I was saddened to read last week an article written by someone I admire a great deal. The reason for this was his opinion on religion. For someone I believed was tolerant and liberal, to brand organised religion as dangerous out-of-hand seems a little dangerous in itself.
His motivating reasoning behind this claim was that it gives license to believers to do things that wouldn’t normally do: bad things. But from experience it works the other way too. Religious people may feel compelled to do good things under the watchful gaze of their gods and spiritual leaders.
The same could be said for atheists. On the one hand, natural compassion leads to good deeds, but it could be argued that not having a righteous being to answer to is the removal of a deterrent that might have been there.
Religion does good and bad, like most things. I don’t think you can say that religious people are evil, or indeed people of a certain religion are evil. By the same token, you can’t say that atheists are evil. Evil people are evil.
Lesson of the Day
Evil is the only trait in evil people.
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With reference to this article on BBC News, it’s an interesting argument over how Christian the United Kingdom is. In the grand scheme of things though, it seems to be one of those arguments that is almost pointless and irrelevant — does it really matter?
There is no getting away from the fact that the modern United Kingdom was built upon a Christian-valued basis. There are churches in just about every village, town and city; and our more traditional laws draw reference from the tenets of the Bible. But our country is changing, undoubtedly, away from the strict devotion to the word of the Bible as more interpretations of the scriptures lead to conflicting opinions on how we should live our lives. The acceptance of other religions and communities has also changed many aspects of the United Kingdom.
Once upon a time, converting to Christianity was enough to be spared the death penalty; and indeed supporting the ‘wrong’ denomination condemned you to a public killing. In my opinion, this what makes our country a much better place to live now than it was then: tolerance and understanding. The bad aspects of the United Kingdom now as we stand are purely down to a lack of understanding and tolerance.
But Christmas is an interesting argument. Should it be a solely religious occasion? Suppose it wasn’t (and perhaps there are arguments to support that being the case). Then is that a bad thing? Each Christian is able to celebrate Christmas in his or her own way and that is up to them. Meanwhile, Christmas only teaches good things to those that aren’t necessarily Christian. The gift of giving (and indeed receiving, graciously); the coming together of family and friends; and the almost carpe diem nature of the season spreads happiness towards all those that choose to acknowledge the day. Whether we understand the background of the day, is that such a bad thing?
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I would very much like to have a read of Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto. I would love to have a massive rant about how communism could work, but point its flaws. My biggest gripe with communism is the paradox of how there can be a supreme leader in a land of equals.
I would also like to point out some problems with democracy. Although democracy seems a fair way of representing the people, it does not necessarily mean that the best person for a particular job will get it. For example, it is my suspicion that the Chancellor of the Exchequer does not require a degree in Economics, or some other financial qualification. And what makes a good premier? From recent events, it seems that someone who is cool in front of a grilling from unrelenting opposition is more desirable than someone who makes good decisions.
Another alternative is absolute monarchy. Now, most will dismiss this out of hand, but a sole occupier of supreme power over a state has its advantages. For a start, there are no pretences about fairness – it is almost unashamedly unfair. That way, everyone knows their place. However, one could argue that this is in existence within religion, and no-one can deny that the rules decreed within a religion are very much open to interpretation. I guess the difference is that the king can sort a deviant out now, whilst the god would sort it out later.
So what political system is best? My personal favourite is the Dingle clan (aside from the incestuous characteristic of the family, of course…).
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… you get the idea. I was walking along Northumberland Street at about half one today. I had just bought a roll from Health Fayre and I was filling in time before getting the bus to go home. I wandered into the entrance of Eldon Square and sat down, listening to some Christian preacher outside. He had just started up, and he challenged passers-by to talk to him. I’m not sure whether he was expecting a plant, but that was far from what he got. A Muslim man was given the microphone, and – despite noticeably having his microphone turned down much lower than the preacher’s, he asked what distinguished Christianity and in particular his own faith from others. These are some excerpts from what I heard as his response:
… Well either Christianity is right and Islam is false, or Islam is right and Christianity is false, or they are both false… but the Bible proclaims that Jesus was the Son of our Lord… Islam claims Jesus was just a prophet…… I’m not saying that other religious texts are false or do not have any goodness in them…
And as soon as I heard that, I thought I ought to move on before a fight started. It is interesting that this preacher was talking about just a prophet. Can you get any higher than a prophet? And as for being the Son of God, aren’t we all?
I’m not saying that I’m not religious. I would have liked to have challenged this man though. Why is he doing this? He travelled from Pennysylvania to tell us that Christianity is fact. Why?
It has been a strange day in all. I was supposed to be having a meeting with the Stop AIDS Society. You might notice there is no link there, and that is because they have no website, and that is why I was invited. I shall be developing a site for them. However, nowhere was arranged for the meeting so I could not find them in the Union. Apparently they had assembled at another entrance.
And seeing as I had forgotten my keys, I had to wait around in town for a couple of hours, so I learnt some Japanese – as you do. It’s not that hard really (well, so far anyway).
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