Found this in today’s Sunday Herald, and thought I’d share some of it with you guys.
For the government of a secular country such as ours to treat religion as if it had real merit instead of regarding it as a ridiculous anachronism, which education, wisdom and experience can hopefully overcome in time, is one of the most depressing developments of the 21st century. Religious people must be treated with the same respect as non-religious people, but their religions should quite properly be regarded with the weary contempt they deserve. Instead we have debates on TV news shows between hardline Muslim scholars and moderate Muslim politicians without any intervening voice of scepticism suggesting that the whole darned thing might be just as invented as virgin births and Mormon tablets.
We have bishops arguing with Christian women about ordination as if this is an important issue, again without the obvious interjection that it is unlikely in the extreme that there exists any god at all, never mind a peculiar one who cares what sex wears the cassock. And there goes old nutty Ruth Kelly using taxpayers’ money to introduce a whole new clutch of assorted religious schools that will abuse the innocence of trusting children by teaching them superstition alongside facts to ensure they cannot separate the two.
The defence of any attacked faith is always to say: “You don’t understand our religion.” It’s considerably more likely that those defenders of their rrational beliefs have failed to understand Montesquieu, Hume, Rousseau and Diderot. The tattooed drunken morons attending an Orange walk are hardly theologians.
Since these are dark days, it’s time to stop all this polite tiptoeing around religion and harden up accordingly. Our elected leaders constantly bleating their respect for religion is not political correctness but a public declaration that intellect, tolerance, democracy, reason and enlightenment are of less value than dogma and delusion. Now’s the moment for a clear, definite, distinct line to be drawn between state and religion, one that defends the individual’s right to follow whatever ideology he or she wishes within the law, but also firmly declares and vigorously defends our collective ideals of gender equality, respect for differing sexual orientations and reinforces the message that there is no room whatsoever for the supernatural and the irrational. No bishops, mullahs, Presbyterian ministers, rabbis, or Scientologists should be gifted special hearings at Downing Street, but should confine themselves to wielding their power and freedom as the rest of us do, namely as ordinary voters, and the state-funded faith schools that shame us all with their manipulation of young minds must cease. We have all been mugged, but the shock must take us back to reason and as far away from religion as we can get.
What do you think?
Posted on 07/28/2005 at 10:47 AM 
Oh. My. GOD! BunBun, DOF is decrepitoldfool. Bow down, bitch!
you’ll do just fine!
Posted on 07/30/2005 at 09:02 PM 
I dunno, the whole Santa belief vs. God belief begs the question, “If your parents made up one lie, can you trust anything else they say?”
Seriously: how are most people introduced to religion? When they’re kids, their parents hand them a book and say, “Everything in this book is true and you must do as it says.” They are never taught to question or doubt. If a kid is precocious enough to ask questions about the nature of man and the universe, the answer is something like “God works in mysterious ways.” or “It’s not right to question God.” and never “I don’t have enough imagination to conceive of any possibility beyond some big bearded guy sitting in the clouds using magic powers to create everything and compel our behavior because that’s how I was raised.” Some religious extremist parents might even think their kid was possessed by evil spirits.
That’s why movies like “Zardoz” or the “Waiting for God” episode of Red Dwarf (not only how the cats “created” their religion, but Rimmer’s unwavering belief that the garbage capsule is proof of an advanced alien civilization) fascinate me--what began as perfectly “innocent” objects got adopted, twisted, perverted into bases for lifestyles and beliefs.
True, this line of thinking can lead us down the path of “Well, how do you I Thomas Jefferson truly existed? How do you I George Bush is a real person and not some actor on a TV show so popular that all the channels carry it? How do I know anything I perceive is true or real at all? Well, I don’t. But I am practical about it. If the things imaginary-Jefferson said sound like good ideas, then I will agree with them. If actor-Bush is convincing people to hate gays and non-Christians, then I think his influence is a bad one. And even if the world I inhabit is just an illusion (a la the Matrix), I can either sit here and be glum about it, or I can make the best of it and enjoy friendships, hobbies, and travel (even if it’s all a dream)--until such time I am able to perceive alternate realities, if such realities exist!
--Joe
