Stranger than Fiction

Atheist Bus Campaign

2008-10-25T01:53:00.000-07:00

Haven't blogged for a while, as nothing much new to say. However this campaign from Ariane of the Guardian and British Humanist Association [with a bit of help from The Prof DAWKINS] is the best news ever. It would be wonderful if enough people donated and made enough money for the government to suddenly sit up and take notice that there are more atheists than practicing religious in this country. Probably!
To donate see www.justgiving.com/atheistbus and to see the reasons behind the campaign see http://www.humanism.org.uk/site/cms/ and also http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/21/religion-advertising and http://www.atheistcampaign.org/
Now we need TShirts and car stickers to keep the bendybus bandwagon wheels going!
Many thanks to Ariane, BHA and Prof Dawkins, congratulations!

Religion wins over Gay Rights

2008-07-12T01:00:00.000-07:00

A leading Roman catholic lawyer said that the decision made by a tribunal against the Islington Council to allow a registrar to refuse to marry gays, could help save some of the country's [faith-based] largest adoption agencies, because they don't want to be forced to place children with gay couples.

The adoption thing never entered my head. All that came to my mind was religion up against gay rights has won the first battle, and that in the employment world the complete and utter lunacy this will cause defies belief. How can employers cope with all the religious bigotry and still not discriminate? Oh boy, with this one the trough has been filled to the top for lawyers !

And poor employers have to deal with this, knowing there is no limit that can be awarded in religious discrimination, nor for sex discrimination. What about the muslim who may refuse to shake hands or deal with a woman on grounds of his religious faith? And what comprises a religious faith?

What a can of worms this is...
Islington simply has to take this to appeal... and lets hope the appeal judges are more sensible.

Knife Crime

2008-07-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

David Cameron is proposing that all knife crime should automatically be subject to a custodial sentence.
Once again I could weep.
Surely all knife crime should have always resulted in a prison sentence...
Perhaps there wouldn't be any knife crime today if people had been punished for it.
Ah yes, I forgot... we don't have enough prison places to put everyone there that needs to be there...
Silly me.

Women Bishops

2008-07-08T14:34:00.000-07:00

I just don't get it.
Don't we have discrimination laws in the UK?
If I have my own business and want to employ someone, I am not allowed to discriminate on sex, religion, race or age. If I do, I am taken to court and fined enough money to put me out of business.
So how come is the Church of England discussing whether or not to promote women to bishopry? Why oh why does the law not apply to religious sects?
Surely everything and everyone should comply with the law of the land. Surely?

Sharia Law

2008-07-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

Are we being drip fed this nonsense so that eventually we might accept it?

In recent weeks the Archbishop of Canterbury, senior judge Lord Phillips and now QC Stephen Hockman, have all said Sharia Law could be used for muslims to settle financial and and marital disputes. Stephen Hockman stated, "Otherwise we will find there is a very significant section of our society which is increasingly alienated with very dangerous results."

I am quite sure there are many sections of our society that feel alienated but if Sharia Law - a totally patriarchal religious piece of doctrine - becomes part of English Law, then 50% of our population will feel totally alienated - the women.

I have no idea what Rowan Williams' motivation is, but the lawyers who don't worry too much about truth, only winning, are probably sure there'll be a bob or two in this for them.

Faith Schools Again

2008-07-04T09:56:00.000-07:00

Christina Odone has declared that faith schools are under threat from those awful atheists and secularists and claims there is a witch hunt going on.

She is perfectly right in that atheists and secularists would do everything they could to get rid of faith schools but the fact is, under Labour, these awful schools are flourishing.

Faith schools discriminate and are allowed to. They are divisive yet we are told they are inclusive. They nurture intolerance - there is only one true faith and hey, it's this one. They teach fairy stories as truth and I believe this is an abuse of children.

The only reason they are generally considered academically better [which is the only reason why they are so popular] is because too many of the state schools are so badly run with no discipline and a growing increase in badly behaved children. [Most of which can be attributed to government policies.]

The government want people to believe in this threat in order to galvanise people into defending faith schools. No wonder we despise politicians.

Gay Bishops

2008-07-04T09:48:00.000-07:00

The bible says homosexuality is an abomination.

The church therefore is split with those that believe entirely in whatever the bible says, and those that prefer a more modern liberal approach.

It never ceases to amaze me how the religious cherry pick bits of information from the bible to suit their sentiments. The bible states that the earth is fixed and the sun and all the heavens move around it. The vatican once burned people at the stake for claiming that the earth was a sphere that moved around the sun.

Need I say more?

Morality and Common Culture

2008-06-06T23:39:00.000-07:00

Church leaders are not the only ones in despair over the tumbling morality and lawlessness in our country. The church tells us the reason is a lack of religion and so the answer is for people to go back to church.
Well they would, wouldn't they. However, there is no doubt that bad behaviour is spiralling out of control. Knife crime, murder, burglary, muggings all on the increase.
I believe there are two solutions to this.
First, deal with the education and culture of the young - we cannot rely on parents instilling good behaviour in their offspring when the parents themselves are badly behaved. This education can only be accomplished in school from the age of 5 [if not before]. Morning assemblies, instead of being religious, offer an opportunity to 'preach' good manners, especially the Golden Rule - "Don't do anything to others that you don't want done to you". Give the kids a common culture of kindness and let them know it is wrong to hurt other people [and animals] in any way. Reinforce this every day as culture, not as religion.
Lessons in humanism would be a good thing but that is probably a bit too forward thinking for the moment!
Secondly, there has to be visible, immediate and harsh punishment for offenders.
Is that all too difficult?

Creationism

2008-06-05T23:20:00.001-07:00

I watched a programme last week which gave an insight into education in faith schools, including Carmel in Bristol. It appears these poor abused children are being taught creationism as science. In the United States this is illegal. I am once again utterly amazed that Britain can allow something like this.
And still this ridiculous government continues to increase the number of faith schools. Scary stuff.

law and christianity

2008-06-05T23:08:00.000-07:00

During the last week both the Archbishop of Canterbury and Peter Hitchens [Daily Mail] have stated that our laws are based on christianity.
I'm not sure which laws they are talking about but law was doing just fine thank you under the Danes in the Dark Ages, punishing bad behaviour and compensating victims. Then along came christianity and lo and behold 'trial by ordeal' was then put in place by the church leaders.
For example, those accused of crime would have their arms forced into burning coals and then bandaged up. After so many days the bandages would be removed and if the skin was healing God had decreed they were innocent and if the skin was infected then God had decreed they were guilty.
Or the accused would be thrown into a river - if they came to the surface they were guilty, if they sank they were innocent [and drowned].
No thank you, give me Danelaw anyday.

Creationism

2008-04-30T04:44:00.000-07:00

I went to see a local presentation by Philip Bell. He made a very slick 90 minute presentation on 'Christianity and Evolution'. There was a break, but there was of course no time given for questions and answers. He even had a model of Noahs Ark there!
The presentation was very professional and claimed Genesis offers the literal truth and evolution only came after the 7-day creation. Evolution happened much more quickly than scientists proclaim. For example huge canyons and fossils can be made in a day. He used pseudo science to illustrate his points and if I hadn't known better, I would have ended up believing some of what he said. Most of the people there were nodding in agreement to everything he said. And it all sounded very plausible as he peppered it with scientific facts.
He had a real dig at humanists and atheists. He showed a table where all the good things were on the god side, and all the bad things on the atheist side - these included abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality and lawlessness. It was only the lawlessness I disagreed with!
He had a vast array of books to sell, and got everyone to go on his email list for more information.
I cannot believe that with all the scientific data, the hundreds and thousands of books written by intelligent people on science, evolution and the Big Bang Theory, that anyone can simply throw all of that aside to believe in one ancient book that is full of Harry Potter type magic and supernatural events.
It just floored me that about 100 people there, all from my little local area, seemed to be in complete agreement with this man. If only Dawkins had been present....
Jet

Prayers at Council Meetings

2008-04-29T04:54:00.000-07:00

There has been a bit of ballyhoo about prayers held before council meetings in Bideford. The North Devon Humanists have objected to this and some journalists in the press have been quite vitriolic about the Humanists. After all, they said, what is wrong with a bunch of elderly gentlemen mumbling a few prayers?
I believe that keeping religion out of politics is of crucial importance. We elect our political representatives with universal suffrage - this is not the case with any religious organisation or faith. Furthermore, we do not elect our politicians to promote religion.
Whilst the ‘mumbling prayers of elderly gentlemen’ may seem trivial, this is highly inappropriate in the 21st century in a society that deems religion a social evil - according to research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
This charity, set up by an ardent Christian 104 years ago, recently asked 3,500 people what they considered to be the worst blights on modern society. It uncovered a widespread belief that faith is intolerant, irrational and used to justify persecution. Many participants said religion divides society, fuels intolerance and spawns irrational educational [and other] policies.
Britain is a secular country. Keep religion out of politics and make politics what it should be; ‘all-inclusive’ with no religious bias.
Jet

Recycling

2008-04-27T10:17:00.001-07:00

Still on the litter theme. Recycling is becoming a joke. It should be a very good thing but once again politicians are going about it upside down. Instead of punishing people for having too much rubbish or not recycling, why don't they simply tax packaging that cannot be recycled? There must surely be a list of items, packaging, plastics etc. that can be recycled and that would be exempt from the litter tax. Everything else, huge bucks tax.
The packaging companies would have to change or go out of business.
Then almost everything can be recycled or composted... and the government would initially make a lot of money.
We just have to figure out what to do with waste food that can't be composted then we will only need recycling collections ...

Litter and the Law

2008-04-26T05:30:00.001-07:00

We have a family taken to court by the Litter Brigade because the lid on their wheelie bin was not closed properly. The man charged now has a criminal record. We have a mother who was charged because her daughter dropped a piece of sausage roll [which apparently was swiftly eaten by the pigeons] and she doesn't know how she will find the money to pay for the fine.
Yet we have fly tippers who never seem to get caught, vandals and thieves who are given a ticking off and told not to do it again, and those that do make it to the courts are usually given a suspended sentence - even if they have previous wrongdoings to their name. And - last of all - those that do get sent to prison have their sentences halved, then get released early. Some of these have such a good time in prison, they don't want to go!
Is this a fair society?
The trouble with common sense is that it isn't very common.
Jet

Prisons

2008-04-25T04:14:00.001-07:00

Well, you can't make it up - people breaking IN to jails. This is what happens when bad behaviour is rewarded - something our current politicians and civil servants are particularly fond of doing. It appears it is easy - and cheaper - to buy drugs in jail , and 'guests' have access to Sky TV, good meals every day. Cushty.
In my view prisons should be there for three things only.
1. As a punishment for a wrong doing which means people in prisons should not enjoy the experience, and therefore [a] want to get out and [b] not want to go back
2. For rehabilitation so offenders can leave the jail and become a useful member of society, therefore [a] first priority should be to teach them to read and write and [b] give them appropriate skills to enable them to get a job
3. To compensate the people they have offended so [a] victims should be given access to prisoners who should be made to face up to their crime and [b] prisoners be made to do some kind of social reparation

Drugs in prison? How does that happen? How on earth can drugs be smuggled in? It beggars belief.
I also think part of the current crisis is not that too many people are being sent to prison, but that too many people are offending... that is another huge debate for another time. But if we continue not sending people to prison for offending because the jails are full, then more people will offend more as they get away with it, and so this will spiral out of control [if it hasn't already].
"Bad behaviour that goes unpunished and behaviour that is rewarded, will tend to repeat."
Jet

Faith Schools

2008-04-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

The government wants to increase faith schools.
It states that many people want to send their kids to faith schools which is why the government wants to increase the number of them - so parents have choices. Now, parents I know just want to send their kids to good schools. And as faith schools are generally thought to be better than state schools parents have even been baptising their kids just to get them into them.
Faith schools by their very nature are divisive. Every faith believes it has the monopoly on 'god' and is better than its rivals.
Wouldn't everyone be happier if the state schools were simply improved so all children get a good education and at the same time learn to live together in harmony?
Don't most parents want good schools, not god schools?
Jet