Mad Blair?

[andy at handiwork]

Cant but agree with you Strictlybroadband. I instinctively shy away from bannings and prohibitions. I had hoped that the more educated as a species we become, the less need people would have for superstition and irrationality, and religion would wither of its own accord. Sadly we are as far from that as ever. Ban religion and it just gets stronger to spite you.

[eroticartist]

Strictly,

The priests will never relinquish their hold. The fundamentalists indoctrinate the child from birth. The fact that it is allowed to go on here is not being liberal but illiberal to the children. Faith schools of all kinds should be closed because these could become the extremists of the future. Religion is divisive per se.

I am not saying banning religion for adults but ending religious indoctrination of young children in faith schools. Adults can worship in private. I would not advocate the persecution of any minorities. The schools should teach the bloody history of religion and its continuing justification for war.

Religion will win if we don't oppose it now. The warring sides possess nuclear weapons and they will use if they think iit is justified to save their way of life.
Mike.

[eroticartist]

Jock,

The religious vote here is weak at the moment except for religious enclaves along ethnic lines. Blair approves of faith schools because he believes that Jesus Christ was God. It is to Him that Blair speaks.

Cherie Blair is a Catholic so perhaps this is why Blair partakes of the holy communion wine.transmogrified into the blood of Christ, he believes.

It is ironic that in this respect Blair has so much in common with the fundamentalist Muslim terror groups like Hezbollah who believe that they do the will of Allah in a holy war gainst the infidel. Their justification is the Koran, Blair's is the "Holy Bible."

Mike.

[eroticartist]

Sam,

Blair is a committed Christian. He is the one, he and his ilk, who take the high moral ground by saying that we are Christians and we impose our Christian morals on everyone else by force of law. This is not a basically Christian country and the young believe that it is not important.

Oscar Wilde took all kinds of substances but the hypocrites he referred to were the homophobes of the day!

Mike Freeman.

[mrmcfister]

Agree Blair does seem a bit out on a limb but when I see him at the despatch box he is always very impressive.Probably the most intelligent world leader around.Makes Bush seem like Prestcott.

[Sam Slater]

[quote]Blair is a committed Christian.[/quote]

Seriously, I doubt that Mike. He's too clever and manipulative to be a Chistian. It's all an act.

[quote]Oscar Wilde took all kinds of substances but the hypocrites he referred to were the homophobes of the day![/quote]

Maybe, but the quote is speaking of the truth! The more moralistic someone becomes, the less likely they will adopt the morals of others. So moralists only want to impose 'their morals', while rebuffing other peoples.

For you to tolerate drugs, yet be intolerant of religion is hypocritical. Drug use may be bad for one person, but inspire others. The same can be said of religious faith. It inspires good, as well as bad in different people.

I'm of the opposite view to you. I'm tolerant of religion, but intolerant of -most- drug use. Hence my post: we are both hypocrites.

Though religious belief and drug use seem to have opposing values, they both acheive one important thing.....inspiration. Great artists & musicians of the past have been inspired by religion. Michelangelo's greatest peices of art & architecture come to mind. Drugs have inspired many a great musician.

It's not so black & white is it?

[dynatech]

Organised religion and politics go hand in hand, both are abhorrant, corrupt and both rely on the guilibilty of the masses


I agree with Marilyn Manson:

"But I'm not a slave to a god
that doesn't exist
But I'm not a slave to a world
that doesn't give a shit

the death of one is a tragedy
the death of one is a tragedy
the death of one is a tragedy
but death of a million is just a statistic"

(The Fight Song, 2001)

[andy at handiwork]

The last two lines you quote were said by Stalin.

[strictlybroadband]

OK, I agree with you Mike.

Oppose religion by all means: a number of leading scientists (like Richard Dawkins) are now beginning to "evangelise" science, realising it's under attack by superstition.

I'm optimistic - yes, there's been an increase in religion in many parts of the world, but look how far Western Europe has come since Darwin and Marx. The secularists are winning in Europe. Now the battle needs to be taken to the US and the Islamic states before they successfully turn the tide against us in Europe.

A global ideological battle like this isn't won or lost in decades, it takes centuries.