lil_shepherd

I've just had a sort of self-revelation.

I was asked why I hated Christianity and particularly Catholicism. (My response at that point was very much, "You should hear what I think about Islam.") However, what threw me was the following accusation that Christianity must have hurt me personally.

Setting aside the fact that I am not, on the whole, angry at ordinary individual members of any religion, and that some religions, which I also consider to be ... er... mistaken about their belief in the supernatural, I actually wish I could believe were true, and wish them well, none of them have hurt me personally. I admire some religious people, even a few who are religious leaders - though not many - enormously.

Really.

My rage -- and it is sometimes just that -- is on behalf of others.

I hate the unreason, the blind faith, the privilege by which so many of said religions assume that their morality is unquestioned and should be everyone else's. That it is their right, because it is a matter of faith, to break the law of the land, and to protect the criminals -- yes, criminals -- in their ranks.

Most of all, though, I hate the fact -- and it is a fact -- that so many of these religious leaders are bullies. Currently, the leaders of the normally moderate Church of England are lying about the consequences of the bill to allow civil marriages between members of the same sex. They are lying about the legal and political consequences and about the history of marriage - it's been a bloody commercial contract for far, far longer than its been about love or even procreation, damn it. And why are they lying? Because the churches in the UK are emptying and the so-called Anglican communion is dependent on the African churches which they are desperate to keep on-side. The Catholic church is also lying and trying to bully our elected government on this issue. They do not speak for all their members, as they claim - and they claim numbers who are no longer religious; I know both for a fact.

In Ireland the Catholic church is trying, desperately, to cling onto political power which it is losing as a consequence of protecting criminal priests at the expense of innocent children. History tells us that ideologues are the worst people to let have power, and that, of necessity, includes the ideology of religion.

If you want to see what Islam does when it is unchecked by civil society you only need to look at Iran (which had a highly-educated and liberal section of its original population), at Saudi Arabia, at the Taliban in Afghanistan. Religion divides people. Don't tell me it is just culture - religion is part of culture -- and sharia law comes from the Koran.

I see religion trying to kill people (anything from massacres in Nigeria to the Catholic church trying to stop abortions which are necessary to save the mother's life.) I see it silencing even the mildest dissent. (A highly respected academic nun under investigation because her theological book does not agree with the Vatican line.) I see corruption everywhere (but particularly in the Vatican.)

And, damn it, I get angry. In this country I still have that right.



Edit: The warning in the cut is there for a reason, people. If you are going to be upset by my occasional ranting or the rough and tumble of my atheist, agnostic and pagan friends, please don't click through. I was very careful not to identify the person who triggered the mental jump that led to this post, but they came in and identified themselves anyway, which has led to them leaving. That's a pity. I am not going to take these posts to a custom flist so think before you click.