Candle in the Wind

Elton John suggests a ban of organized religion (Observer, November 12 2006 http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/story/0,,1942541,00.html).

I'm not so sure that even banning organized religion, drastic though the consequences may be, will solve the problem of religious hatred and homophobia.

After all, Islam and to a lesser extent Christianity are notoriously DISorganized religions, to the extent that they were/ are quite happy to kill members of their own faith for “heresy”, let alone us fags. Protestants and Catholics may have declared a cease-fire in Europe, but the same cannot be said for Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims in Asia, and increasingly over here.

Our cringing, politically correct (at home, though not overseas) government is regularly criticized by Muslims for talking to “representatives” of other, “wrong” groups of Muslims. I almost pity John Reid, Ruth Kelly and the rest for trying to sort out the mess that they themselves have created, by leaving our borders open to mass third world immigration. It seems that however much they try, and talk, and bend over backwards to appease, Home Office ministers just never get it right. How can those that muddled, exasperated multiculturalists attempt to mollify be in any sense described as “organized”?

I reckon the problem (and their problem with homosexuality) goes far deeper; to the nature of Semitic monotheism itself: the willingness to accept revealed Truth, incontestable sacred scriptures and “chosen races”. These true-believers can, and do, fragment into smaller and smaller groupings – with each groupuscule claiming a monopoly on Truth – yet individually they remain as homophobic and ridiculous as ever. By abandoning reason for faith, they surrender their capacity to evolve.