C HABGOOD objects to Britain being referred to as a Christian nation (Letters, April 23).

It seems to me he might as well also object to it being described as English speaking as a proportion of the population (significantly larger than the number of practising Pagans) speaks other languages.

Bearing in mind that our head of state is also the head of the Church of England, that much of our law was originally based on Christian principles (although alas no longer!) and that in the recent census, almost 72 per cent of the population gave their religion as Christianity, I can't see why he's complaining, other than simply for the sake of it.

Mr Habgood also claims to be an adherent of the 'Old Religion' of this country but whatever that was, it was certainly lost many centuries ago.

Paganism as practised today was largely cooked up by people such as Aleister Crowley, Gerald Gardener, Alex Sanders et al in the early part of the 20th Century.

And with the advent of the New Age, it has evolved into a pick'n'mix, DIY religion with individuals adding whatever gods, beliefs and practices they see fit from the entirety of human history.

Paganism is not strictly speaking a religion at all as it has no coherent system of beliefs and practices, being rather an innumerable collection of personal sets of beliefs, each of which satisfies the ego of its individual inventor.

Its basic philosophy as originally coined by the aforementioned Mr Crowley (known in his day as the 'Great Beast' and the 'wickedest man in the world') was - Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law', although the phrase 'and it harm none' has been added in recent years.

The problem there though is that the judgment as to whether or not 'what thou wilt' will cause harm to another rests entirely with the individual practitioner, rather than as it rightly should with the God of the Bible, our Creator.

I, for one, am glad this is still a nation whose population perceive themselves as Christian, however far we have drifted from Christianity's true meaning and message and I pray this perception of Britain as a Christian nation may become a true reality.

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