Making Others Suffer For Your Beliefs

Here in the good old Dis-United Kingdom a furore has erupted over the public intervention of the Roman Catholic Cardinal of Scotland (Keith O'Brien) into the debate over the Government's Human Embryology and Fertilisation Bill, due to be debated in the Commons very soon. Apparently, Keith O'Brien has been attempting to influence his more credulous followers that the Bill will allow the creation of 'Frankenstein' science and destroy human rights. The most senior scientists in the country have gone on record rejecting this view as an intemperate misrepresentation.
Down on our little allotment, Nosher and I were debating the merits of the issues one afternoon whilst holed up in Nosher's shed against the biting north wind. Every so often a severe gust would make the shed tremble. The weather was sunny but the wind too cold to work outside, too cold even for parsnip wine, so I opted for hot vegetable soup out of my thermos whilst Nosher had a mug of tea.
'Being as my only spiritual impulse is towards vegetables' Nosher started 'I think that stem cell research should be supported and the sooner we get cures for MS, Parkinson's and Altzheimer's the better.'
'Don't you think it's a bit creepy' I responded 'that the leadership of the Catholic Church should condemn this important research on the basis that it violates the human rights of a cluster of non-viable pre-embryonic cells, and yet is content to watch millions of people suffering and dying from MS, Parkinson's and Altzheimer's? They leave us in no doubt that, if they had the political power, they'd ban it, along with contraception and abortion'.
'Creepy, yes, surprizing, no' replied Nosher. 'After all, the Catholic Church has, since its creation, probably caused more death and suffering than any other thing on the planet except natural disasters. Even now, in countries where it has any political influence, it bans abortions even on ectopic pregnancies, thus condemning tens of thousands of women to die in excruciating agony every year from a easily treatable condition in which the embryo has no chance of survival anyway. That's how cynical these people are in making others suffer for their own selfish beliefs.'
Well, Nosher may be an atheist, but I've a completely open mind on the existence of a Supreme Being - I just find people rather arrogant when they insist the one they believe in has to be the one the rest of us should grovel to. Which means, of course (since they got there first) that they take it upon themselves to claim the moral high ground and the right to boss the rest of us around.
'It seems to me' I said 'that Cardinal O'brien is relying on sentimental religiosity and a large dash of dogmatic bigotry in claiming that a fertilised human nucleus implanted in an animal cell (in effect, a living test-tube) has human rights which are then violated by doing experiments on it and terminating it after a couple of weeks when it has only grown to a few hundred cells without a functioning nervous system, heart or anything else for that matter. It can't feel pain, and is not even a potential human being, since it would not have the capacity to implant in a human uterus.'
Nosher gave me a wry look.
'Since when have the facts got in the way of religious bigots?' replied Nosher. 'As far as Catholic dogma goes, the fertilised egg is given a soul by God, and is thus considered inviolable - even though the writers of the New Testament were completely ignorant of fertilised eggs, so the doctrine was constructed by the Church many many centuries later to re-inforce male dominance over the reproductive process in an age when men thought they should have uncontested control over their women. Come to think of it, I'm not sure the doctrines of the Catholic Church are much different today'. Nosher finished with a mischievous smile.
'Well, whatever the situation is' I said 'it seems to me that anyone who is prepared to impose his or her beliefs on the rest of us and as a result cause dreadful suffering to millions of people is very, very creepy.'
As another gust of wind caused the shed to tremble, I took another mouthful of hot vegetable soup. At least we do not live in a country where a manipulative religious leader can whip up the more credulous and extreme of his followers into a frenzy of violent hostility resulting in the brutalisation and violent death of anyone seen as their opponents. Not yet, anyway, but who knows? After all, that's how the First Crusade started in 1095, and, underneath our conceits and self-deceit we humans haven't advanced much since then.
More from www.overthegardenfence.blogspot.com soon.
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