replacement of religion as a source of truth/moral values

• the authority of the Church by the Reformation

  • authority of scripture: interpreted according to individuals
  • thus, it became possible to hold individual beliefs that did not conform to the national religion: challenged the idea of one universal truth
• 19th century developments:

  • people came to see faith as a matter of personal commitment, or a way of seeing life as a whole
  • philosophers started to see it as something functional e.g. to keep the working class from fighting oppressors
  • Marx = "religion is the sigh of an oppressed creature"
• basing arguments on reason alone removed the need for a religion, but many values expressed in secular terms were exactly those that had been promoted by the Church

  • now: moral attitudes were accepted on a rational - not religious - basis
• relegation of religion to the personal sphere

  • many people no longer feel they must declare allegiance to Christianity as Britain's traditional + national religion
  • faith is seen as a matter of personal choice + private for the individual
• Christianity still plays a significant role in Britain:

  • CofE is an established Church in England
  • the national anthem remains essentially religious