I always thought the purpose of G-d was to make the world a better place. To instil morality that, according to those of a religious nature, would be lacking without a religious framework underpinning society’s laws. So any kind of ‘holy war’ has always seemed a complete contradiction in terms, even for one as ungodly as I am. But here in the west we have reached a balance between God and the state, with a separation between the two, one the domain of keeping food on the table and the streets safe, the other in charge of the spiritual. God won’t give you a parking ticket, David Cameron seldom performs a miracle.

So how does that line get crossed? What happens when the godly take over? Or try to?

The first problem is ‘which God?’ The Protestant one? Catholic one? Jewish one (he’s the oldest with the longest beard)? The Muslim one? Or one of Hindu’s 1200 odd gods? Some of them very odd with elephant’s trunks and bejewelled fingers on their 7 hands.

‘God’ for those of us who have some kind of peripheral interest in the concept, is a man-made construct. We invented him/her for some kind of understanding/accountability for things beyond our grasp. And as more and more ‘things’ became understood, God’s role inevitably took something of a back seat to the explanations of science and technology. We no longer needed ‘Him’ to provide rain for the crops; we had watering cans and hosepipes. The last big unknown, how we all arrived here, and why? can be explained by The Big Bang theory, but that in itself is just another belief, another construct, and if you like, you can call that ‘God’ for want of a better term. Just depends what you choose to believe.

But the idea of God is strong, is guiding and is essential for keeping order. In theory.

So which God would approve of mass slaughter in His name? They tried that in the Crusades and to be honest, it wasn’t very popular with the agnostics.

I saw a banner at a protest which read:
“no to democracy
no to secularism
yes to Islamic State”

It could have been just a little better, it could have read: ‘vote no to democracy’, then I’d have been happy.

Every religion has its own version of ‘thou shalt not kill’. Every religion should preach, above all else, tolerance and understanding.

Where the fuck did it all go wrong? And is ‘God’ happy with slaughter, genocide and horrendous actions in His Name?

For God’s sake have a happy Tuesday

A xxxx