Thursday, 13 December 2007

Encounter With a Rational Fellow

It was with great surprise and excitement that I noticed a fellow passenger reading Christopher Hitchens' book "God is Not Great" yesterday while on the bus home. I was so heartened to be able to strike up a conversation with someone who shared the same views on religion.

He echoed my wish to see religion dismantled for the benefit of everyone, and agreed that more needed to be done at early stages of education to prevent religious indoctrination of children. He suggested restricting Sunday School attendance to children over a certain age, where they had developed better reasoning skills.

We noted the recent founding of yet another christian "traditional-family-values-oriented" political party in New Zealand, and the political influence that religious groups are trying to exert over the populace. He also shared my beliefs that there are far more people who are sick of being hammered with religious nonsense than religious adherents would have us believe; that religion deserves no special immunity from criticism; and that the internet may be where the galvanisation of atheists will lead to real action in the real world on a large scale.

I grinned, and told him I was working on the problem.