I understand that this topic could be deemed as
controversial by some; but it is a post I have been meaning to put up for a
while.
I assure you I have nothing against specific religions, but only on
their effect on the law.
Let me start by explaining what I feel discrimination is
(you will have to bear with me for a moment),
Discrimination is where you treat one group of a society
different to another group in a society based only upon a factor which cannot
be changed by the group in question.
In this post I will make the assumption that religion is a
factor which cannot be changed by people, (although it obviously can, but the
belief is so strong that it must be assumed that they cannot).
The question I would pose is how would we go about treating
all religions equally in society?
How would we not discriminate against any specific religion?
If laws are passed in a country which are dependent on
whether you are part of a religion or not, and they give you rights which any
other part of society would not have had in the same situation, I would call it
discrimination.
Well it’s all very well saying that it’s discrimination, but
what can we do to stop this discrimination?
Well we can’t start treating religions differently to one
another in the law, so why don’t we discard religion within the law?
After all if there is no religion in place within the law
then all the religions will be treated equally.
At this point I would expect somebody to say “Hey, what
about Atheism? If there’s no religion in the Law then that will favour the
religion of Atheism over others?”
Unfortunately this shows a gross misunderstanding of the
word atheism. Atheism means your non-religious. It is the lack of religion and
that means it is not one in itself. Actually without the presence of religion,
being an atheist means absolutely nothing at all.
Here’s a metaphor to explain –
For a photo-shoot you have 5 lighting colours to choose
from. Tom wants to use the Blue filter, Barry wants to use the Red filter, Fred
wants Orange, Jess wants Green and Hannah wants Yellow. How do you make sure
that you treat all the people equally?
The only way is to turn out the light.
So to continue my metaphor to stop discrimination in this
country due to laws with religious clauses is to “turn out the lights”. Then
EVERYONE will be treated the same and EQUALITY will be achieved.
This is why Religion and the Law should never mix.
Here are some examples;
I saw on the television a few months ago the story of a
woman who wore a cross to work for many years round her neck and she worked
with heavy machinery. Due to health and safety grounds she was told that she
could not wear the necklace anymore as it may get stuck in the machine.
She claimed she needed to wear the cross on religious
grounds; and I believe eventually was allowed to.
Now, this seems harmless enough, but where does that leave
the rest of the people in her workplace? What If they really wanted to wear a
picture of their wife/husband around their neck? How about a special ring?
How about ID cards? If you say that it’s on religious
grounds you can cover up your face as much as you like, with what you like.
Does the rest of the population get that privilege? No? Why not? I guess
probably because an identification card is used to identify you, and if you
cannot be identified then it renders the identity card completely useless?
I look forward to everyone’s inevitable comments.
