In last Sunday's Observer there was a short article in the Comment section by Cristina Odone. Called "Let us pray for the soul of Richard Dawkins", it discusses the conversation she had with Dawkins whilst in the country. He started off by proposing a hypothetical dilemma,

"You are on a deserted beach with a rifle, an elephant and a baby. This is the last elephant on earth and it is charging the baby. Do you shoot the elephant, knowing the species would become extinct?".

She replied that she would shoot the elephant, at which:

"He was outraged by my answer: man, beast, they were all the same to him and the priority must be to protect the endangered species. He berated me for my foolish belief in the specialness of humanity for its soul".

To be honest I disagree with Dawkins here merely for the fact if the elephant is the last of its species then it is extinct anyway, but I feel he was merely trying to make a point about the human centric view many people take.

However later on in the article things take a turn. She admonishes Dawkins, as well as Christopher Hitchens and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, for their "secularist extremism". First, what the hell is "secularist extremism", no special treatment; to the extreme? Obviously she is merely trying to use word with obvious religious overtones, a technique which seems endemic among those who criticise the critical. She continues to do this in the article for example: "the tenets of Dawkins dogma", "Dawkins is not the only world-famous apologist of secularist extremism" and "The rabid attacks by Dawkins and his camp-followers".

However I find this particular part extremely telling so I will quote it in full. I apologise for the repeats.

"Dawkins is not the only world-famous apologist of secularist extremism. Christopher Hitchens is similarly critical of religion; so is Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch MP who received death threats for her criticism of Islam. But Hitchens and Ali now operate primarily in America, a nation where 95 per cent of citizens believe in God and church attendance is growing, not dwindling. They can jab God and his followers, but theirs is only a faint note of discord, overwhelmed by the church choir." (My emphasis)

Evidently it seems anybody who criticises religion is a secularist extremist! And yet there is no such condemnation of the death threats Ayaan Hirsi Ali received. Does this not seem backwards? Why is criticism of religion seen as such an extreme action, comparable with acts of mass murder (*2)? This is even more irritating as after having recently watched the second episode of 'A rough history of disbelief', which I thoroughly recommend, I learnt that three or four hundreds years ago, I would have been executed for 'Atheism and disbelief'. Is this not insane, that these old portents of horrific intolerance are forgotten so quick, in the rush to brand any person who has a differing opinion on religion as a bigot?

Odone then goes on about how this 'faith-bashing' is extremely damaging in Britain as belief is a minority practice and believers a persecuted lot. Because the religious are so downtrodden that they have to scuttle around in fear of persecution. What rubbish. A case could be made for an increase discrimination against Muslims in Britain, but that is a complex issue I will no doubt address in a later post. No what this really is about is religious people like Odone not getting the respect they crave. Any differing view is just bigotry disguised in logical arguments.

Finally she states that if it wasn't for religious "persecutors" like Dawkins, the religious:

"would see no need for hard-line posturing. They would once again feel like ordinary citizens rather than a hunted species that must bare its fangs to survive."

I have no idea in what way believers are a hunted species. This is hardly Nazi Germany, where believers are made to wear their religious icons sewn into their clothes (though many choose to wear identifiers by choice). Maybe she is confusing the lessening of belief in this country to an actual attempt at extermination of belief. And the idea that without Dawkins suddenly every believer would become a religious moderate is just laughable. Where was the Afghani Dawkins to force the Taliban to "bare its fangs to survive"?

Really, the unwilling nature of religion to actually deal with criticism is beyond belief. If believers want to float their exotic ideas about how life should be run and the wills and powers of god(s), they should be prepared with some well thought out rational arguments to respond. As well as some evidence. Just labelling criticism as intolerance is asking for special treatment, which is one thing this "secularist extremist" is wholeheartedly against, for any idea.


Links:

* 1 - Original Article
* 2 - See third paragraph

Well if this is truly to be a blog about religion, and lack thereof especially, it seems prudent to explain how I fell from religion.

Within a few months of my birth I was christened into the Church of England. I still have the bible given to commemorate it. Of course I had no choice in the matter, and I still somewhat feel that my acceptance of such affairs was taken as a given. I think the main reason though, may have been to assure my grandmother I wasn't headed for Hell or Purgatory, if I happened to die too young. Being Catholic I'm sure that was a fear. Growing up until about the age of four I can't remember any overt religious presence, but then I was very young and may just have taken it as make believe.

Anyway fast forward to Primary school and I enter into a Church of England school. It was the local school, so I don't believe this was an attempt at early indoctrination, but it certainly worked that way. There were bible stories in the Year 2 reading section, all Samson and David and Goliath, but I don't think I ever read them. There were hymns sung at assemblies and visits to the local church on special occasions. But all in all I would say there was little proselytising.

However by Year 4, we began R.E. Religious Education. I thought at first this was great fun, and it was in many ways. We learnt all about Islam, Hinduism and Judaism. Its only now when I look back that I realise there was questioning of God. No mention of doubt. It was all certain.

Thus I went through the first years of my life blissfully unaware of the possibility of 'God's' non-existence. Yet all it took was the nonchalant question of whether I still believed in 'God', by my (slightly older) next door neighbour. This opened a flood gate. Suddenly there was a world without 'God', that before I had no idea could exist. What's more, I could think of to good reason to why I believed.

However this was not enough to end my faith. It took a personal tragedy to do that. Not too long after that fateful conversation, my Godmother died. It was really hard for me to understand. How could it have happened? She left behind two of her own children, and I felt such sadness for them, and just the sheer thought of losing a loved one. I shouted and cried and prayed to 'God' to bring her back. If he was there 'He' had the power, 'He' could do it. But 'He' did not. From then on I saw no good in this 'just' god. If he could let such suffering happen, then he was inhuman and I had no time for him.

Yet I still had a belief in him. But instead of the great purveyor of love, justice and peace which many Christians see in God, I saw only a crippled old man; too weak or evil to help mankind. This belief eventually faded and agnosticism took over. I neither knew nor cared, but I still had a strong dislike for Christianity, due to past experiences. But I was still searching for answers that would fit with my rational understanding of the world, and thought I had found them in Taoism. However that proved short lived, due to the endless backwards and forwards of Taoist belief.

I later stumbled upon my own form of Pantheism, though I didn't know it as that. My belief was of a god that was the universe, detached and uncaring about humanity, not sentient at all. This belief survived in one form or another up until my reading of 'The God Delusion' by Richard Dawkins. This book opened my eyes to what I had really believed in all along. My early attempts at trying to find some kind of answer in spirituality, was due to the importance and sanctity our culture gives to such ideas. He's book changed my views about how we as a society view and treat religion, and I urge you to read it. It may not convince you outright, but it may just open you to the possibility of a world without gods or superstition of any kind. And that is a view I would thoroughly recommend.

As you can see its been over two months since I last posted, well anything, here on The Bad News Bible. Originally this blog was started as my comedic take on world affairs. Sadly it wasn't very funny. And I lost interest. But now I'm back (hopefully), with a new ax (or several) to grind. It is now religion. I have certain views about religion, which having moaned about ad nauseum to my family and friends, I have decided to spare their collective minds, and moan out loud to the internet. Well its not like anyone will read it anyway. Plus the title of my blog is almost prophetic.

So anyway, as soon as I find time in my busy schedule I will begin my full on rants. Fun. Hopefully there will still be my 'comedic' takes on all things current, but that remains to be seen.

There are somethings which just make me laugh. Family Guy, The Thick of It, stupid people getting confused by lifts. But top of the list is seeing Microsoft tripping up. Especially if there's blood. Case in point, Microsoft's new operating system, Vista. First of all it was to have five, yes count them, five new features. This gradually decreased until it became the three 'Columns of Vista'. And then I believe they had to also get rid of those. Despite the slogan 'The wow starts now' I've yet to see anything that makes me think anything other than "Wow that's really stupid". Take for example the news that with MP3 files, crackers would be able to make Vista permanently delete files, using Vista's speech regonition. That's just dumb beyond belief. Mind you what do you expect from Microsoft? Genius?

Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6320865.stm

What a brilliant idea. The newest initiative to deal with fat kids, is to make them fight to the death in a boxing ring. Only one will make it out alive. Bets will be placed on who's heart will explode into a fountain of cholesterol and chip fat first. Sadly of course they wont take it that far. But getting the already brain debted majority of our current education system to beat the hell into each others' brains, is definitely a good idea. I mean, how can it go wrong?

Breaking news. Lord Levy, friend of Tony Blair and Labour fundraiser has been arrested again. No charge has been made, but surely it can't be long before the net tightens. This on top of the arrest of Ruth Turner a top aide to Tony Blair, really shows just how corrupt this government is. Of course you could say that there's nothing wrong with the Government accepting money for peerages, after all its gone on for years. The Tories, who made such a fuss of the cash for honours scandal, had actually made more money out of it than Labour. Mind you, the Tories are hardly reliable now a days. And they still haven't got any policies except, of course, opposing everything the Government does.

So Shilpa Shetty has won Big Brother. Big surprise. The country could not take 'alleged racism' so seriously without doing so. Ironic though that last time Jade was voted the winner, and has since fallen out of favour with the public; can the same be expected of Shilpa? Will she incense the nation by, perhaps, barbecuing a Battersea dog, and eating it? Somehow, I think she might.

I want to keep this particular post short, as the vacuous waste of tabloid drivel that seems to constantly take up air time on Channel 4, deserves to have its oxygen forcibly ripped out of its lungs. However, looking at the tabloids this morning, it was interesting to see that nearly all had pictures of Shilpa on their front pages. All that is except the Daily Express. Again no surprise there. Nice to know that the ever "respectable" Daily Express is taking a completely unbiased view.

A duck in florida has risen from the dead after being shot, locked in a refrigerator and dying twice on the operating table. Perky the duck, was found alive in a hunter's fridge two days after being shot. I think a better name for this duck would be Jesus, Lord of the Ducks. I mean, Jesus was only resurrected once, and this duck has done it twice.

However this could be a part of a bigger problem. What if all animals start coming back from the dead? One day your biting into you burger, and the next its biting into you. As I see it we only have a few months left. Start stocking up on all the vegetables you can, and hide yourself away from the meat. It's now survival of the meatiest.

Link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/6309159.stm