John Gray argues often – most recently in conversation with Giles Fraser – that modern secular thought is tied to models inherited from our religious forerunners, and from Judeo-Christian thinking in particular. Thus modern history understands itself as the story of teleological development, or progress. Thus science replicates the Judeo-Christian in its attempt to free us from our mortal bodies, albeit not by salvation so much as escape from our destiny.
the idea of mortality as the ultimate limitation is not found in all parts of the nonreligious population. Gray does acknowledge that the nonreligious can perceive continuity in what they pass on to their children. This is true and does not deserve to be treated with quite such short shrift. But in addition, my research with nonreligious people in the UK shows that there are also those who take a less self-and human-centred view of the world. Even for the rationalists that Gray focuses on, continuity can be associated with the acquisition of common knowledge – to which the person might hope to contribute in their lives. The Judeo-Christian teleological framework is, perhaps, clearly visible here.
For yet others, however, continuity comes from a material connection with the world, one which does continue after death. For this group, Darwin's making "humans into animals like any other" is not so terrible a prospect, nor is living or dying on an uncaring Earth. Indeed, the fact that all this living and dying occurs regardless of anyone particularly caring can be a source of great wonderment and delight to people of this persuasion.
Dr Abby Day of the University of Sussex has shown that nonreligious people do often claim to have met with deceased friends and relatives. But the nonreligious encounter this life after death in a different way from the religious. The difference is that, unlike the religious and spiritual people she talked with, the nonreligious do not attribute any agency or opinions to these beings; rather, they just accept their presence.
Day has coined the term "secular supernatural" to describe the phenomenon. What is interesting is how unremarkable the people she talked with found such experiences: it does not seem to upset their whole nonreligious outlook. On the contrary, it seems to be a part of it. Thus Gray is quite correct to emphasise the things the overlaps between religion and nonreligion that are lost from more naive accounts of both; but there are subtle differences that his bleak and blanket view miss out on too. The nonreligious, like the religious, accept and reject different types of and vehicles for immortality; like religious people, the nonreligious desire and deny the prospect of immortality at the same time.
It is interesting that the research referenced in the Guardian's article pointed out one doesn't need to believe in a higher power in order to accept that there is a supernatural reality that permeates our world. Perhaps it is because of an enlightening of the general public or could it be that our understanding of such matters is more permeable than before because our lives are more abstract than they have been in the past.
Or have we allowed ourselves as a people to become fooled into blindly accepting the inexplicable, reluctant to explore the mysteries of the unexplained by those who wish to remain hidden?
There are whispered rumors and hints throughout literature and even historical documents that state others have been successful in achieving this end. One such example is the urban legend of Sam Bailey. A small but devoted group of filmmakers has been developing a movie that will expose the truth behind the legend.
Make your voice known and demand to see this film screened in your area by clicking on the link below:
Demand Sam Bailey
(posted online at 
