Alex’s Heresies – embracing a physical reality

Christian Today, an on-line Christian newspaper, reports that one in four children in the UK are bullied for faith-based reasons.

A survey published today by a leading bullying prevention charity has found that one in four school students admits to being bullying – often violently – because of their religion.

Beatbullying, which runs interfaith bullying prevention programmes, said its research indicated that that there was little provision for young people to talk about their faith and that almost half of young people do not talk about religious or faith issues at all.

The survey of 819 young people also found a degree of religious segregation, with 20 per cent of the young people surveyed saying that their circle of friends consisted mainly of people from the same religious background. (full article 17 Nov 2008)

It amazes me that religious people continue to believe and promote that strong religious belief leads inexorably to good moral behaviour. There seems to be no evidence supporting this stand. We see so many cases of strong faith being destructive. People’s moral behaviour should be seen as a strictly human affair with strictly human solutions.

Alex McCullie