Personally, I don’t socially know anybody that earns £35,000 a year. Anyway, being on the British Humanist Association board of trustees is not what they refer to as their day job. Moralising, and trying to subvert public opinion is what they do for sh*t’s and giggles in their free time.

As an agnostic who self-regulates my own brand morality, I find this organisation far from laudable. My definition of charity doesn’t stretch to organisation that in 2009 spent £511,000 on staffing costs including a sweet £80,000 “retirement package” for the former Chief Executive. An organisation that in 2009 only took in £885,000. So they blew 58% of their incoming on staffing, and actually helped whom exactly? The poor, the needy, the socially variable, kids with autism perhaps? Nope, nobody really. They married a few hippies* – whoopie freakin-do.

In conclusion: Not a charity! A collective of sanctimonious opinionated middle class whites who believe their Humanist message REALLY needs to shared. Preaching virtue without religion while quite happily pocketing half a million in donation money. Just, wow…

(* sorry, I couldn’t resist the generalisation).

A theism is not trivial. You can’t believe in something you’ve never heard, for instance. Your baby can’t possibly believe in god until it’s old enough to be indoctrinated. (Understands speech, remembers details, etc.)

As for it being a scientist, it’s trying things and seeing what works. Testing its assumptions. That’s science in a nutshell. If it just made up answers and took things on faith (not looking to see if there was something to step onto) it could never learn.

Unfortunately most of that ability goes away once the indoctrination sets in.

No doubt a lot of them were. But I really doubt it was everyone. I suspect the reasons were more complex than that. I *know* that *people* are more complex than that.

‘Ratzi, you piece of slime ridden filth- you’ll get no such pleasure from us’. He took it well. But who’s to say what he asked God to do to me later that night?

(Cue creepy laugh, screen fades to black)

If you vote “Jedi” you’re allowing your vote to be marginalized
and discarded. Politicians can very easily discount those votes
as fringe elements and wackos, people whose interests should not
be taken seriously, since they themselves are unintelligible and
do not take themselves seriously.

To put it another way:
If you vote “Jedi”, you’re saying “Let the wookie win.”

For an anecdotal example, i would like to see the default option pantheist (God is the universe?) in hope of funding for a cluster of large telescopes in L2 to research the beginning of the universe. The Gods belong to the other side of The Singularity where they, freed of the burden of time, can design complicating schemes of how to make the universe better.

The original films treated it as how Obi-Wan described it: “The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us. It binds the galaxy together.”

Basically, the force is just molecular physics!

Being genetically inclined to be able to manipulate physics has nothing to do with religion. It’s kind of like X-Men actually (disclaimer: I don’t know anything about X-Men). It’s one of the deviations from reality that “binds” the Star Wars “universe” together, and which doesn’t require a logical explanation (all fantasy/sci-fi stories have these aspects: it’s how they work).

Actually, I don’t find the midichlorian explanation from Ep. 1 that abhorrent, as many do. It fits perfectly with what was explained in the original films, and makes sense from a genetics standpoint. If it really had anything to do with religion or faith, then anyone could become a jedi or sith master if they trained hard enough, and that’s simply not the case.

Of course, the genetics explanation doesn’t fully hold up, because of evolution – clearly being able to utilize the force is an incredible evolutionary advantage. One would imagine that eventually everyone would have at least some ability to use the force. I suppose this can be explained by the occasional purges where the jedi are killed off because everyone else becomes afraid of them. Perhaps most jedi don’t end up mating, either – apparently they turn into whiny bitches when that happens, so maybe most avoid it :)

But given that I’m a US citizen far removed from the issue, you really shouldn’t listen to me.

It’s one thing to say you don’t like the Rolling Stones but respect their fans’ choice; it’s another to say the Rolling Stones suck and the Beatles are the best band of all time hands down and how could anyone possibly not like the Beatles. It’s another to say you don’t like rock music.

Religion and faith are choices. Having no faith nor religion is a choice as well.

Don’t knock someone for having a faith and don’t knock someone for not having your faith (whatever that may be).

Though I don’t agree with it, I will never tell someone that they shouldn’t be a Scientologist, just as I don’t want anyone to judge my choice in whatever it may be.

They have no option for lapsed catholic so I will be staying neutral on this subject

Surely monies can only be allocated to a true source,
so stating ‘Jedi’ will NOT then allocate monies to Catholic
or Jewish schools.

Regardless of faith, we are still forced to pay for church upkeep
in our council tax and more if we purchase a home that is near one.
Money that I’d rather put in my own churches pocket, or for those who do not want/need a faith, they’d rather keep for more practical use.

The gov can’t ignore ‘Jedi’ either, given some have taken upon themselves to initiate such a church (Acc to above links.)

If you prayed to Jesus the Christ, attend Christian church for baptisms, and celebrate the birth of Jesus on Dec. 25th, you’re a Christian, like it or not. Better look virtuous in case of rapture!

If you prayed to any member of the Greek or Roman pantheon, and celebrate the Saturnalia with a tree on Dec 25th, you are some sort of pagan, probably of a Roman flavor. Observe the appropriate rituals and your gods will be propitiated, and they don’t really care what else you do.

But remember you can have a god and not have a religion, and there are plenty of atheist religions. The various theisms and atheisms are belief systems, but a religion is a community.