Tuesday, December 07, 2004

Losing my (right to offend) religion?

So many issues with this I don't know where to begin. The bottom line is that I do not want my government, any government, passing legislation to protect religion. The whole idea is nonsense and a minefield to boot. What constitutes "religious hatred" anyway? I'm an atheist, and I happen to hate all religions as I believe they belittle humanity and, above all, ceased to be relevant this side of the Enlightenment. Am I going to be a criminal under the new law? Our beloved monarch, Liz II, is not only the head of state, she is also the head of the Church Of England, which means that, unlike pretty much every other modern liberal democracy, we do not have formal separation of church and state in the United Kingdom. So what we effectively have is a constitutionally defined national religion. Well, under the new law, could it be argued that this deliberately excludes all other faiths in the country and is therefore a form of religious hatred? Let's suppose that I am a member of the XIV Epicurean Church Of False Idols and worship there every day with my fellow believers. Could we challenge the Bible as being blasphemous to us? After all, that God fella spells out his philosophy pretty clearly near the beginning with those ten commandments. According to the Bible, my entire faith is forbidden. Surely this is religious hatred? In which case, I want the Bible removed from every bookstore and library in the country as it clearly peddles nothing but religious intolerance. Ban this filth!

OK, I'm being facetious, but that is my right. This right extends, by the way, to being facetious about any religion that I choose. This is the bitter twist for us non-believers: while everyone else is guaranteed freedom of religion, we cannot be assured of freedom from religion.