CONGRATULATIONS to Councillor Brodie on stopping the practice of prayers before council meetings, if only temporarily (during his chairmanship).

I can’t imagine that anyone objects to someone else praying privately, but the believers should not be allowed to rub the atheists’ noses in it. I’m sure a room could be allocated for prayers before the meeting — it needn’t be a large one, a broom-cupboard might do.

I’m not an atheist as you might suppose, but my idea of the person who created us is quite different from the views of the established religions, which range from an all-forgiving father to someone willing to condemn his creatures to ever-lasting torture.

I envisage the person who created me as some super-nerd who, dissatisfied with the world he is in, electronically creates his own universe filled with, well, us. Or perhaps everyone who writes a novel, unwittingly creates real characters (us, again).

The trouble with the prayers that we know is that they do not allow for shades of belief; I imagine an all-seeing God would not be pleased with me if I pretended to a belief that I don’t have.

I therefore proposed this one: “O God, if there is a God, please help everybody.” (I think it would be uncharitable to pray for individuals, implying that everyone else is worthless). But I don’t suppose that would be any more popular before council meetings.

Should we be concerned about what religions — or any other bodies — teach their adherents? I think so; Some religions require their disciples to cut bits off their children as a sign of belonging, as the triads were said to cut off a finger. Religions in the past have demanded human sacrifices. The “honour” killings of today often have a religious element.

Should we be concerned about what they are required to teach their children? After all, all the religions are incompatible — otherwise they would have merged — and are in a minority; most of the human race disagrees with what any religious parent teaches his children, often under threats of eternal damnation.

Some believe in one God, others, many. Some believe it is their right, or even their duty, to convert the others to their thinking. Some believe that if one of their flock leaves, he should be cast out, shunned, or killed.

Most cults insist that parents instil their beliefs into their children from birth, and dissuade (to put it mildly) any free investigation of other ways of thinking. We do little to protect children from this — we speak of “Catholic children” rather than “children of Catholic parents.”

I would like to see a law requiring every school and every place of religion to display prominently a notice saying “You are not a prisoner of your religion; you are free to change your opinions and loyalties and it is an offence to try to prevent you.”

  • Last month I asked who said: “I don’t have pet peeves, I have whole kennels of irritation.” That was Whoopi Goldberg.

Now who said: “In England there are sixty religions and only one sauce?"