[I]f you pound people hard enough with certainty when they're feeling vulnerable under the pressures of life; if you offer them instant family when their lives are poor in friendship; if you offer them a message which makes meaning of life, when their lives are confused and problematical; if you offer them a special task - to spread the group's gospel when their work is dull or meaningless, or they can find no work to do; if you offer them clear leadership when they can find no-one to admire or believe in or follow in their world or church; if you offer all this, together with intoxicating, mind numbing worship - then you're offering a powerful package which many people will buy.
The passage above, spoken on air only yesterday, is a comprehensive exposition of the mind-wrecking aspects of religion. But this wasn't some so-called New Atheist ranting against the evils of faith, this was
The Rt Rev. Tom Butler, whom you can hear delivering his
Thought for the Day on
BBC Radio 4 here:
You can read the whole thing for yourself here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/thought/documents/t20081118.shtml
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Have you read the related Platitude of the Day?
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw it. I thought it was fairly charitable to suggest that the Rev was inebriated when he penned his Thought, when it's clear that many of his ilk don't get the irony when they're sober.
ReplyDelete