Enough.
As careful readers of this blog may have noted I am an atheist and have become more passionately so over the past seven years.
Can’t imagine why…
In the past two weeks I have read news items about women who face flogging in the lands of our oil-rich pals for absurd “crimes” against the local Islamic Sharia law. Nothing new under the sun, just something that outrages me even more since we so recently turned the millennial calendar page, marked the anniversaries of moon-walks, Darwin, etc.
I’ve vented in non-workplace safe terms over on the Notorious MySpace Blog if you want this a little more raw and blunt, but my deeply considered opinion is that we as a species need to come together on certain core values, among them that there is nothing more civically sacred than separation of Church and State.
Further, we First-Worlders must accept that not everyone has been as fortunate as we to have been born in places where the fruits of the Enlightenment are available for casual consumption.
That said, we must begin consistently and firmly distinguishing between the values of Modern Civilization and the socio-cultural Kids’ Table.
Anyplace in which Sharia Law, state-mandated “tithing”, or the smallest requirement of religious observance is in force must grow up or face consequences.
It could be as small a thing as non-participation in local rituals. It could be as drastic a thing as a full-on embargo of a country like Saudi Arabia whose treatment of women would be considered quaint in a cro-magnon mud hut, but who have long been overdue for a massive U.S.-backed cultural offensive against their offensive culture.
Simply put, if you can’t make a case for your culture absent some goofy mythological nonsense, you have an obligation to reinvent your damn selves.
This workplace-safe stuff is hard sometimes.
And the title quote is from the late, great atheist Douglas Adams.
