Faith in the future?
Soul of Britain, with Michael Buerk, 30th July 2000
Soul of Britain, written and presented by Michael Buerk was broadcast in nine episodes in June & July 2000. This BBC TV series explored what people in Britain today really believe. What is their attitude to moral issues? What do they think about Christianity? The BBC commissioned the largest ever survey of beliefs and attitudes for this series.
This last episode was probably the weakest of the whole series. It did not contain any of the statistics from the Soul of Britain Survey which are so helpful to understanding how people think today. Instead of having a series of interviews presenting conflicting opinions and views, it simply included one speaker talking about what he expected the future to hold.
In the introduction, Michael Buerk talked about the dramatic changes which have taken place in our beliefs and values, as charted by the earlier programs in the series, and asked whether we can have faith in the future (whatever this question means).
Some of the key trends identified include:
- new technologies
- globalization
- an accelerating rate of change
- people demanding not just the right to choose, but 'the right to be satisfied'
We were told that globalization and information technology pose complex new moral and ethical questions, but we were not told what these questions were, let alone given any discussion of possible answers.
The first main panel discussion session focussed on whether the new developments are positive or negative - should we look forward optimistically or pessimistically? The optimists did not seem to come well out of this discussion: we were told that the technology is freeing people from routine chores, to spend more time in relating to others - but it was admitted that the quality of these relationships is often much poorer.
The second part of the program tried to look at the role of the Church, in a time of declining Church attendances coupled with a high interest in spirituality. In the panel discussion it seemed that the conclusions people reached about the future of the Church were influenced more by their presuppositions about the truth or otherwise of the message than by any consideration of evidence. For example, one panelist argued that 'the intellectual underpinnings of religion have gone'.
Both of the panel discussion sessions were remarkably unfocussed and inconclusive. The program could have covered so much more (alternative 'church' styles, Christian use of the Internet...) All in all, this was a disappointing ending to an otherwise informative and provocative series.