Teddy Bear Fuss
No sooner had I published the previous post, than another example of religious insanity hit the news. An English teacher in Sudan was jailed for 15 days, and given a deportation order, because her seven year old students named a teddy bear Muhammad. Many boys are named Muhammad but teddy bears are beyond the pale.
Worshippers streamed out of mosques in their thousands, then assembled in Martyrs Square, some carrying clubs and knives, demanding her execution.
She can hardly wait for deportation, one would think.
Some folk find comfort in religion. That's fine. But overall, is not religion the curse of humanity?
True believers believe what they're told. There is no reasoning involved. You must believe, my son, as the priests of my youth repeatedly said. Why? Just because if you don't believe, bad things will happen to you, such as burning in hell. These priests ranted against "freethinkers", a bad lot indeed.
There is a great gulf between belief and knowledge. The fuss and riots in Sudan are the result of belief. Blind belief. I prefer to know things, and knowledge can only be had by using one's intellect, imperfect as it may be. The important question to be asked of any assertion is this: Why? Then go figure.
No sooner had I published the previous post, than another example of religious insanity hit the news. An English teacher in Sudan was jailed for 15 days, and given a deportation order, because her seven year old students named a teddy bear Muhammad. Many boys are named Muhammad but teddy bears are beyond the pale.
Worshippers streamed out of mosques in their thousands, then assembled in Martyrs Square, some carrying clubs and knives, demanding her execution.
She can hardly wait for deportation, one would think.
Some folk find comfort in religion. That's fine. But overall, is not religion the curse of humanity?
True believers believe what they're told. There is no reasoning involved. You must believe, my son, as the priests of my youth repeatedly said. Why? Just because if you don't believe, bad things will happen to you, such as burning in hell. These priests ranted against "freethinkers", a bad lot indeed.
There is a great gulf between belief and knowledge. The fuss and riots in Sudan are the result of belief. Blind belief. I prefer to know things, and knowledge can only be had by using one's intellect, imperfect as it may be. The important question to be asked of any assertion is this: Why? Then go figure.
posted by puzzled @ 1:15 AM
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