religion in this 21st century

In this new 21st century there are more atheists arising in western society than any other time in history, technology (specifically the internet) has made the world much much smaller, anyone from anywhere can talk to anyone from anywhere (except North Koreans of course).

Everyday advances are made in science (which in itself is slowly proving creationism and other aspects of Christianity to be falsehoods), so when we hear in the news that some Saudi family is suing a genie over alleged harassment and then having a court coming to the conclusion from medical sciences that Epilepsy is not caused by evil genies many of us make the ignorant assumption that Saudi Arabia is a backward cave society that just found its way out of the 7th Century.

That however could not be further from the truth, Saudi Arabia has a society well advanced from their Nomad heritage!



A lot of their wealth comes their vast amounts of oil reserves that they sell in large amounts mainly to the United States who are close friends with them, however the Saudi's didn't like US troop bases in their country at all!
Which is why in 2003 American forces pulled out not to strain political relations.

The thing is religion seems to be part of the state over there, it has an infamous religious police called the mutaween, who have the power to arrest unrelated men and women caught socializing, seize products regarded as "un-Islamic" and strongly enforce how Muslims dress and what they eat!

In March 2002, they forcibly barred schoolgirls from escaping a burning school in Mecca because the girls were not wearing head scarves and black coats. Consequently, 15 girls died and 50 were injured!

Reading that last paragraph and thinking about it really does put a lump in my throat!

King Abdallah had this to say a few days ago:

"If God wills it, we will then meet with our brothers from other religions, including those of the Torah and the Gospel to come up with ways to safeguard humanity," he added. The king, who is the guardian of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina, said the major faiths shared a desire to combat "the disintegration of the family and the rise of atheism in the world"...

According to the official Saudi Press Agency King Abdullah said "I have noticed that the family system has weakened and that atheism has increased. That is an unacceptable behavior to all religions, to the Koran, the Torah and the Bible. We ask God to save humanity. There is a lack of ethics, loyalty and sincerity for our religions and humanity."

This comes at the same time they are having more stricter measures on what Saudi people can view or read off the internet, internet activity in internet cafes is being strictly monitored and some 10,000 websites are blocked every month!
It's almost like the Saudi monarchy fear that its people might become self aware or become infected from that malignant disease that sometimes enters the human brain known simply as common sense.


I actually saw this sign in Dublin!

People should be free of that kind of stuff, I don't mind religions imposing their will in the media to the general public (even though it can be used to dumb down people significantly) but changing the law to meet a religions demands of standards, that is when you know society is going further and further back into the Dark Ages, I thought I couldn't be more upset with my country after they introduced that blasphemy law, and picked the time when we were getting poorer and knee deep in a recession to do it!

Anyway I think I've done enough ranting.

Bottom Line: Religion is what you feel in your heart, it doesn't have to be what you feel in your head, but if you don't honestly feel anything in your heart you're an atheist, you're not cold hearted, you might be a little further up there on the productivity scale but you shouldn't as a human be forced into anything you don't believe in.

Life is far too short for that!