Johann Hari: The Pope, the Prophet, and the religious support for evil.

[snagglepuss]

Excellent piece in The Independent about enforced 'respect'for religions with an excellent overview of the pope's direct involvement in the cover-up of paedophile priests. Also notable are some of the comments following the article. Most are spot on.

snip

In 2005, 12 men in a small secular European democracy decided to draw a quasi-mythical figure who has been dead for 1400 years. They were trying to make a point. They knew that in many Muslim cultures, it is considered offensive to draw Mohamed. But they have a culture too – a European culture that believes it is important to be allowed to mock and tease and ridicule religion. It is because Europeans have been doing this for centuries now that we can no longer be tyrannised into feeling bad about perfectly natural impulses, like masturbation, or pre-marital sex, or homosexuality. When priests offer those old arguments, we now laugh in their faces – a great liberating moment. It will be a shining day for Muslims when they can do the same.

snip

Let's state some principles that – if religion wasn't involved – would be so obvious it would seem ludicrous to have to say them out loud. Drawing a cartoon is not an act of aggression. Trying to kill somebody with an axe is. There is no moral equivalence between peacefully expressing your disagreement with an idea – any idea – and trying to kill somebody for it. Yet we have to say this because we have allowed religious people to claim their ideas belong to a different, exalted category, and it is abusive or violent merely to verbally question them. Nobody says I should "respect" conservatism or communism and keep my opposition to them to myself – but that's exactly what is routinely said about Islam or Christianity or Buddhism. What's the difference?

This enforced "respect" is a creeping vine. It soon extends beyond religious ideas to religious institutions – even when they commit the worst crimes imaginable. It is now an indisputable fact that the Catholic Church systematically covered up the rape of children across the globe, and knowingly, consciously put paedophiles in charge of more kids. Joseph Ratzinger – who claims to be "infallible" – was at the heart of this policy for decades.

snip

Yes, I understand some people feel sad when they see a figure they were taught as a child to revere – whether Prophet or Pope – being subjected to rational examination, or mockery, or criminal investigation. But everyone has ideas they hold precious. Only you, the religious, demand to be protected from debate or scrutiny that might discomfort you. The fact you believe an invisible supernatural being approves of – or even commands – your behaviour doesn't mean it deserves more respect, or sensitive handling. It means it deserves less. If you base your behaviour on such a preposterous fantasy, you should expect to be checked by criticism and mockery. You need it.



http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/johann-hari-the-pope-the-prophet-and-the-religious-support-for-evil-1923656.html



The following is one very interesting comment by Andrea_2 that followed the article:

I agree with every word you say about religion, Mr Hari but it is not about Faith it is about power. The religious men who are part of these ideologies wield great power and without their religion they lose it. And one way to maintain power is to create a climate of fear. These religious groups are no different than the mafia, for example. They seek to control through fear of violence. They are deeply damaged by the brainwashing they have received since birth. Some are converts, I know, but there is no greater zealot than a convert.

I will not be told by the law that I have to respect these religions. I won't. I don't. And I never can. But stop thinking of them as anything spiritual, they are not. They are political organisations who dress themselves up as Faith in order to quell criticism from the outside world.

The men at the top of these religions send their drones out over the planet, killing, hiding abuse, dealing in organised crime, whilst all the time claiming that they have devine rights and authority to do these things. Maybe some of them even believe it. There is no difference between many of the World's organised religions and secular belief systems. They want power and they want to keep it.

[RainDog]

1. this is great piece

and the truth of it exists in the demographer's knowledge that societies that do not valorize religious oppression are societies that fare better on all human rights scales --- all the way down to democracy itself.