As I've said several times in this blog, I'm an atheist. I've been an atheist for a long time, since my early teens, and, ironically, the main reason for my having followed this path was my higher than average (by UK standards) exposure to organised religion, given that I was a church chorister for nearly five years - I had plenty of time to think about what I was hearing, sitting in the choir stalls, and came to the conclusion that none of the 'faith' elements of religious belief had any validity. I saw no reason to take on trust, as it were, that some invisible deity was required to explain either the existence and evolution of the universe, or to mediate the behaviour of people towards each other - as my Mum once memorably said to our parish vicar, 'I don't have to go to church to be a good person.'
Having said that, my attitude has always been that I'm quite happy for people to believe whatever they like, as long as they extend me the same courtesy. I've had no interest in trying to 'convert' anyone to my way of thinking. Of late though, perhaps the past year or so, I've found myself becoming inclined towards a more radical position. I'm still of the opinion that people's personal beliefs are a matter for their own conscience, if only because of a Voltaire-ian "I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" turn of mind, but I'm coming to believe that organised religions, the 'businesses' of faith, if you will, are nothing but a vehicle for hypocrisy, oppression, and, often, outright acts of evil. I'm also extremely concerned, as I said recently, about fundamentalism and its potential for even greater injustices, or even, depending on who manages to get their hands on the levers of power, particularly in the White House, the potential for the world to be ravaged by 'holy wars', launched by a theocratic US - Bachman, Perry, and their ilk scare me fartless, not to put too fine a point on it.
Because these people are not very far removed, in my opinion, from those I read about today, a fundamentalist couple convicted of murdering their adopted daughter, a 7 year old girl, by beating her to death with a plastic hose, in some sort of depraved simulacrum of the biblical 'spare the rod, spoil the child' adage. Beating her for seven hours, only taking breaks to pray, reportedly, because children have to 'obey'. I'm not suggesting that behaviour like that is in any way commonplace, but it is, in my opinion, indicative of the slavishly obedient mindset that many religions, not just Christianity, seem to value so highly. Children submitting to their parents, wives to their husbands, men to God. 'It's God's word/will', 'God told me to do it'. And that's without starting on the issue of what these people think of and would do to LGBT people, never mind boylovers, given the opportunity. Terrifying.
Love & best wishes to all
Sammy B
I trust that your recently increased radicalism has manifested itself in your response to the Human Rights and Equalities Commission's call for our opinions on its dilemmas over religious over equality rights.
ReplyDeleteYou know that I share with you a deep distrust of those who cloak their bigotry and intolerance with what they call 'faith' and agree that some of their most outspoken political and religious leaders have more to do with evil than they have to do with good.
http://www.equalityhumanrights.com/legal-and-policy/human-rights-legal-powers/legal-intervention-on-religion-or-belief-rights-seeking-your-views/
Hello Micky
ReplyDeleteThe short answer to your question is no, I haven't looked at or responded to governmental websites. This is more to do with an evolution of my own personal beliefs. What I am more likely to do, though, is to use my blog more often to highlight what I consider to be the pernicious effects of religion, with the idea of encouraging people to at least think about these issues, and whether religions, and especially their more extreme variants, are the kind of worldviews that ought to be tolerated, much less influential, in the 21st Century. And, I suppose, I have a vested interest, too - I don't especially want to end my days chemically (or physically) castrated in some kind of 're-education' camp for boylovers.
Love & best wishes
Sammy B
Hallo Sammy
ReplyDeleteI can understand you well. I myself have worked for years in the church as a social worker, although I did not believe in religion itself, but on humanitarian grounds. (If you work in Germany for the church, you must be a member and have to pay church tax). But compared to U.S., here in Germany it is still very moderate. However, I have read recently that in the Catholic Church the "exorcism" is still applied.
Nikki
Guten Tag Nikki
ReplyDeleteThe Christian churches in the UK are reasonably moderate, for the most part, although we seem to have a few fairly radical fundamentalist Islamic groups dotted about, but the actual 'brand' of religion is, to me, less important than the mindset. I would have hoped that by this stage of human development, that what I view as nothing more than superstition would have been trumped by knowledge, by 'science', in the loosest sense of the word, but what seems to be happening instead is that many people are retreating to versions of their religions that are positively medieval. And when, as in the US, these fundamentalists are dangerously close to genuine political power, how long will it be before everyone, believers or not, is being forced to live by their archaic principles?
Love & best wishes
Sammy B