Thin places,by Peter Morford

I had never heard of thin places so, on my walk home from the meeting I thought it was about slimming clinics’ flab-fighting clubs. Of course Google soon put me right with the definition: Thin spaces are those rare locales where the distance between Heaven and Earth collapses.

The article helpfully lists old churches in saintly Cornwall, Iona and of course, Stonehenge. Go there, they say, and you will feel a special contentment and peace as you cross the line between Heaven and Earth; from our mundane world to what may be the mythical or mystical. We too enjoy a sense of peace. Conversely, we may feel uneasy when the place reminds us of things we would rather forget.

Let’s say we’re friends walking in some beautiful place. Cardingmill Valley will do. We have the scenery, the peace, the good company and the prospect of a nice bowls of soup at the end of the walk. We’re in a haze of happiness and, if we’re wise, we tell each other how much we’re enjoying ourselves.

Or, you are relaxed in your armchair, dozing over a book. You’re brought to life by the first bars of a favourite symphony or a line of poetry, It works magic on you and, as your eyes close, you are out of this world into happy memories and imaginings.

Buildings have their own atmosphere. Ancient churches or deserted theatres encourage sombre or respectful thoughts which may or may not be religious. Faced with a work of art can, and should, make us wonder about the artist and the world he lived in.

Descend to a dungeon and think about what it represents. Sixty feet above us in the Great Hall are the carousing gentry. Down here are the tortured and starving. The very stones are a record of the past.

We ask who were the people who built this monument, painted this picture, wrote this music? Who lived in this ancient ruin when it was intact? What was here in this barren desert a million years ago? If there were sentient beings around when this mighty mountain was jacked up to 10,000 metres, what did they think was happening?

Astronauts seeing Earth from space feel a spiritual force. Their emotions are a mixture of pride over Man’s achievement tempered with modesty at our insignificance to the whole.

Meanwhile there are those who follow Aldous Huxley’s advice to enjoy the false delights of mescalin.

Religions attribute all the good things to their god or gods. Agnostics think they are being realistic as they say that theists accept what they are told because it saves them the effort of thinking for themselves. If they did exercise their minds they might find that rather than “God created Man,” it was the other way round. Religions and deities are a human invention; indications of our natural curiosity, ingenuity and inventiveness as we try to understand the Universe and our place in it.

Like our ancestors I gaze at the firmament and doubt that is anything to do with religion. I just wonder..