Archive for October, 2009
Coffee will Costa your soul
Posted by: | Comments
There have been a couple of articles in the news that have caught my attention recently on the subject of religious proselytising, and I wanted to comment on them. The first being an initiative by an organisation called Cafe Church, who want to bring Sunday services into the Costa Coffee chain. The second relates to the Bishop of Reading holding a harvest festival service in Asda.
In the first case, Whitbread which owns Costa Coffee has decided to allow public religious worship to take place on its premises, and it was reported that some branches are even running the Alpha Course.
Given these are privately owned premises I would have no issue with the church groups hiring out these venues for private use, such as running an Alpha course. In much the same way people hire all kinds of venues for different events. Where I take issue is that a preacher is to be permitted to stand up and give his sermon with no regard for the other patrons of the cafe. If I were to ask permission to stand up and tell a story or go around offering people in the cafe a short course on humanism, or to promote my own secular views, I’m quietly confident that I’d be refused.
The second story focuses on the bishop of Reading, who decided it would be a great idea to hold Harvest festival in Asda of all places. According to the interview on the BBC it was too troubling to get all the produce to the church so they decided to bring the church to the produce. The bishop made several remarks along the lines of, “this is the kind of place Jesus would want us to be”, and “Jesus would have shopped in a supermarket”. The BBC then interviewed an array of people, with one man politely saying “I’m not sure when I am shopping, but it’s nice to do things in a different way, I guess” and child said “This is weird”. The only person to come out and say anything definite was some grey haired old lady
The bishop stated in his interview that “The church is for everyone”, although he seems to have missed the point, that by holding his service in a public area that he’s imposing the church on them. He already has enough churches in the diocese you’d think that would be enough places to hold a service.
The whole affair brings to mind the legislation which covers religious discrimination in the workplace. Is it right to run the Alpha course in a place of work? What if employees do not wish to listen to religious sermons during their working day? Surely they have the right not to be subjected to such things?
Hypothetically speaking, if a gay employee is forced to listen to a sermon on the evils of homosexuality, I would imagine he’d have a great case for claiming his workplace was a hostile environment.
It is one thing if someone wishes to say grace in a restaurant, or pray during the working day. They have that right. However what is being done here isn’t a simple act of personal prayer; it is outright blatant proselytising and I believe it is totally inappropriate in these spaces, in a public context.
When I go for my coffee, or to do my shopping all I ask for is great products and good customer service, I don’t need a sermon.
http://www.secularism.org.uk/fancy-a-coffee-look-out-the-evan.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8311712.stm
YouTube if you want to: QualiaSoup
Posted by: | CommentsI have been watching some videos on a YouTube channel called “QualiaSoup”, and I found them to be very relevant to my helping define my world views and rejection of religion. I originally discovered the videos several months ago now and wanted to help raise awareness of them due to the fact they so clearly and articulately express the non-religious world view. I find many of the videos personally relevant as they describe quite precisely the thought processes I went through whenever I tried to convince myself there was a god.
I would like to comment on how well put together these videos are. This isn’t someone sitting in front of a camera ranting away like Pat Condell, or some very quick and dirty PowerPoint slides set to cheesy music. These videos have high quality images, which very clearly and explicitly tie into the narrative. The narrative has a very calm and relaxed style, with no sways of emotional tonality, however this does not detract from the engaging and enlightening content.
It affected me in quite a positive way because I could identify with the topics being discussed and have experienced very similar thought processes in my exploration of the various religions which exist in the world. I felt a sense of connection with the narrator because like him I felt no strong animosity when I finally reached the conclusion that religion and superstition was irrational nonsense. I had simply examined the evidence and came to the conclusion that the evidence was insufficient.
The content of videos varies, but carries the same general themes. I particularly liked the first one I ever watched, which was on the subject of open mindedness. The narration describes how being open minded is not the automatic acceptance of what someone tells you and that you need to explore and test all the evidence before leaping to any conclusions (as I did with religion).
It also points out the obvious paradox that an inexplicable phenomenon can be explained by something supernatural. I felt a particular resonance with the view the saying you don’t believe something is not the same thing as saying it is untrue. I find that this is an argument I which presents itself not just in religious discussions, but all the time in everyday life.
The last and most poignant thing I picked up from this video is that some people hold the view that being open minded means agreeing with them even if they don’t present you with sufficient evidence to support the case they are presenting. As Carl Sagan once said “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”, and this video articulates the concepts of critical thinking so simply and clearly that I think everyone should watch it.
If you’re religious you may find these videos challenging your beliefs, if you’re non-religious you may find these videos help you understand yourself and your thinking better. If all these videos do is get you to challenge your own thinking, then they have served a positive purpose and helped move you one more step in developing your critical thinking.
I have now watched most of the videos in QualiaSoup channel, and found them to be extremely informative and helpful. They resonate with my own world view, and I would encourage you to visit YouTube and take a look for yourself. I have embedded the “Open Mindedness” video in this article, but there are many others which are of equal excellence.
BBC Thought for the Day
Posted by: | Comments
I have just been reading an interesting piece in the Telegraph, about secularists wanting a voice on Radio 4’s, “Thought for the Day” slot. Personally I find the Today programme quite a good bit of news reporting, especially as they have a really agressive style of interrogating their guests, in a very un-Paxman like way.
So for the un-initaited ”Thought for the Day” comes on during the Today programme around about 7:45am and a pre-selected religious buff gives us a 3 minute monolgue about what he thinks about current affairs. There are a mix of religious commentators from the Christian, Muslim, Jewish, and many other faiths. Needless to say, its almost like a daily sermon in a 3 minute slot.
Now the evil secularists, atheists and humanists want to get in on the action and have a slice of the action, boring people to death with their endless drivel in the 7:45am slot. Sorry to be harsh, but you can’t tell me it will be any better just because they don’t believe in God. I’d don’t agree that non-believers should be banned from the slot, but equally I don’t really give a crap. There are a lot more important issues to address than “Thought for the Day”. How about, so called “honour killings”, or forced marriage, what about the 26 C of E Bishops who sit unelected in the House of Lords.
I just can’t get up the energy to argue about “Thought for the Day” as it all just smacks of, me-too-isms. The only reason the slot has 4.5 million listeners is because they’re already tuned into the Today programme and can’t be bothered the change the radio station. I bet if you took it off air, and made it available only on iPlayer very few people would bother to go look for it.
Oh and if you’re one of those religious types, don’t go thinking I’m on your side either. You get plenty of programmes on TV, like all the channels that pump out worship on Sky. They even have it listed specifically in the planner! Let us also not forget “Songs of Praise” and “Around the World in 80 faiths”. So don’t tell me that the religious are hard done by.
So what to do with the 3 minute boredom slot? either make it more interesting, or bin it is my view. I have no interest in it and it seems completely out of place in the programme content.
Pope to visit UK in 2010
Posted by: | Comments
Protest against the vatican
Several days ago the BBC reported (along with many other news agencies) that Pope Benedict has been invited to the UK on a state visit.
So lets ask the question. Is Pope Benedict someone we want honoured by a state visit to the UK?
My personal view on this is that the Pope should not be honoured in such a way. This has nothing to do with the fact he’s head of the Catholic Church. It is quite simply inconsistent with the way we have responded to other radicals.
Let us take the case of Geert Wilders, a Dutch MP. He dared to describe the Koran as a “fascist book” and wanted to enter the UK to show a film depicting Islam in a negative light. Whatever my personal view on his comments, he was excluded from the UK on “Secuirty grounds”, and perhaps rightly so?
Pope Benedict made equally inflamatory comments at his Christmas address where he likened homosexuals and trans-gender people to be as big a problem as global warming. We could continue to talk about the abuse of many childen at the hands of this organisation he represents, and that same organisation failed to take action to protect these children. It also continues to fail in meeting is obligations in the UN.
So when you look at it this way is the Pope any better or worse than our Dutch MP? How many angry people from the LGBT community will it take before the papal visit becomes a security concern? Well of course there isn’t a security concern from the LGBT community because they don’t go around burning effigies and making threats of violence like some of the extreme Islamic groups in our country. Therefore he will have his state visit virtually unchallenged.
I’d suggest you fill in the online petition but this too is unlikely to make any difference. However I signed it anyway.
So I’m going to sit back and just accept that it will happen and watch the moral fibre of our nation be flushed down the toilet.
I’m sure many Catholics (and other Christians) will be offended by these comments, but not as offended as I am about a man who lives in a palace and preaches to us about greed.
My only message here is to Gordon Brown…NOT in my name.
