Watching religious fanatics
is like watching children
throwing a tantrum.
But these children have guns.
So, we take the guns away
or we leave.
Maybe it is best to leave.
There will be no tantrum
while nobody watches.
Truisms.
1. “Religious arguments are never settled until one side kills the other.”
2. (Re the Obama effigy) "Barak has a lousy taste in ties."
Pic courtesy The Guardian.
Posts
Maybe tolerance does need legislation to change attitudes, as it did with drink driving and smoking in restaurants... but as socially unacceptable as they were, both were banned in response to fact not faith.
ReplyDeleteHmmmm. Not sure about that. I don't drink and drive because it might hurt my hip pocket not because it is the right thing to do. Now if most people were really honest they'd have to admit the same.
ReplyDeleteAnd the drink driving laws has done little to curtail the death and disability rate of the young.
The "I blame Terry Jones's mother" quip was not as light hearted as it might seem. Education education education. And it never stops. Each generation needs education all over again.
Yep. She has returned.
living in the midst of the self-righteous always leaves my head spinning
ReplyDeleteno one ever seems to ask that powerful question: how would I know if I was wrong?
Its an interesting theory Stafford - it worked eventually with my kids but they didn't kill anyone in the process.
ReplyDeleteQueen of tne tea cosies drunk driving? Haha! She has me in stitches!
ReplyDeleteBy the time we women become grandmothers, we have learned ignoring tantrums is the answer .. not always the easiest. Wish it applied across the board.
ReplyDeleteRemember the lines from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific....
ReplyDelete"They have to be taught" It is all about education and setting an example for your children. Until then the madness will continue.
Every human is born with an innate sense of right and wrong. That natural sense can be either strengthened or distorted and weakened by what we are taught. In addition, people make their own choices to obey or to ignore it. Education can have a great impact, for either good or bad, but the ultimate responsibility lies with the individual.
ReplyDeleteSo, the consensus seems to be a need for more 'education'. But by whom?
ReplyDeleteIn Australia, we publicly fund religious schools, each of which exists to extol the superiority of its particular faith and to quarantine children from inconvenient facts (otherwise why bother?)
The aim of elitist education is to produce elites. Yes, I can see why GPB blames Terry Jonese's mother but wonder why dfish thinks he needs to take the 'innate sense of right and wrong' present in 'every human' and mould that into the narrower Christian perspective, then clainm 'ultimate responsibility rests with the individual' (who has been indoctrinated).
Muslims and Jews et al mould that 'innate sense' into their perspective too and so it goes, each faith preparing their children for defence of their faith which, at the extremes leads to sectarian violence.
And as I have said before, "when you are assured you have God on your side, maiming, torturing and killing men women and children is OK. Anything goes!" Every day, somewhere, unspeakable atrocities are committed by people 'defending their faith'. Terry Jones is but one.
Not done yet....
ReplyDeleteRichard Cohen of the NY Times ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/05/opinion/05iht-edcohen05.html?_r=1&ref=rogercohen
talks very eloquently about bigots, freedom of speech, the power of a voice - the voice of those in power.
I like his take.
Bigots are bigots in any form, Christian, Muslim, Hindi, New Age, Atheist. Bigotry is not born of faith in magic. It is born of ignorance and fear.
Me thinks you bark up a too tall tree with your rage against religion.
Authorised and spoken by Loani Prior, Grandpurlbaa, Queen of the Tea Cosies, Atheist and defender to the death of the right to free speech.
Well maybe not to the death. But loudly and certainly while drunk.
People need to split religion and faith.
ReplyDeleteIt is always worth taking a hint from Loani (GPB) and I did. Richard Cohen (link above) said it better than I ever could, but if you want a slightly different take on it, have a look at this. http://staffordray.blogspot.com/2010/10/lysistrata-in-hijab.html
ReplyDeleteI suspect children learn their gut morality from their mothers and I have thought for some time that the future lies in what women think, do and say to their families. http://staffordray.blogspot.com/2010/10/lysistrata-in-hijab.html
To Old Ollie, it seems you are saying that faith is distorted by religion. Of course it is. We have only to consider how religious organisations jealouly guard their political power base with rules about changing religions (death for some), inter faith marriage, rules about children of inter faith marriages etc. Personally I don't think there will ever be other than lip-service respect for religious diversity by the religious. You are more likely to get religious tolerance from Atheists!
At the Imam (reeferred to in a previous post) said the end of an interview on his deportation threat; "There will never be peace until the whole world is Muslim!" (conveninently ignoring the most virulent intra-faith fued of the day, Sunni V Shia).
That is why, wherever democracy rules, secular governmnets legislate to make discrimination on the basis of religion illegal. Governments controlled by churches like those of Iran, Saudi Arabia and (not too distant past) Ireland, don't.
sharp, freedom is what drive these.
ReplyDeleteWelcome join us,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the time,
Your poetry rocks.
xx