It seems almost every week someone from the Church is ranting about the UK Government and this week 27 Anglican bishops and 16 other clergy accused the Government of creating hardship and hunger and saying that the Prime Minister has a moral duty to act on the growing number going cold and hungry.
The temptation could be to conclude, as someone did today, that the Conservative Government are so awful and as the Church are continually on the side of the downtrodden masses, that the Church should play a larger role in Government or even replace the politicians altogether.
Bad idea i say but as an atheist of course i would say that but a look at history shows what happens when the religious get their sweaty paws on Government.
We end up with the Middle East today where religion is the dominant force in matters, or religious zealots like George W Bush, Saddam Hussein and the Iranian Ayatollah making decisions, or Saudi Arabia or Hitler's holocausts or Al Queada or the Inquisition or the 30 year war or burning women for owning cats or the Crusades or suicide bombers or instructing people to risk aids rather than wear a condom.
By all means speak up but more religion in the seats of power? We have been there, done that and seen what an absolute bloody disaster it was.
9 comments:
Here in the states the Anglicans (I guess we call them "Episcopalians" because they didn't want to go with Anglicans after our Revolution) are among the more liberal denominations.
By the way, what is the relationship between the Church of England and the British state nowadays? I know they're the official church or something and have a few peers in the House of Lords, but beyond that it seems kind of fuzzy from what I read. Do they get state funding, and if so is it just a small amount or are they mostly taxpayer supported?
And "atheists" certainly fair no better in the murder category. Hitler was no religious zealot, he was an atheist. Stalin and Mao were also atheists. The North Korean state is run by atheists. So your top 3 mass murderers of the 20th century are all atheists.
-Nog
The Catholic Hitler who said he was doing Gods work and had 'In God We Trust' inscribed on the Nazi uniform was an atheist? News to him i expect.
Stalin and Mao were atheists though.
Stalin and Mao merely prove that being an atheist doesn't necessarily make you a nice person. No sensible person could have thought this in the first place.
In this world, good people generally do good things, bad people generally do bad things.... but we also need to keep an eye out for the supernaturally deluded.
The top 3 mass murderers of the last century were all men you notice. Just saying!
If women throughout history had been consistently in charge of the requisite military firepower then I'm sure the carnage would have been much, much worse...
...but only for a few days each month. The rest of the time it would have been much more peaceful ;)
Now cheez when I went there a few months ago I received a serious smack down from you.
Q
A bit different, as I recall. Your post specifically asked Lucy if it was her 'time of the month' (as if this was an explanation for her saying something that you disagreed with).
Yeah, I thought this was stupid and mean-minded and didn't mind saying so.
You realised this yourself and apologised and all was well.
If I thought that my above joke about generic grumpy women at that certain time was likely to cause offence then I'd apologise straight away.
Currently I don't think this... and, frankly, I doubt that you honestly think this either... but convince me otherwise and I'll apologise. I'm not proud about these things.
Urrrrrrr, unnmmnn, ehhhhhh
Nope, no problem with it here
Q
Lucy, W a religious zealot? Really. Bullshit. I thought he just wanted iraqi oil? Obama a religious zealot? Hardly, but then he hasnt done anything with military you dislike so i guess he must not be a religious person...
Q
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