Sex, Death, Religion and Polemic

Polly Toynbee is on rattling good form in this piece in the Guardian: Sex and death lie at the poisoned heart of religion.

I particularly like the nod to Ben Goldacre’s piece and the masterful riposte to the utterly witless article from Anne Widdecombe:

As Ben Goldacre pointed out in this paper on Saturday, while this pope claims condoms “aggravate the problem” of HIV/Aids, two million die a year. Ann Widdecombe’s riposte that the Catholic church runs more Aids clinics than any single nation was like suggesting the Spanish Inquisition ran the best rehab clinics for torture victims.

As Toynbee says:

Atheists are good haters, they claim, but feeble compared with the religious sects. Atheists have dried-up souls, without spiritual or visionary transcendentalism. To which we say: the human imagination is all we need to hold in awe. Live in optimism without fear of judgment and death. There is enough purpose and meaning in life, love and leaving a good legacy. Oppose the danger of religious zealotry with the liberating belief that life on earth is precious because this here and now is all there is, and our destiny is in our own hands

Amen to that.