Hamish Champ: The pub as a debating chamber

Pubs are often held up as places where members of the local community can meet to chat, to debate, to laugh, to argue. To demonstrate their 'togetherness'.

Yet for all this I had begun to fear that with so many pubs either closing or becoming destination food venues the notion of a bunch of blokes sitting in a boozer, drinking beer and putting the world to rights was about to become a thing of the past.

So I am delighted to report that I was inadvertently party to a pub debate last week, one that showed how alive and well such things are in our hostelries.

There I was, sitting with a friend of mine in a pub owned by a well-known managed operator on Lewisham High Street in South East London, when a group of people sat down at a table behind me and began 'setting the world to rights'.

These punters, all middle-aged types, clearly knew each other but were talking about in no uncertain terms about one of the most emotive of subjects: religion.

The thing is, they weren't exactly arguing with each other, in fact they seemed to be singing from the same song-sheet, so to speak. But they would back up each other's points with statements that sought to outdo the previous speaker's point. Much like Monty Python's Four Yorkshiremen​ sketch.

The basic tenet of the conversation was that we were all made by the hand of God. There was no proof we were descended from apes, thundered one of the group to his mates. "No proof whatsoever. Go on! Show​ me the proof!" he demanded. There was no​ proof, he cried, slamming his pint onto the table to reinforce his point.

"Scientists??!!" he bellowed, again. "They know nothing​! You only have to read the Bible to see where we all come from!" he thundered, peppering his argument with the sort of language that would surely have made Our Lord blush.

Another of the party, presumably aiming a swipe at those daft enough to swallow Darwin's theory of evolution, asked OK, if land animals had evolved from sea creatures, how come we still have whales and fish and octopuses swimming in the world's oceans? Eh? Eh?!

Turning round to look at the group I noticed each had a large grey smudge in the middle of their foreheads. The penny dropped; they'd been to an Ash Wednesday service in the church over the road and had fancied a few pints before making their way home.

A decade ago I'd have gotten involved in such a debate over Darwin vs God. People have always been entitled to their religious beliefs, but in my youth when blasted - unwanted - into my ear from a distance of five or six feet I would feel able to suggest that those believing the world was constructed in seven days and is only 6,000 years old was a bit of a loon.

However I am 49, I have learnt my lesson(s) over the years and I recently discovered that if I quietly count to 10 I can cope with all sorts of things which test my patience.

But I digress. Regardless of the contents of the discussion I just loved the fact that this sort of thing still goes on in a pub. True, it could happen pretty much anywhere, but the pub's the best for it.

Makes you glad to be alive, it does.