Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour

Now isn't that an interesting thought...but I wonder if that is physical banging or metaphorical. I have been reading people's comments in the general comments section on blasphemy.ie and all I can think is that if banging your head against a wall really burns 150 calories an hour these must be among the skinniest people on the planet because banging their metaphorical heads against a metaphorical stonewall is all that they seem to do. Between the false logic, misquoting and randomness of some of the comments I'm sure that quite a lot of people there have very sore heads indeed.


On a serious note I feel that the discussion on blasphemy.ie illustrates some of the problems caused by a variety of religious believes in society. That one writer is Muslim of very strong beliefs and a number of the other writers are atheists with equally strong beliefs seems to mean that they cannot agree on even the simple things...like what exactly a law on blasphemy will allow and disallow people to say and indeed on whether blasphemy is necessary and only semi-offensive or whether it is a form of bullying with serious psychological effects. Attempts are made on both parts to be rational and civil but these attempts very quickly break down to become word games and name calling.


I think that here we have the basic problem with the position attested to religion in society. It is impossible for people with different beliefs to agree even on the simple things. For this reason I feel that religion had no place within the public sphere. The ability of a deeply held ideology to create children out of otherwise rational adults seems to have no bounds. The effect that this infantilism has on civil matters when it is allowed to interfere is devastating...just remember that only a short number of years ago a woman had to be married and have a letter from her doctor to have access to birth control in Ireland. The decision to partake in sex outside of marriage is a personal one that should belong to the owner of the body but this was not allowed under a religious leadership. Church should not equal state.


I would not argue that people should not be allowed to practice religious adherence within their private lives but that is were it should remain. State sponsored schools should not have a religious ideology, state laws should not be based on religious ideals and church should have no place in the governing of a country. The laws of a country should be based on the moral code of the people within the country and as much as is possible people should be given the freedom to lead an individual life of their own choosing.

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