Bullshit "I'm an atheist but atheism is evil" article in the Grauniad boils my blood

[Pat Mustard]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...ar-society

So it's atheism's fault that you're Billy no mates John Harris? Yeah go fuck yourself and stop tarring me and others like me with your own personal failings.

Now that I've gotten the worst of my anger at the stupidity out of my system, lets look at some pertinent points:

the chance of any shared reflection on the last year’s events still seems slim. Secularised societies do not really work like that.

No John, it's not secular society that does that, it's a society which prioritises sensationalism and instant reaction over thoughtfulness, introspection and interrogation. The kind of society you with your "journalism" are busy enabling.

Religion does not do reflection, like you are trying to imply. Do you know why? Because if more religious people were reflective of their own religion they'd be turning away from it. Religion is a system of control, in both thought and action, people who take time to think destroy that control.

Across 95 countries, Googling the word “prayer” increased by 50%,

Firstly taking figures from a lying scandal rag like the Torygraph is not good journalism. Secondly even the scandal rag itself has to admit that this increase is confined to poorer countries with authoritarian controls and where religion works hand in glove with (often dictatorial) governments to keep their citizens fearful and ignorant. When all you're taught is "only god will save you." you're damned right you're going to start praying to god when things go wrong. It's a natural result of ignorance.

In March 2020, a service led from his kitchen table by the Archbishop of Canterbury drew 5 million viewers, described by the Church of England as the largest congregation in its history

Were these five million confined to the UK? No. How many were bots? We don't know. How many were inflated numbers by members of anglican religious orders world wide told to watch the service? We don't know. How many simply tuned in for a few minutes and then scarpered off because it was boring? We don't know (but going on the way viewership figures are counted online I wouldn't be surprised if it was a significant number).

Frankly, for an internet broadcast world wide to a religious denomination by the head of said denomination, getting five million views out of a potential 85 million adherents is not a good look. The pope probably gets that many for a normal Sunday mass.

We talked about how the Covid-19 era compares to the Black Death of the 14th century, and the ways that societies and communities collectively responded to the latter – from the “fraternities” in Italian cities dedicated to caring for and burying the dead to the processions in English towns and cities staged as both massed acts of penitence and a way of supposedly warding off the plague.

You were talking to the wrong historian John. Any serious medieval historian will tell you that society basicly broke down during the first outbreak of the plague, and took a long time to restructure itself. It is clear in the records that this happened. And one of the biggest effects of the bubonic plague was the loss of faith among many people, it was the first time christianity faced a mass disaster among its whole community, and it's favoured solution "Jesus Harder!" failed utterly.

Today, a mixture of individualism and collective denial leaves many of us without the ideas or language to conceive of Covid like that.

Yes John the conservative ideals of "fuck you, I got mine" have failed us. Do you know what types of organisation are heavily involved in conservative movements. Religions! Ascribing to atheism the failings of other ideologies is a dishonest and mendacious thing to do. But then again, John, that's the core of your "journalism".

Long before Covid’s arrival, it was clear this was something too many people were losing touch with. Through decades of secularisation, cheered on by irreligious liberals, not nearly enough thought was ever given to what might take on the social roles of a church.

Yes John, atheism was never interested in maintaining a culture of child rape, keeping poor people down through the lie of "jam tomorrow" or in supporting and giving moral cover to genocidal movements and governments. Because the vast majority of us recognise that those things, the core of religion's messages, are evil in any context.

Sorry about the rant, but I really hate these "I'm an atheist, but christianity, it's the best!" articles the Grauniad loves printing by journalists like John Harris who have no investigative skills nor the intelligence required to understand that what they do write is useless filler.