This week the Republican candidate Rick Santorum has, in his finite wisdom, declared that if a woman is raped then she should "make the best out of a bad situation." This is 2012, and a man campaigning to have the most powerful job in the world is advocating that the consequences of rape are a 'gift'. So a woman who falls pregnant through an evil and heinous crime should be thankful, for it is a 'gift' from God? Well if I am asked to grovel at the feet of someone who allows that then I would rather fight Him then revere Him. If that is God then he is evil, malicious and a shit.
I don't believe in God but millions of people do and they might be right. There is also no question that people should be allowed to believe in whatever faith they wish to follow and I will always argue for their right to do so. Likewise, however, I should be allowed the freedom to question, criticise and mock their faith with a view to dismantling it. I will acknowledge their beliefs but why should I respect them? How can I respect something that treats women as unequal? How can I respect something that tells men and women who they can love? How can I respect something that denies women the freedom to choose whether to have an abortion or not? How can I respect something that advocates the death of anyone who satirises or questions their beliefs? How can I respect an institution that tries to cover up the rape and torture of orphans in church run schools from across the world? How can I respect an institution that has done more to spread the AIDS virus than any other? How can I respect an institution that demands infant mutilation?
The majority of religious rhetoric seems not to be about the sacred and numinous but more about anathema. The view that in order to have a moral framework we must first believe in the divine arrests common moral standards from the public and makes it property of faith. This certainty of belief undermines our humanity by denying human choice. To take away someone's ability to choose takes away the very essence of their being. We have the imagination and intelligence to carve out a life for ourselves, rather than in the image of someone else, by making our own choices, both good and bad. The view that a woman cannot choose to have an abortion after being raped because it is a gift from God is nauseating. To express it with such prelapsarian naivety as to 'make the best out of a bad situation' is nauseatingly vile.
I have no quarrel with individual, pious and devout members of whatever faith. For the majority it is a peaceful, placid and personal relationship with their creator. However, it is when religion exerts itself onto the lives of others that it exposes itself as being self-serving and an enemy of freedom of speech. Events this week at the Jaipur Literary Festival in India showed that the vitriolic hate aimed at Salman Rushdie which first emerged in 1988, some 24 years ago, is still as potent today as it was then. Of course people can demonstrate democratically against something that they don't agree with, that's perfectly acceptable.
However, threatening violence and murder is not democratic but cowardly and shameful. The fact that it had to be taken into account that children were present at the festival and therefore were in danger of the consequences of violence makes the threat even more egregious. A man having his life threatened for daring to appear on a video screen whilst he sits thousands of miles away seems preposterous but it is a fact that some parts of human existence remain rooted in archaic endeavour. Amongst the backdrop of some of the most fascinating human exploration into our existence being carried out at CERN today, there are still people who want to render diversity, knowledge and curiosity as impotent, all in the name of blasphemy.
Why? If God exists then surely religion shouldn't have to defend itself. Whatever the religion, it is either true or it is not. If it exists, then God doesn't need protecting. Religion should stand or fall by that premise and not deny anyone their voice if they choose to question or not believe in it. I want to stand up against this religious bullying as much for my despair at people being manipulated by religion but also because of my absolute faith in the capability of the human race.
We are capable of incomprehensible greatness as well as fantastic evil. We can search the outer reaches of the universe and help cure some of the most destructive diseases as well as kill each other and allow Jeremy Kyle to have a career. And we are responsible for both. Don't let religion tell you that all that is great in the world is the work of God and all that is evil is the work of Man. The power is within us, not a totalitarian figure. We are capable of anything, both good and evil as Rick 'best out of a bad situation' Santorum has shown.