Catholicism

This week's National Secular Society e-newsletter quotes Irish writer Jennifer Johnston saying, "Personally I think that religion should be abolished and I think when you look around we're doing not too bad a job of it in this country at the moment. It's all just moving and about time, too." This was in an interview with the Irish Independent. Johnston's attitude is understandable, when you read about her own and her family's experience of Catholicism, but abolishing religion isn't the answer. I remember being shocked when, some time ago, I heard one of the British Humanist Association's leading activists say more or less the same thing - and he was serious. It's an attitude that persists in online atheist forums. Calling for the abolishment or banning of religion isn't a rational response to the problems that it causes. It was tried by the Soviets and by the Chinese during the Cultural Revolution, but they only succeeded in driving it underground. There have always been extremists, religious and atheist, and they've always caused destruction.

The answer is secularism, or an end to religion in civil affairs and no religious instruction in schools. Children might learn about religion but not to be religious. Teach children to think, not to believe. Most organised monotheistic religion is about power. Remove that power, and you remove most of the damage it causes.

"A good teacher makes you think, even when you don’t want to." (Tom, aged 10)

Teach people to think, and maybe they won't make foolish statements like, "Ban religion!"

As the Catholic church has to find £millions to pay compensation to victims of clergy abuse, the excuses being trotted out by the hierarchy are staggeringly creative. Archbishop of Westminster the Most Rev Vincent Nichols, leader of the Catholics in England and Wales, told the BBC's Newsnight programme, "The level of abuse in the Church is actually quite small in terms of the overall levels of abuse in any country." Now Pope Benedict, in his pastoral letter to Irish Catholics, blames the abuse on "the creeping influence of liberal, secular society for weakening resolve against it."

Sinéad O'Connor, the Irish Catholic singer-songwriter, has reacted angrily to the news that the Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan, has asked parishioners to help pay the compensation claimed by the church's abuse victims. Apparently, he was "“asking for help to fulfil a God-given responsibility”.

The NSS has started a petition calling on the Prime Minister to ask the Catholic Church to pay the estimated £20 million cost of the Pope's visit. If his followers want him to come and see them, fine, but there are better things to spend taxpayers' money on.

To sign, click here.

A few of the stories that have caught my eye on the Interweb this week:

* As an antidote to the depressing news that a significant proportion of British people think that creationism ought to be included in school science lessons, we can celebrate a development in education. Evolution will be in the national curriculum for primary schools when the new version is published soon. Andrew Copson from the BHA wrote in the Guardian:

The new primary curriculum, together with the 2007 government guidance that prohibits the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in science lessons, should put English schools in the forefront of education about evolution. Coming in the month which marks the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species, and at a point when good science education is a matter of urgency, it could not be more timely.

* We will have to remain vigilant, however, when loonies of all sorts seek access to our classrooms. The Times Educational Supplement reported a couple of days ago that ...

A school initiative that trains children in “energy therapy” has been criticised as unscientific by two senior academics.

The recent Intelligence Squared debate - 'The Catholic Church is a Force for Good in the World' - when Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry soundly thrashed Anne Widdicombe and Archbishop Onaiyekan, is now online. Watch and enjoy.

When Pope Benedict XVI visits the UK next year, he might have expected protests from gay and lesbian organisations, child protection campaigners, and HIV and AIDS activists. Now it's looking like his reception by our Head of State, HM Queen Elizabeth II, might be somewhat frosty, and Archbishop Rowan Williams may find it hard to be welcoming.