religion

[SueEllen]

You must be very fun to work with.

My family love me..........

[cailin maith]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/7200531.stm

maybe we should join this religion....

[realityhack]

May the Force be with you...

...and also with you.

[cailin maith]

I was wondering who would find that & post it...

May the Force be with you...

I can't take the credit.... it was FaQ, he emailed it to me earlier....

[Jog On]

Can those who picked Other please enlighten us?

Capitalist

[robnjc]

Doesn't it? Where do I apply for a refund?!

Your mohel

[The Lone Gunman]

Funny isnt it, when ou say you are doing what the voices tell you too they lock you up. When you say you are doing what the voices told someone else to do they make it a religion.

BTW Hacky: Nice speech. Couldnt agree more.

[realityhack]

Cheers guys - I thought after posting that I'd be shot down in flames, but not so far.

BTW - just in case SA thinks I'm singling her out - not at all babe - just trying to unearth the possible root cause of views you and others have expressed about our lack/dilution of national identity.

[Lucifer Box]

Worship the Great Old Ones

Sure.

I'm in the market for a new religion since my old one hasn't lived up to my expectations.

I dabbled a bit with a few ancient orders, but found all of them dull and stuffy.

I'm quite tempted by the neo-pagan route, but I eat meat, hate plants and detest hippies.

Egyptology interests me, and having a temple to Thoth in the living room would be pretty funky, except I have no space.

Ah well. that's my 5 min break from WOW over. Time to get back to work. I'll give it some thought later, unless we have a raid or something.

The cult of Shub-Niggurath welcomes you with open tentacles, brother.

Please come over for dinner, we look forward to cooking you, errr, for you.

[DodgyAgent]

<rant>

I should add though, before being accused of being a lefty liberal loony - that this 'right' shouldn't result in barmy PC bend-over-backwards-behaviour by public sector numpties.

We need to be mindful of the fact that we have a cultural identity (Yes, yes we do, SallyAnne ) to preserve - a cultural identity that nets us loadsa money in tourism and cultural exports, not to mention forms a backbone to the perceived 'middle england' that lefty loonies find so threatening for some reason - oh that might be the loony red-tops branding them all as Jeremy Clarkson/UKIP/skinhead/national socialist types - because every viewpoint has to be simplified to the nth degree.

IMO, We should respect <insert religious minority here> right to have their opinions/beliefs, to an extent that doesn't intrude upon the State, e.g. Shariah Law, keeping TB infected cattle alive, forcing shops to close on Sundays, insisting that your kids wear headscarves, demanding lessons be taught in <insert minority language here> when our schooling budgets are strapped enough and, hey, why the hell are we doing this anyway? They're in the UK, the UK's principle language is English... do we want to encourage exclusive sub-cultures in this country?

I'm veering off topic slightly (it's hard to keep religion and culture distinct - too many overlaps), but I think some of the European nations have got this spot on. Take France for example. None of this faffing about and no compulsory lobotomies for public sector workers - they just say no - they have secular laws - they separate church from state entirely, and this is a great thing. You want to wear a cross around your neck because you like it? Alright. You want to make a statement and force those beliefs down other's throats, no. Bugger off. You want to wear a headscarf to school? No, we have a school uniform and they all wear the same. Don't like it? Then bugger off somewhere where you can live as you please.

You want to adjust the curriculum to incorporate your religious teachings? No - get lost. The curriculum should have time to bed down, get established, time for the teachers to gain expertise within a set of boundaries instead of it changing and frittering about like a leaf in the wind so they don't know what they're teaching anymore.

Let people do what they want to do within their own personal boundaries. You have particular dietary requirements beyond medical ones because of your beliefs? Bring your own bloody lunch then. The state should not have to flex to meet these needs, it's overburdened enough.

We spend too much time trying to please everyone, trying to be 'every-country-and-culture-under-the-sun-in-one-land'. This kind of faux multiculturalism is doomed to fail. True multiculturalism is this: Oh look, there's a person, and there's another, and there's someone who looks diferent but who cares? It's another person, welcome, hello, grab a seat, and there's another person, and we all have the same rights, and there's no 'special clubs' set up for us so we can be different and proud. If you want to be accepted like everyone else, treated normally, why draw special attention to your differences? Get on with it. Be a part of the one culture you've chosen to live in or been born in like anyone else. Subscribe to a communities values and debate without positional bargaining. If you refuse to budge then it's you who's setting yourself apart, and not the State's responsibility to include you.

We waste way too much money with all this rubbish. Our leadership just isn't bloody robust enough to lead - to stand up for community cohesion because they fear an Enoch Powell moment, they're all snivelling little cowards who won't take anything other than a populist stand - that's doomed to fail and take the whole damn system down with it. Screw this Labour government - this kind of thinking has taken on so much bloat, so much weight, and is sinking this ship.

It's related to Political Correctness - another bugbear of mine - respect for the society around you locally, generationally and nationally (chavs, anyone?) welfare being seen as a right not a privilege etc - and has eroded our core values to such an extent that we're having a national identity crisis - which is why people like SallyAnne say what they do about our lack of culture, values and so on.

These insipid, greedy, spineless excuses for leaders we have at the moment really ought to be stripped of their office and deported in disgrace. I fear that none of the party political forces in power or opposition have sufficient integrity or courage to stop this downward slide.

</rant>

Awesome