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One of my favourite quotes comes from H L Mencken. He said that "For every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong". Today we seem to be suffering the consequences of such solutions.

Take the whole complexity of issues in the Middle-East. The question was asked, "What is to be done about Israel and Palestine, about over-zealous Muslim radicals attacking the USA on September 11^th, and about Saddam Hussein persecuting the people of Iraq?" The three were put together, mixed a little - and a simple solution was proposed. Attack Saddam, impose Western democracy on Iraq, rid the world of terrorism, and allow Israel to live in safety.

Neat.

In Europe there are complex problems regarding how to put sovereign nation states together in a meaningful union. In Britain we have recently had elections in which one party (the United Kingdom Independence Party) said that the solution was to leave the European Union altogether.

Simple and neat.

Somehow on such issues we suspect that Mencken was right. Complicated problems and simple solutions come together in many a bar-room conversation. It will all be solved by corporal and capital punishment, less taxation or more taxation, conscription, and stopping immigration. All of these were suggested in an all-male conversation I was involved in at my local pub recently. Yet anyone who has ever tried to think about the issues facing today’s world knows that however much we might wish it there never are simple solutions and that when they are suggested they are invariably wrong.

Simple, neat and wrong.

There can few ways in which this is more demonstrable than in the world of religion. Faced with questions of existence, many people opt for an outside Being who understands everything and makes simple demands. Yet this appears a little too simple and neat. As an answer perhaps it arises because human beings cannot easily cope with not knowing.

The fact is that we are finding out more and more about how the universe works and about what an incredible thing life is. We are discovering that a lot of the simple explanations for existence that were used throughout history are not adequate.

But at the same time we are no nearer to understanding what brought life about, what constitutes consciousness and, put simply, what on earth we’re doing here. It can feel as if we’re as far away from answering these questions as people than people were even 10 000 years ago. Existence is still a mystery which defies logical explanation.

Religion at its best acknowledges the paradoxes of existence. It encourages us to think about the "why" of existence and even to seek to discern within ourselves a sense of the "other". In fact, at its best religion is not as simple and neat as materialistic atheism.

The problem is that in the past religion offered a complete package of explanations for everything, rather than only for the "ultimate" questions. It explained creation and science, psychology and ethics. It gave the world a paradigm in terms of which everything could be explained.

Today many believe that the function of religion is still to do that - to explain everything. Hence the growth of "fundamentalism" in all religions. This kind of simple and neat faith is hailed as the only kind on offer. And for some it is appealing.

I am convinced that we need to acknowledge our attempts at over-simplification. If religion in any form is to have a future, we need to be honest in saying it provides few if any "solutions", that it raises more questions than it answers.

Having said that, without religion (or spirituality if you prefer), a whole dimension of our existence is missing.

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