Published Messenger Newspapers, Adelaide, August 14, 2002
GREAT GLORY AWAILS US
POGROMS, jihads, ethnic cleansings, Inquisitions and Crusades - one could be forgiven for asking did God really intend to establish religion? Something dark sits at the heart of organised religion, something inherently intolerant, that leads to evil, slaughter and barbarism. A too human darkness. The trouble is every religion rests on an absolute belief in its own superiority and the divine right to impose its version of the truth upon others. Never mind which truth because in the world of religion no connection necessarily exists between what is true and what is believed to be true. Faith is the act of knowing something to be untrue and still believing it. True, many people need and depend on religion to get them through this life and onto the next. Good luck to them. Me, I placed more trust in the epigrams that used to appear on old MTT bus tickets. Sorry about the outburst of righteous indignation here but you can blame State Attorney General Michael Atkinson and his whacky idea to legislate to ensure that noone can be discriminated against on the basis of his or her religion. Michael, Michael ... whatever possessed you? Did your mother not warn you about discussing politics and religion in polite company? I want to be free to set my sights on cults such as the Scientologists, or to take aim at religion generally, and do not want Michael Atkinson blocking my view. In my experience, religions, especially the crackpot ones, are more than capable of defending themselves and attacking debunkers without needing State intervention on their behalf. Even Catholicism - my lapsed religion, a religion of mostly elderly women - generally has a good sense of humour about itself. Beset with all sorts of problems such as declining congregations and very few priests left to serve them, only a Catholic could quip: Will the last priest to leave please extinguish the candles? Of course, people with different religious beliefs should not be vilified but that is not the same as racism or sexism, which are matters of fact not faith. A quick aside: I recently heard a gay man rail against what he called the ``three evil -isms: racism, sexism and homophobia''. Uh-huh. God, I hope blasphemy prosecutions no longer occur in this State. My lawyer says it is unlikely but not impossible. Once, in the old Judaic tradition, misusing the name of God was blasphemy and the penalty was stoning to death. In the supreme irony, Jesus's assertion of his divine nature was blasphemous and led to his execution. Does blasphemy apply only to a Christian God in Australia or is the privileged protection extended to Islam as well? No, it does not. Look, the greatest freedom is to be allowed to be yourself, free to find personal fulfilment, and if people need religion in that quest, absolutely tremendous. But I put ``atheist'' on the last Census. If I guessed wrong, the consequences for me in the hereafter no doubt will be dreadful. You take your chances in this life, as well as in the next.
