The Blight of Religion

I have been quiet for some weeks over Christmas and yet there have been so many events worthy of comment. There is always the euro crisis — something that will grind on until at least one country slides out of the euro zone. On Monday, newspapers were getting excited and markets were falling because of worries about Hungary. Apparently, there is great concern about the authoritarian proposals of the current government which are not acceptable in the context of membership of the European Union. OK, but is it so critical to the whole world?

Religion provides a constant stream of frightening rubbish as yet more rules are dreamed up by obsessive gurus whose reversion to extreme interpretations of religious scripts become more and more ridiculous. Last week it was fundamentalist Jews in Israel objecting to women travelling on buses with unsuitable clothing. Various Islamic movements want all women to be deprived of all rights and made to venture outdoors only when completely covered with black sheets.

In the UK we have five Islamists in court for distributing anti-gay literature and demanding that all gays be executed.

In America every presidential candidate has to pander to the Jewish population — and thus be incapable of taking a sensible line in controlling Israeli excesses. Now, as the Republican Party tries to extract a candidate for this year's presidential election from the collection of nutters so far to have put themselves forward, many are becoming concerned that Mitt Romney is a Mormon. That should create a few more tensions if by chance, he is elected.

This week we have the news that the Amish community in America is in turmoil over the matter of beards and hair. It sounds like something from Gulliver's Travels — little enders and big enders. Apparently their nutters have decoded that somewhere in the Bible there are instructions that suggest men should have beards [I think] and women should not cut their hair at all. This has created a break-away movement and much consternation is this secretive community.

Tensions everywhere have been heightened in recent weeks and again and again it is religion that is at the core of the disputes.

There may be a God but he/she has a tormented idea of fun.

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