Religious freedom

This afternoon’s Beyond Belief on Radio 4 had people seriously arguing that children could be possessed by witchcraft.

Yesterday we had Cardinal Keith O’Brien’s bigoted refusal to discuss gay marriage, under the ridiculous notion that his views on the matter were worthy of some respect.

Yesterday, too, we had the latest disturbing blasphemy case from Pakistan.

These all follow hard on the heels of the Pussy Riot case.

I think religious freedom is a good thing, but can we have too much of a good thing? Of course, the answer to that is not to deny people the freedom they want; it is to educate them so they no longer want that.

A fool

Cardinal Keith O’Brien has decided he doesn’t want to talk to the Scottish government on gay marriage.

His church has been covering up for paedophile priests for decades, if not centuries. His pope is the same Ratzinger who for 24 years co-ordinated the cover-up worldwide.

The really shocking thing is that that is absolutely minuscule compared to the 1.5 million AIDS deaths a year in Africa alone that could be prevented by condoms, but that same pope says the use of condoms can only be justified by male prostitutes!

These people think they have some authority to speak on matters of sexual morality. It would be funny if it wasn’t so horrific.