God: The ony male member of the Girl Guides.

   I keep having to reminding myself that this story doesn't come from the US, but in fact my own, vastly more secular country, the UK.
   It also comes from a source that I wouldn't usually associate with religious (or non-religious)  prejudice - The Girlgiding UK.
  To those of you from across the Atlantic, the Girl Guides (or the Brownies)  are the British equivalent of your Girl Scouts - this story probably won't seem that overly shocking to you either, as this kind of thing happens in your country all the time, like in the US Scouts, that don't allow gays, despite having a rainbow in their logo.  

  Maddie Willett, is a normal seven year old girl. She has two normal, law-abiding, loving parents who have nothing dishonest that can be said about them... accept one thing... they're atheists.
  Maddie has spent 6 months at Brownies, and wants to continue. But too stay in brownies, she must first take the following pledge:

"I promise I will do my best, to love my God, and serve the Queen and the country, to help other people and to keep the brownie guide law" 

 The atheist parents of Maddie Willett, thought it wrong for their daughter to have to say that she loves God, and that if they would allow her not to take the oath, or, to simply replace the word God for something else, say 'Life' or 'The Universe'. That's not a big deal I think, and it's not like they're asking to completely change the oath, it's just for their daughter, and possibly for other children of non-religious families. I also don't see what the problem in doing this would be. Would changing one word for one girl send the whole girl guides into anarchy? I don't think It would.

Mrs Willett gave this statement:

"We don't have belief in God, and our Daughter is yet to make a decision, it's a big decision for her to make and It would be offensive for an atheist to say they love God."    

   But anyway, the guides said that this would be ridiculous, and the Oath was to stay the same and if Maddie didn't say it, then there would be no other option but to ban her from the group.                                          

  But what do you think? Is this just a petty word - she can say she loves God, but it doesn't mean she has to mean it.
  Or do you agree with the parents?  That a child, shouldn't have to declare love for something she doesn't even know if she believes in yet.
 Or perhaps... you agree with me.
That the word should be changed, but not just for young Maddie, but entirely! The Girl Guides is a great place for young girls for them to learn teamwork, knitting or whatever the hell they do, but religion should have nothing to do with it.
  Whether you believe in God or not, should be a choice you make by yourself, when you're old enough to do so and it shouldn't be forced on you while you're at school, or when you're at Brownies.
  You may have noticed that I nether used the phrase 'Christian Child' or 'Atheist Child' in this post, that's because It makes my blood boil, when I see young children being actively forced into or even being associated with religion. ( And if you're wondering, yes, that is why I didn't come to your son's christening.)

Capital Dumbishment.

   You've probably already heard, it's been trending on twitter all day,  but there's talk of MPs taking a vote on the place of Capital Punishment in the UK. They're doing this because, apparently, a majority of the nation want to see Capital Punishment reinstated. Well, a majority of the nation also vote on reality TV shows and pray to an invisible cloud wizard, So I don't think they're fit for making any kind of decisions. Unless that decision is whether Candeice has a better tits than April.

  For moral guidance on Capital punishment  I decided to look in the Book. No, The Bible, better.; The Lord of the Rings.
 There's a brilliant bit in Book 1, where Gandalf is telling Frodo how he and Aragorn caught and interrogated Gollum, before setting him free. Frodo is angry at this and tells Gandalf that he should have killed Gollum while he had the chance. The following is my favorite line from the Lord of the Rings. And pretty much somes up my entire views on the death penalty

" Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise can not see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum  can be cured  before he dies. But there is a chance of it. " 

                                                           ___

  To me, Capital Punishment is not a question of whether criminals deserve death or not. But it's a question of whether the rest of us have the right to give it to them. And as far as I'm concerned, we don't.
 I think it goes back to the macho-conservatism that I talked about in my first blog post, when deluded people seem to insist that it's justice  'AN EYE FOR AN EYE" they'll scream. I'm surprised this is such a commonly chanted mantra, when decades ago Gandhi completely ruined it by ingeniously adding  '... will make the whole world blind' to the end.

 It also needs pointing out that Capital Punishment doesn't work as a deterrent. There are no results that show that crime goes down when it's instated, and no results to show it goes up when it's taken away. If somebody really wants to commit a crime they will, whatever the the punishment, because, believe it or not; they usually plan around getting caught.

 Capital Punishment doesn't prevent crime, it just pushes it under the carpet. If you really want to permanently reduce the rates of crime in the UK, first do something about the 13 million living in poverty. It's not a little know fact that their is higher crime in poorer areas. Reduce poverty, you reduce crime. And instead of dehumanising the already prisoners, you educate them to be, so when they go back into the outside world, they can get a job, instead of having to revert back to crime.