that sense, faith is generically human and, without it, the consequence is often tragic.

Religion

The word religion now commonly has negative connotations, associated with violence and hypocrisy. There’s evidence for both, but unsurprisingly since human behaviour is involved. Demographic surveys suggest that around four-fifths of the world’s population identify with one religious tradition or another. What this actually means for any one individual is less clear. There is no common core of religions, only family resemblances. Belief is a given, but what is believed is massively diverse: God, gods or no god; need for interventionist saviour or internal illuminator; revelation or enlightenment; post-mortem prospects in or out of the body; hierarchical or egalitarian. There’s also diversity within religions – just as there are different versions of Christianity, the same is true of others.

Humanist

The term Humanist has come to be defined as the antithesis of Religious. There is no reason to deny that such an interpretation is legitimate, but as with ‘religious’ more than one definition is equally fair. Some humanists are self-consciously atheistic, others not. Many who associate themselves with one or other religious tradition would also call themselves humanists. They resist any implication that their respective religious identity plays down their fundamental commitment to humanity. Whether as ‘religious’ or ‘humanist’, they are all differently believers.

Worship

This can be presumed to be what goes on in churches, mosques and synagogues, or in temples and gurdwaras. It does, but it also goes on in pop concerts and sporting arenas. It’s there in the devotion shown by one person for another. There are even elements of it in degrees of dependence or addiction – such as to alcohol, sex, shopping, and work. As humans we commonly worship in our individual and collective lives. The advertising industry thrives on the fact. No harm then in making more of educational opportunities to explore its component features and expressions.