On the Blog
Andy
Armitage asks if it’s possible to
measure in any meaningful way just how much
more information has been disseminated since
the Internet – and, later, blogging – became
part of our everyday lives?
Of course, information
isn’t knowledge, and there’s a lot of tosh
out there. But blogs can come into their own
when there’s a campaigning element to them,
as with Pink Triangle.
While PT often
pokes fun, gives information, invites
comment, it can also potentially – at least
we hope it does, from time to time – spur
action.
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Gordon Brown: thumbs up for Alan
Turing? Doubtful. |
Recently, the blog
featured the campaign to get an apology and
due recognition for the wartime
mathematician and cryptologist Alan Turing,
first by
drawing attention to the campaign; then
by reporting on
the first of two news releases by our
parent organisation, the Pink Triangle
Trust, this one welcoming the increasing
support for the campaign; then by
announcing
that Prime Minister Gordon Brown had
issued an apology on behalf of the
government; and then by reporting on the
second of the news releases, this one
welcoming the apology
uttered by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and
bemoaning the fact that not more was done,
sooner.
In your face
One thing the blog has
pointed up in recent weeks is religion’s
attempts to be in your face, and its
indignant protestations when people want to
go their atheist way.
Atheists, you see, are
always to blame for something. Take this
example from Pope Ratzinger, who, in a
roundabout way, seemed to be
blaming atheists for global warming and
other potential environmental catastrophes.
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Global warming:
it's all faggots and
smoke to Pope Ratzinger. |
He began a speech at
Castel Gandolfo by saying we were no longer
in harmony with nature, and this was wrong.
He’s right: it’s wrong. We are guilty of
much.
But by extension he seems
to think that it’s the marginalisation of
God that has put us in this position.
“The earth is a precious
gift of the Creator,” he oozed, “who has
designed its intrinsic order, thus giving us
guidelines to which we must hold ourselves
as stewards of his creation. From this
awareness, the Church considers questions
linked to the environment and its
safeguarding as profoundly linked with the
topic of integral human development.”
He went on, “Is it not
true that inconsiderate use of creation
begins where God is marginalised or also
where his existence is denied?”
So all those who don’t
believe in God are by default guilty of not
caring for creation?
The audacity
of Madge
Blame for a boating
accident that killed 15 people in Bulgaria
was
laid at the feet of the singer Madonna.
She dared to take her Sticky and Sweet tour
to that country, and performed on a day the
Orthodox Christians there found to be holy:
they mark the day John the Baptist was
supposed to have had his head lopped off by
Herod’s men. (As we said in our blog piece
on the subject, it’s hard to imagine that
scene and not picture Herodias saying,
“Salomé, dear not in the fridge!”)
Madge’s audacity in
putting on a concert on that day brought bad
luck, you see. So this was the punishment of
a loving, all-powerful, all-knowing, indeed
perfect deity who allowed this to happen? Is
that how this brand of Christianity sees its
deity: as avenging the perceived impudence
of an entertainer by wiping out 15 unrelated
people – or at the very least allowing this
“bad luck” to take revenge for him?
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Madonna:
“crucified”
for daring to perform. |
Work versus religion
And then we get people
who feel the need to push their religion in
the course of their work – such as by
refusing to do the work they’re paid
to do.
We’ve just reported on
Gary McFarlane, a counsellor for the former
Marriage Guidance Council, now called
Relate, who didn’t want to do sex therapy
with same-sex couples, because it went
against his delusions.
To cut a long story
short, he ended up being fired, appealed,
lost the appeal and is now
appealing against that decision.
The blog is updated
daily. Why not
pop along to it and leave the odd
comment? We’d be glad to hear from you.
You can also sign up to
our discussion group, Gaytheist, there, too.
Just look in the sidebar, put your email
address in the box and you’re nearly there.
It’s already attracted some lively
discussion, so why not join in?
Visit the blog daily
at
http://ptt-blog.blogspot.com and join
the debate.
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