Having seen on the TV news this morning that about 5 million people in the UK have a reading age of 12 I felt bound to reflect how lucky I am to be able to read at all. The ability to read is not only essential in order to get through the business of every-day life, but it is the gateway to knowledge, thought, discussion, escape, pleasure, tears, laughter.
So, why the title of this post - "A World without Religion?"
Well, it's just that many interesting books have passed through my hands in recent years, and the latest one is called "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins (Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University).
Now Richard Dawkins is an Atheist, and proud of it, and his avowed intention in this book is to steer us all in the same direction. A short blog post is not the place to rehearse the arguments for and against the existence of God. I have neither the expertise, nor the willingness of you, the reader, to put up with whatever ramblings I could churn out on whether God should be faith-based or evidence-based.
Whether or not Dawkins has the power to turn a believer into a non-believer, he does invite us to consider some interesting points, which is where we come to the title of this post. Imagine a world without religion: the Manhattan skyline would still be dominated by the twin towers of the World Trade Centre; women would not be having their skin lashed for exposing too much of it; 20th century Northern Ireland would never have been the blood bath that it was; the Spanish Inquisition would never have occurred; innocent children would not be blown up by suicide bombers; American presidents could be elected on their merit, compassion, and leadership qualities irrespective of the need to profess a belief in God; there would be no well-heeled, bouffant hair-styled tele-evangalists ordering you to send them large quantities of money because God wants you to.
We are invited to consider the fact that, for the most part, your religion is dictated by accident of birth, so that a child of Christian parents knows that he is following the true path and that Islam is a false religion. Similarly the child of Muslim parents knows that he is following the true path and that Christianity is a false religion.
Also, there is no such thing as a "Christian Child" or a "Muslim Child" because they are too young to have made a decision in these matters. The decision has been made for those children.
We interpret and use the Bible to suit our own ends, cherry-picking the bits that fit nicely into our beliefs, ignoring the clear indication in the Old Testament that God appears to be a most unpleasant character, a jealous, petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sado-masochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
The death penalty is prescribed for adultery, gathering sticks on the Sabbath, and for cheeking your parents.
Thomas Jefferson described the God of Moses as "cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust."
But, by the time we get to the New Testament, God has become a gentle, all-forgiving and loving being, exemplified by Jesus.
Organised religion is awash with hate and hypocrisy. During the course of my professional life in environmental management, I had occasion to make regular inspections of the waste water treatment works serving a well-known boys' Roman Catholic public school run by monks and priests. There were, of course, some females on the premises - teachers, domestic staff, etc. We all know, of course, that Catholic priests and monks are celibate. So why, during my inspections, was I always astounded by the huge quantities of used condoms arriving at the treatment plant?
Yes, indeed it is sometimes tempting to look favourably upon a world without religion, and yes, I am so glad that I am fortunate enough not to be one of those 5 million people in the UK with reading difficulties, so that I can read the Bible and the Koran and Richard Dawkins and come to my own conclusions without someone else having the bare-faced audacity to dictate my beliefs.
4 comments:
I am a reporter from Detroit. Am intrigued by your website. Your picture is nice, your poetry is deep, and I love your name. Good luck!
Hello Mr Riverman
Well I do declare,I have been beaten to the draw by anonymous from detroit.I am interested and curios about your little old web site.You are a good looking man for you age my man,If I was you Mr Riverman I would publish your poetry, it sure is far down there.I get almost leggless(drunk)on you name,RELIGIUN now thats some thing else,a supernatual power you're jiving with there my man,to have control of human destiny yea.Well he may get it right some day.Do you think he could have wet pants Mr riverman,there as been a lot of rain just of late, I think we ought to introduce him to TAMSULOSIN,the blocker. Its off and over from anonymous.
hi Mr Beck
Religion now thats a heavy subject,do i want to go there. If religion is supposed to be so dam good why as it got so much blood on its hands.A christian belives in jesus the son of god,a muslim/moslem belives in islam the teaching that there is one god, mohammed is prophet.So mohammed is the person chosen by god to pass on his message.Now jesus his also a prophet!and he has been given the same task to pass on the message,check mate. what about judaisum where does that fitt into it,the bible is based on the old testament and the talmud thats the primary source of jewish religious law.I hope thats correct the tricky part about this isthe jewish people are still waiting for the prophet,but thats ok.There's many other religious groups but i am not going there,how do we get all you guys to be happy and agree with each other,and stop killing each other, thats one tall order. There were 3 small boys age 5/6,a Christian boy/a Jewish boy/ and a Moslem boy.They played together,sung songs together, stayed at each others homes, went to the same school together,they did every thing together.Happy 5/6 year old boys,one day they went to the park,there was a large tree about 10 feet high, now for 5/6 year olds that is a big tree.The little jewish boy got to the top first,he beckoned his two friends and helped them up to the top."look i can see our church"said the christian boy,"yes and i can see our Mosque over there" shouted the excited little Moslem boy."oh look over there thats our Synagogue" was the jewish boys cry,hanging precariously on the branches of the tree they all decided to make a pact.For the next 3 sundays they would go to each others place of worship,not knowing the adult implication of this pact.My name by the way is Jack Spratt, yes i know the implication of that to(no fat). Suddenly the the branches snapped sending the three boys crashing to the ground,it was a hard ground to. The boys were killed the moment they hit the base of the tree it was a sad day for everyone in the town.A pact had been made that would never be fullfilled,pity is it not,we can't all make that pact.We make it as adults though the eyes of 5/6 year old children.All the best with you site Mr beck,you have certianly inherited a strong name.
Jack Spratt
Mr Beck,
This is Jack Spratt, i hope the story that i sent to you late last night was something of use. However, and possibly due to the lateness and slight feeling of fatige on my part, the story ended a little prematurely.If you remember the 3 small boys had made a pact together,but how did this become knowledge to the families concerned.It was not known about the pact when the boys died,however it came to light about9 months later.Parents of the little christian boy were in the process of moving house,there daughter Kim was upstairs,mother down stairs packing items to be shipped off to there new house."Mummy please can you come up here"the mother recgnized no urgency in the childs voice but stopped what she was doing and went upstairs,she entered into the bedroom.This was her little boys room,to this extent it still was nothing had been changed."Mummy look what i have found in Davids cupboard,in her outstrected hand she held a small folded piece of paper."I don't understand it mummy",she took the paper from the child and unfolded it.There was a small drawing of a house with two windows and a door at the front, the top had sloping sides for the roof and a cross on the top.Down the right side of the house were 3 names,David/samuel and inram,under there names the word sunday.It was descovered later in the week the father of samuel had also found a drawing in one of his books,it was the same type of drawing indicating a temple with the same names.Imrams parents had moved from the area shortly after the little boys death, they could not be found.That is possibly the only unfinished part on the story.
Jack Spratt.
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