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Wednesday 7 October 2009

Kicking religion in the goolies

So we should all bow down to the great god that is religion itself, should we?

That seems to be the message from the Tory Baroness Warsai, at the Tory Party conference.

The UK’s Telegraph quotes her as saying, “Under Labour, the state has become increasingly sceptical of an individual’s religious belief.

“We’ve all seen the stories, how appalling that in Labour’s Britain a community nurse can be suspended for offering to pray for a patient’s good health.

“How awful that a school receptionist could face disciplinary action for sending an email to her friends simply asking them to pray for her daughter.

“At the heart of these cases lies a growing intolerance and illiberal attitude towards those who believe in God.”

Idiot! We just don’t want religion in the public square. We might feel more tolerance towards people who believe in impossible things if those people didn’t want to shove those impossible things in our faces all the time.

Secularism is a growing movement. People are realising that gods were an explanation centuries ago for things we didn’t understand.

Then came the need to control people, so savvy types decided they could intercede on behalf of the gods, or a single god. Then more people began to believe.

Belief in gods is much the same as belief in the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus; belief in religion is just a mistake, because it’s a control mechanism, and it’s a pity more of its adherents can’t see that.

It saps resources; it takes up valuable human energies; it causes conflict; it divides communities.

If people got on with their spiritual lives in their own way, they might get a bit more respect from those of us for whom it’s just not right.

But religions grab and grasp, they carp and complain, they demand and they damn anyone who doesn’t fit in – usually in the matter of sexuality – with what said religions say their gods say we should and shouldn’t do.

So I’m afraid, Lady Warsai, that, if we are truly giving religion a kick in the bollocks, it can be only a healthy thing.

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