watervole: (Default)
Although I laugh with everyone else as the end of the world fails to happen yet again, and know perfectly well that the latest prediction (October, I'm told) will also fail, I feel sorry for many of my Christian friends.

The Christians I know are perfectly well aware of the bits of the Bible that say no one will know when the end is due.  They don't pay any attention to these prophecies of doom, but every time another 'End of the World' fails to materialise, they lose a bit of credibility simply because the act of one Christian cult becomes a brush to tar all Christians with. They have my genuine sympathy.

Do I feel sorry for those who sold everything in expectation of the end? No.  A quick bit of research would have shown them just how many failed predictions there have been in the last 2000 years.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if we average at least one a decade.

It's so much easier being an atheist.  All I have to look forward to is peaceful oblivion.  No risk of hell fires.  No risk of being left behind on an Earth being torn apart by earthquakes. 

I have no fear of death.  (dying might be nasty and painful - one reason why I'm firmly in the voluntary euthanasia camp)

I wonder if those who make predictions of the End of the World are afraid of death?
watervole: (Eye of Horus)
This will be brief (as the tooth is aching), but I was listening to an interesting phone in on Radio 4 this afternoon which had a number of very intelligent contributions.

It seems to me that a Muslim woman's veil has very different meanings in different parts of the world.

There are parts of the world where it can, and is, used to subjugate women; but in Britain, some women wear it very much as a positive gesture - as an outward declaration of their faith. (I felt really sorry for one woman who had worn it until recently and had been forced to give it up as she could no longer bear the name-calling from people in the street) There are families where some daughters freely choose to wear it and some do not. There are women of Anglo-Saxon ethnic origin who choose to wear it after converting to Islam.

It actually seems to me that wearing the veil in many countries shows a lack of freedom/independence for women, but that in Britain (for some women at least), it is the wearing of it that demonstrates freedom and independence.

I don't like it - I find it alienating not to see someone's face - but I'm starting to understand why some women choose to wear it.

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Judith Proctor

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