In my last post I talked briefly about religious tales and stories from the past. I was hesitant to write about such things as I know some people are easily offended when options are presented to them contradictory to their own religious or spiritual beliefs (Are they the same thing?) The more I think about this, the more absurd this seems. Why is it that someone can tell me that god does exist and I am not offended and yet I can barely hint at the possibility that maybe there is no god.

As for my own belief in a god, I’m undecided on this matter – I don’t have all of the evidence, and I doubt that I ever will, however based on what I know already I believe that it is improbable. I’m not going to try and force this on anyone - feel free to believe in whatever you want, I wont be offended.

I first realised that its difficult to talk freely about religion when I was 15 years old. I was having a discussion with a boy that was in my class about religion. He was, and no doubt still is a devout Muslim. Without realising I might offend, I said that I did not believe in any god and how could everyone’s god exist when many religions state that there is only one god. Instead of providing a good counter argument (and they do exist) to prove me wrong he punched me several times in the head. Being a junior boxing champion he gave me a black eye and a split lip. This did not prove anything to me except that feelings can get in the way of serious discussion. I was honestly curious about his faith and wanted to know more. I did not know at the time that religion was a topic not to be touched. Although I have no personal faith system, I believe hitting people is bad. I am also believe this is the case for most religions.

I have since then met many intelligent people that are strongly religious and have been able to discuss religious matters with them. I am always slightly guarded about such discussions as I do not want to provoke or offend. For me to state such a thing as “Your religion/belief system/moral values are wrong” is insulting the very core of that person and is essentially telling them that not only do I disagree with them, but that I think they are wrong for believing such a thing.

I have noticed a similar response regarding certain sports. Several times now I have been threatened because I don’t support a certain football/rugby team. Once I was in a Liverpool pub and whilst visiting the toilet three men cornered me and asked me what football team I supported. I said I did not support any team but if I did it would be some lowly team that needs all of the support they can get. I was told that if I was to say that I supported Manchester United (a big rival team and nearby city) they would have kicked my head in. Ok, to be fair this attitude was not helped by the fact that they were intoxicated, but I can never imagine myself saying such a thing to anyone regardless of team/religion/age/race/gender.

I believe that team mentality has a lot to do with these heightened feelings - I believe a group experience increases ones emotions towards a belief system exponentially. If someone is to criticise the belief behind these feelings, either by stating such or just by not believing they are seen as attempting to essentially reduce the perceived value of them.

There are many things I believe in very strongly. For example, I feel very strongly that racism is a bad thing. I live in a town where not all of the people feel the same way as me, however I would never hit someone for feeling resentment towards another person just because of their race. I would much prefer to discuss the issue with them (as I have done) and hope that some of the things I have to say might open their eyes to new possibilities. I also know that if anyone is going to be outwardly angry about it its them, not me. In fact I have been physicaly threatend becuase I have said that racism is a bad thing.

There is also a strong relation between a parents belief systems and that of his/her children. We all know people that support the same football team as their dad, vote for the same party, share the same faith and feel the same way about other issues such as the aforementioned racism. I suspect this is because the family group is the beginning of the group mentality.

Either way, I wish in this day and age we could have a serious discussion about our beliefes without the fear of retribution.