Sunday, August 22, 2021

It is difficult know what more one can say about the state of our world and particularly the state of our own nation. I know good things are happening and people are leading there lives in with happiness surrounding them. It is all to easy to highlight the tragedies. Yesterday my baby sister and my brother in law Mark came over to our flat for their first visit. We had a splendid day, highlighted by a lunch at our favourite Cafe Amore. We laughed and had fun, very little of a serious nature was discussed and the troubles of the world were forgotten. My side of our family consists of three people, me, my brother and sister, no nephews or nieces, just us, small but close.

I have no answers to the constant tragedies that befall our world, except to say that history shows that it has always been this way. My 68 years on the planet have largely been peaceful by comparison to past events but it seems no matter how hard we try humans cannot live in peace for long. The reasons are as hard to fathom, as are all those ideologies that we struggle to understand. It is odd that all religions preach peace and love and yet often are interpreted in such a way that the opposite happens. Why are some who follow Islam so extreme? It is not a new thing, the Infidel has been targeted for centuries? Islam worships the same God as Christianity, even has many of the same characters! As you will know I am an Atheist and don’t believe in any God or religion and for me it is even harder to understand why you would follow so fanatically a doctrine that for me is complete nonsense. I acknowledge the comfort that belief and faith have for so many but why does it have to cause so much death and destruction when it’s teachings promote the opposite? Interpretation of stories written so long after any the actual events are at best stories and and worse the doctrines of a cult that wanted to keep a ignorant population under control. The Bible, Koran, Haftorah and many other so called religious texts are nothing more than stories and rules for life written for a less educated time. How people now in the 21st century still believe in these ancient texts, is utterly beyond my understanding. If religion is your thing and you believe,  thats fine for you but when like the Taliban it is imposed on others in a violent and dictatorial way and especially the treatment of women then it must be resisted with every means possible. There is no room in this world for Islamic extremes and as so many who follow Islam, tell us, it is the minority who have these fundamental beliefs, I wonder why they doing nothing about them?

Here is a gruesome but historical fact: In 1632 the Taj Mahal was commissioned by  Emperor Shah Jahan, it is a tomb for his favourite wife. Once it had been completed he had the hands of all the workmen cut off so as they could never build a building as beautiful again! That was almost 5 centuries ago and yet the same biblical text that governed this barbarism and justified his cruelty, is still followed today, for me that is a horror that cannot be supported! 

Religion has always been a contentious issue and I am not dismissing the many good things that are done in the name of religion or by religious organisations. If religion galvanises people to behave well and help others fine but far to often it destroys lives and that is completely unacceptable!

Stay well

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