Tory leader David Cameron speaks of 'faith in God'
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Independent Minds
David Cameron has spoken frankly about his faith in God and his dread of losing another child.
The Tory leader also said he was determined to maintain a "normal" family lifestyle if he won the next General Election.
But he displayed his ruthless streak by insisting he would not hesitate to sack shadow chancellor George Osborne, or other senior colleagues, if they were not up to the job.
In an interview with the Evening Standard, Mr Cameron said his faith ran "hotter and colder by moments" and he did not feel he had a "direct line to God".
"If you are asking, do I drop to my knees and pray for guidance, no," he said. "But do I have faith and is it important, yes. My own faith is there, it's not always the rock that perhaps it should be.
"I've a sort of fairly classic Church of England faith, a faith that grows hotter and colder by moments but... I suppose I sort of started life believing that one's individual faith was important, but actually the institutions of the church were less important.
"I do think that organised religion can get things wrong, but the Church of England and the other churches do play a very important role in society."
He went on: "I think that it's perfectly possible to live a good life without having faith, by which I mean a positive and altruistic life, but I think the teachings of Jesus, just as the teachings of other religions, are a good guide to help us through."
Questioned about his fears, Mr Cameron - whose disabled son Ivan died aged six earlier this year - said that the biggest one was of something happening to his family.
"That's fear number one, particularly as it has happened already, it is a sort of permanent fear," he said.
"The most natural thing in your life is to look after your little ones."
He said his other children seemed to have dealt with the death in a much better way than the adults: "They are amazing; they are able to remember Ivan with happiness in a way that adults find difficult. They say lovely things about where he is and what he's doing."
Mr Cameron said a terror of failure and letting others down also drove him on. "I've always thought that the fear of getting things wrong inspires me more than the wonder of getting things right," he added.
With the Tories in pole position to win the next General Election, Mr Cameron indicated he would try to get a better work-life balance than the current incumbent of Number 10.
"I'm sure although there are security restrictions in your life, you just have to battle for normality," he said. "If you spend your life in a poorly-lit bunker surrounded by your aides you are not going to make very good decisions.
"But I believe it must be possible to be a good father, good husband, normal person, a good party leader and, by dint of that, a good prime minister."
And he stressed that he would be willing to sack even close political allies if they did not perform well.
"I've done so before with other colleagues and I will do so again," he said. "With George, the answer is yes. He stayed in my shadow cabinet not because he is a friend, not because we are godfathers to each other's children but because he is the right person to do the job. I know and he knows that if that was not the case he would not be there.
"I think he had a very, very tough time last year. He really did suffer quite a lot of slings and arrows. But I have faith in him as a talented politician and a talented shadow chancellor and someone who has a great feel and understanding of politics and the great issues. I think he has come back in a very strong way."
Mr Cameron also confirmed that he had finally managed to give up smoking.
"I am now clean," he insisted. "But I still dream I have just had a cigarette and then have deep remorse on waking, until I realise it was only a dream. The yearning has gone. I have genuinely given up and do not even miss it."
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Comments
is that true? where is your evidence... ithe most recent census identified only 8million Britians that had no faith - do you have a more recent / relevant study that you can draw on for your claim?
And, of course, the only certified moron ever to be president of the United States, George Bush, could never get enough of God.
So much so, Bush took the insane ramblings of the Old Testament literally and smote hundreds of thousands, hip and thigh, in his bloody rampages.
Osama bin Laden is, or was before he died in massive U.S. bombing, a strong believer.
Hitler's troops, as they savaged Europe, wore a belt buckle which roughly translates as "God is with us."
So, I think it should surprise no one that if I express my doubts about the relevance of belief in God to to good government, or even sanity.
Where is your evidence that most Brits do not agree with God or that that the world is 4 billion years old?95% of everyone I know here is non religous. What facts back up your claims?. The majority are sick and tired of this bullshit of passing the buck to a "higher power" for inadequacies with dealing with reality rather than belief.
Probably why we've never seen it.
And Gordon Brown looks like he needs a cigarette.
He is still though, a pocket Blair.
That's a very big star you have there fardg, difficult to miss, and it is very black too, how about some colour?
Once he's given up Flipper Osborne, I'll know he has given fags up.
The Conservative Party is a load of nonsense.
They suit each other. Especially with their shared desire to return us, socially at least, to the middle ages. Bring on the return of serfdom and tithes! The toffs and bishops will love that.
That's right sid, they think that being God's buddy will give them" street cred".. it certainly does in America, any candidate who claims to an atheist, would make himself/ herself unelectable, but not here, after all, God is unelected.
I've worked in physics for decades. All they've proven is that matter exists. And so does, probably gravity.
You know, other than that, we are rather clueless.
When you come to the realisation that 99% of the matter in the universe is completely unexplainable- we can't see it, measure it, or can't even prove anything is even there - then you'd probably be less sceptical on faith.
Einstein said it's impossible to rule out a "higher power" when you yourself have next to no idea what is going on. It's a basic physics principle, not to rule out anything like that until you can actually start to explain something yourself. We aren't at this point yet. And won't be any time in the next 200 years at least. We may never get there.
The thing your really need to understand is the scale of yourself. If you wanted to compare the earth to the size of the universe, there is no example. Not even saying it's like comparing a single electron to the size of the milky way. That's way way way too big. Our planet, on the grand scale of things smaller than that.
So you know, it' s just a lot of really stupid microscopic things, bubbling about, trying to make sense of things.
I'd say there is probably the same chance of "higher beings" than us ever being able to work it out
Devil - "I watch with glee, as your kings and Queens, fight for 4 decades, for the gods they've made".
Kind of agree