Kieran Lawrence looks at autonomous weapons and the effect they could have on modern warfare
Continuing a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Angela Merkel
Ben Bland examines the fallout from the Iowa caucuses and looks forward to the New Hampshire primaries.
In the first of a series on world leaders, Miles Deverson takes a look at Nicholas Sarkozy
I am a Christian, I am a protestant. I believe the world around us is so unimaginably beautiful, so incredible, so awe-inspiring that there must have been a creator. I believe in Jesus Christ, born on earth to teach us the value of compassion and the importance of “loving thy neighbour”.
However, unlike the others I am not appalled at the commercialisation of Christmas. The celebration of Christmas has never been a Christian festival after all. It was barely noticed until Dickensian fantasy and his vivid description of the White Christmas. Christianity jumped on the bandwagon and from the late 19th Century used it as an opportunity to get bums on pews. Therefore I feel it would be highly hypocritical of me to suggest that somehow it is wrong for others to also jump on this bandwagon for their commercial interests.
That is not to say I agree with the commercialisation of our lives – the ‘I want’ society has caused massive social harm and has made us less caring for those around us. But the impact of commercialism at Christmas offends me no more than any other bank holiday, major sporting event or birthday celebration.
Indeed many often get angry about taking the ‘Christ out of Christmas’. But why should I care whether December 25 is a religious event for someone who does not hold my beliefs? Beyond, of course, the commercial interests of a church I may choose to attend, that is.
David Cameron recently told the media that the UK is a ‘Christian Country’. He is wrong – half of the country professes to having no religion. A majority ‘never’ attend a church, mosque or any other religious building, as Bagehot pointed out recently in The Economist. But what’s more worrying is the idea that religion should be forced upon people.
By suggesting that we are a Christian country, Cameron hints that the views of a minority should be imposed upon a country. As a member of that minority, I do not believe my decision to worship and act based on my religious values should be imposed on others. God gave us free will so we could choose for ourselves whether to do so, not the state to enslave us with conformity of religion.
Indeed what strikes me from over the pond is Republican Party anger at the rise of the Muslim brotherhood in Egypt as the dominant political force. The American party seems to resent the rise of people with (actually more moderate) Islamic religion to power in Egypt. They do this without a hint of irony, despite Presidential hopeful Rick Perry promising to “End Obama’s war on religion” stating that “faith made this country strong”. It seems that it is fine for religion to dictate policy in Washington, so long as it does not do so in Cairo.
Yet iit is not only the religious who can get carried away. I find the action of certain (by no means all) atheists equally as distasteful. Indeed what concerns me is that a section of the atheist community feels the need to tell me not to worship. A famous ad on London buses stated “There probably is no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” Just as it is wrong for me to tell those without a faith to worship, it is wrong for them to tell those with faith no to. Indeed the mocking, patronising tones used by some about religion are abhorrent. Those who compare Jesus to the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus do so for a laugh, but in doing so for a laugh, but in doing so, they compare individuals’ deeply held religious values to a children’s story. You may not see the Bible as the truth, but it is conveniently illusory to ignore its cultural significance. I am sure those individuals would not diminish the great Greek or Roman myths, which they find equally unbelievable in such ways.
Without beginning a rant about the importance of political correctness, I would not wish to force them to refrain from such comments. However, I simply ask for tolerance. I genuinely believe that the majority of reasonable people across the globe are willing to accept others of different beliefs to their own without forcing them to adhere to the values of their own religion of lack of.
Yet for some reason we elect to positions in government and also in our churches, mosques and humanist organisations, individuals who wish to ram their dogma down the throats of others. No individual, regardless of their deep-held religious or non-religious beliefs or position of power has the right to tell me or anyone else how to behave so long as my behaviour does not negatively affect them or others.
Indeed this problem is made worse when our religious, atheist and political leaders use religion to eschew their agenda. It is as wrong for the Pope to tell a young man in sub-Saharan Africa that contraception is never the answer as it for the British Humanist Association to tell me to give up my relationship with God because ‘he probably doesn’t exist”. It is as wrong for a Saudi Imam to tell someone they cannot drive purely because they are a woman as it is for Rick Perry to tell someone that cannot serve in the military purely because they are openly gay. It is as wrong for the French Parliament to force women not to wear hijabs as it is for the Iranian Parliament to force them to wear them.
I suppose my hope for this Christmas is that we can become a more tolerant society. A society which accepts people’s religious or non-religious beliefs without a burning desire to force out ideas down their throats. I believe the majority of Atheists, Muslims, Christians and all other religious backgrounds already do this, it is our leaders who let us down.
These are the leaders who lead us into war killing, maiming and terrifying hundreds of thousands of people whilst telling us that what their god really cares about is what gender your sexual partner is. The religious leaders who rail against the commercialisation of Christmas whilst putting on fantastical nativities with little Biblical references to raise money for their Church. Or indeed the leaders whose criticism of the brutality of religion is matched by their brutality of the religious.
These so called leaders do us a disservice and divide us, not unite us. Our leaders are, if you will excuse the biblical reference, modern day false-prophets who represented their own interests, not ours.
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