atheist.
All things considered life is much easier in the short term, if one wishes to lead a helpful life in the community, if one throws over all belief in God. It at least helps to solve today's problems better; it helps success in one's profession, where the approval of one's colleagues is necessary to exude the air of a successful professional man. It helps to live a life in conformity with nature; whereas the Christian life is against nature. Most of us are concerned with today's problems, rather than with the Apocalypse; and rightly so. Thus it inevitably comes about that the clergy's behaviour results in an enormous pressure on men and women to throw over belief in God, in order at least to be able to lead useful lives in the community. Whether they do or not, one is left with the bizarre situation that it is the Christians, who are prepared to risk being outcasts from their own church, and atheists with a passion for justice and right, who in collaboration alone have any reasonable prospect of building a better world.
For this strange alliance to achieve anything, there is the need for close team-work, and for the same team relationships as were described in Chapter 14. The fact that a man claims to be a Christian does not excuse him from this kind of involvement, nor does it “save” him (if that is the word) from having his mental processes and beliefs modified by his relationship with the rest of the team, which of course includes atheists. If such a relationship is incompatible with his Christian beliefs, then one or other must be scrapped. In such circumstances the Christian may decide that it is the relationship which must be scrapped. If he does decide this, then since most of the world's affairs are decided by atheists (or if you prefer it - according to secular principles), the Christian is virtually condemning himself to be an observer in the wings, and not a participant in the struggle. If on the other hand, the Christian decides that…