I'm not religious myself, but . . . . . .

I became totally disillusioned with religion many years ago as a result of something that happened to a very good friend of mine. He was subjected to total hypocrisy at the hands of some so-called religious sages that caused him untold grief when getting married. I'll go no further than that.

I became a fervent religious cynic some 20 years ago, and adhere more than ever now to Atheistic principles when I look back over the years where wars, murder, unrest and bigotry have all come about pretty well as a result of religion. That all these have resulted from one person's belief in the unprovable versus another persons belief in something different that is also similarly unprovable, to me, defies not only logic, but goes against pure common sense.

According to recent estimates, there are some 4,200 religions on earth at present. It is said that to believe you have to have faith, and to have faith you must believe. 4,200 religions means an awful lot of individual faith. And an awful lot of believing. That's 4,200 disparate groups, all following some inane belief, all without a shred of evidence or scientific proof to back up their claims. Cynics might remark that on a psychological level, this is actually not normal behaviour.

But on a more practical level, not all of the 4,200 can be in any way all be right!  In fact, "not many" can be right.

I'm certainly very sceptical of the more modern religions, those altogether recent offshoots from the long-established Judaeo-Christian religions. The Methodists, the Plymouth Brethren and many more besides. These very much smack of some strong-willed, big-mouthed people simply not liking their lot and deciding to start their own brand formulated on their own perceptions of what their religion adherence should be. Whether there was just an element of Indians wanting to become Chiefs, or whether, like Scientology or many of the other current evangelical and happy-clappy TV-religions, it was born out of a desire simply to make money, I'm not really too sure.

Cardinal Richelieu, the Spanish Inquisition, witch-hunting, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Islamic Fundamentalism are, as a few examples, not exactly the stuff people-enrichment initiatives are made of. Yes, those in charge make - or made - a good living, but the end-user is stuffed totally. And often terminally.

The famous 'mystery horror' film The Wicker Man, the original with Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward and Britt Ekland, portrayed a group of potty Scottish Islanders who sacrificed a man (police sergeant Edward Woodward in the original, Nicolas Cage in the remake) and an assortment of farm animals, by burning them to death in a wicker structure on a hillside as homage to a sun god in an attempt to avoid crop failure the following year. Meanwhile, on a purely scientific level, their land and location had been proven as not actually suitable to guarantee any form of sustained year on year crop-growing in the first place!

If you are looking for anomalies and things that don't make even common sense, let alone just sense, look no further than religion. Virgin births, reincarnation, dividing major seas. And taking 40 years to travel 1,200km, now that's a good one (that's about 80metres a day, or perhaps a lengthier 100metres a day if you take the Sabbath and High Holy days of rest into account as the Israelites were wont to do - I mean Olympic superstar Mo Farrah runs 20km in about an hour!) and help to preserve the mystery of religion. They mystery that people actually believe it all with a single shred of evidence.

Then there's building a boat from wood capable of accommodating two of every species on earth (I'm sure the two woodworms must have had a field day with that huge wooden boat all to themselves) to avoid the entire planet covered in water (er, excuse me science, but where did the water go to afterwards?). Or finding 72 Virgins in heaven awaiting the arrival of the latest human pieces from a blown-up and murderous homicide-bomber. I mean, if you were a respectable, attractive virgin, would you want to the the hand of a murderer - although being in pieces following self-explosion, I suppose it would be easier to take just the hand.

But where is the proof that 72 virgins are awating? And who reassembles the dismembered murderer so he can have his way with the 72? And if indeed it is his member that is the dismembered, and it doesn't make it nto heaven with the rest of his body parts, how does he indeed then have his wicked way? And anyway, to these holy former hit-squaddies, pure Muslim women aren't actually allowed into the company of strange men without their families' permission, so how do the reassembled murderers, who are altogether more strange than normal strange men, get access to the 72 virgins in the first place?

I'm sorry, but this is all unprovable nonsense, takes the 'have faith to believe and believe to have faith' get-out clause to somewhat of a rather cheap show-business level. "We can't prove any of it, but you'd better believe it or you'll be transported to hell". 

And that's another one. 'Hell'. Where precisely is 'hell' and has anyone proof of the place? Or are people just referring to their misadventures in a nightclub in Doncaster or Scunthorpe? But then North Korea has often been describes as hell on earth. Is that where all the naughty people of this world actually go. To the land of banned hairstyles and banned Western TV and music.

Many things "ist" seems to have quite anti-Jewish tendencies

Socialist, Corbynist, Entryist, Trotskyist and now Methodist. Where there's an 'ist' there ultimately seems to be the demonisation of Israel and ultimately of the Jewish people. That's against just 14million people in a world of 7.4billion (that's under one-fifth of one percent [0.2%] of the world's entire population).

Methodism, as a branch of Protestant Christianity, has it's roots in the 18th Century, so it's fair to say that it's not exactly an old religion. It stems, like many of the 4,500 or so modern"ist" religions of the world, from the disaffection with a long-established religion at the time by a small cabal of people, in this case, John Wesley (a leading anti-Semite of his generation!), George Whitefield and John's brother Charles Wesley. Very much a case of it being that if you don't like the party and its party-goers, simply start your own party.

While Methodism may emphasise "social holiness", missionary zeal, charity and service to the poor and vulnerable, it certainly does not extend this mantra to Israel or, ultimately, to the Jews. You name it in terms of a partisan event that demonises Israel, and the Methodists seem happy to run to the fore and host it at one of their venues. And when publicised on social media, it attracts the usual blame-culture and apologist detractors, many of whom do not feature crosses in their avatar, but instead, the Palestinian 'flag' so beloved by indigenous, British-born, non-Muslim Jewhaters. The ones who are quick to get their banners out and shout at the world to boycott Israeli goods while they themselves hypocritically continue to use Israel technology and medicine themselves.

One such event took place during the 19th - 23rd September (2016) at the Hinde Street Methodist Church, near Oxford Circus in London. It was a World Council of Churches event in connection with the World Week for Peace in Palestine (wherever that may be; ask the Jordanians if you are unsure)  and Israel. It is very much about wanting Israel (and note, it's only Israel, no other country) to dismantle the land barriers they currently use for security to check whether workers or visitors from Israel's land borders are bringing in that which they should not, in particular knives, automatic weapons or homicide bomb belts. Israel does this because it has to. Pretty much in the same way as you have to divest yourself of everything when you go though any airport into the departure lounge. Or enter any Court building in the UK. They don't want you bringing weapons into their country or into a British Court, so why shouldn't a country - Israel in this case - that borders another which is governed by a recognised terrorist organisation (that's Hamas, in case you are either a Methodist or don't actually know - or in the case of the Methodists, apparently don't appear to want to know) be allowed to do the same?

However, the World Council of Churches has chosen, as usual, but on this occasion with the support of the Methodists, to single out only Israel. They have never, for example, homed in on other people barriers in the world, some of which function more to keep people in or out, (as can be seen in the image below), rather than to protect their citizens from terrorist attacks as Israel has to do on a 24/7 basis. Not once have they organised an exhibition hosted by a Methodist church to address these.

Lord George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury summed it all up perfectly. But then he, as an astute, intelligent and caring man, would do. And there is no better man to emphasise "social holiness", charity and service to the poor and vulnerable than Lord Carey. But then, he is after all a true Statesman. And a thoroughly deserved Peer of the British Realm.

This thoroughly detestable "You Cannot Pass Today" exhibition in London was nothing short of divisive and totally partisan Jew hate. It was an effrontery to Israel, to the Jews of the UK band to any moral, decent-thinking person who can see both sides.

Yes, Israel is by no means perfect (show me a county that is!), but this constant, partisan singling-out of the only true democratic country in a region that sees it totally surrounded by nothing but hostile countries full of people who want to see it destroyed and its people murdered, well this is as totally unforgivable as it is unjustifiable.

And it is ultimately nothing more or less that the despicable Jewhate witnessed throughout the Nazi era of the 1930's and early 1940's that saw 6million Jews murdered. And remember, when the Channel Islands were occupied by the Germans during the Second World War, local Methodist Minister John Leale was up there collaborating vigorously with the Nazis by identifying the names of the Island’s Jewish residents.

These lovely people, it would appear, have neither shame nor morals, and have a nerve to call themselves Christians. 

In actual fact they haven't really got a lot going for them full-stop, apart, that is, from their partisan hatefulness.

To believe you have to have faith and to have faith you have to believe . . . . .

When you look back over history, while much misery and death has been the result of conquest (Norman, Portuguese, Dutch, British) or assassination (World War I), the greatest harbinger of murder, misery and miscellaneous death has always been that in the name of religion.

Now I have always found this rather perverse. Because people causing death in the name of religion, I believe, have something fundamentally wrong with them. Committing gross acts of murder and violence because one group of people believe in something scientifically unprovable over another group of people believing in something different that is equally scientifically unprovable, is inexcusable.

Could you imagine justifying the killing of someone because they don't believe that in the 7th Century, raspberries were actually blue in colour. There is no proof either way! They are currently red. Because we can see them, buy them and eat them for ourselves. Now throw into the mix a demonstration where the group of 'Blue Raspberrians' take to the streets with placards demanding "death to all non-believers in blue-raspberries" and you can see how twisted religion can really be.

I have no problem with people believing in virgin births. I have no problem if people believe their marital sins and wife-cheating can be totally absolved by telling a celibate man in a box about it. If a science-fiction writer declares that we are descended from little green men following a nuclear explosion in a galaxy far, far away (having admitted that he started his 'religion' thinking it a great way to make money), ok. You're the fool believing it and parting with 10% of your income. If you class it as 'creation and work' to flick a light switch on at home on a Saturday, yet you feel a three-mile walk in the pouring rain and biting wind without an umbrella, to sit in your house of prayer soaking wet for three hours and then face an identical walk home is not hard work, then good luck to you. Providing you leave me alone, I do not care. You can believe that we are all descended form nettle soup for all I care, providing you leave me and my people alone!

Strange though it may seem, regardless which side of the fence you sit on regarding religion, the majority of people tend to be upstanding citizens who, unless they have opted-out of religion altogether as either atheists or agnostics, tend to follow one of the current 4,900+ religions in the world today. And as I have said, good luck to them. It is just a small minority of ignoramuses for whom nothing will divert them from their narrow-minded, closeted and bigoted view on the world and anyone who is different to them.

Perfect harbingers of this deluded form of racism are the likes of the Klu Klux Klan and other assorted lunatic right-wingers, Islamic fundamentalists, and a very hotch-potch mixture of some very confused and quite nasty nationalists and socialists throughout the world.

But ask these sick individuals why they hate Blacks, Jews, Muslims or 'non-believers' and infidels, and they really cannot answer you.

Because they don't actually know themselves.

Their fathers did likewise, as did their grandfathers and their great-great grandfathers before them.  So it has become simply a family legacy to be hateful, bigoted and racist towards fellow human beings. To accept ill-informed invective passed down through successive generations. To be devoid of any academic, social or educated reason for hating a group that is different to that of your own.

In this day and age, it is inexcusable. And to use being a complete ignoramus, is not a viable excuse either.