Halo, Halo! (2024)

The Halo Halo Column from the July 2024 issue of the Socialist Standard

Actor Brian Cox: ‘the Bible is one of the worst books ever’ (MailOnline 30 April).

*****

’Right’, said Om. ‘Now…listen. Do you know how gods get power?’ ‘By people believing in them’, said Brutha. ‘Millions of people believe in you’.

‘People said there had to be a Supreme Being because otherwise how could the universe exist, eh?… But since the universe was a bit of a mess, it was obvious that the Supreme Being hadn’t in fact made it. If he had made it he would, being Supreme, have made a better job of it… Or, to put it another way, the existence of a badly put-together watch proved the existence of a blind watchmaker. You only had to look around to see that there was room for improvement practically everywhere. This suggested that the Universe had probably been put together in a bit of a rush by an underling while the Supreme Being wasn’t looking in the same way that Boy Scouts’ Association minutes are done on office photocopiers all over the country’ (Small Gods, Terry Pratchett).

*****

A website going under the name of Islamic Socialism (Marxist Leninist) offers the following oxymoron positing that religion and socialism go hand in hand:

‘We are Islamic Socialists because we are Muslims first and socialists second. Our main beliefs are Allah is one and that Muhammad (PBUH) is his messenger. Second to that is opposition to capitalism. To oppose capitalism is no less than to fight in the cause of Allah… the only answer is an Islamic Socialist society following Sharia. A state for the Muslims that follows in accordance to Sharia and opposes a financial minority growing off the backs of the majority through social revolution and the regulation by a religious vanguard’. Straight from the Lenin playbook, with a twist.

*****

Joe.co.uk. 14 May, carries an article quoting research from an American University which posits that, ‘children raised without religion were “less vengeful, less nationalistic, less militaristic, less authoritarian. And more tolerant, on average, than religious adults.”’ More confirmation of the socialist view that religion has a negative effect on humans.

*****

Praise the Lord and pass the loot! Yet another American Evangelist making a very nice living thank you by selling the buy-into-religion-and-win-the-lottery falsehood. He’s correct however that poverty is a misery suffered by many across the world. That, however, is down to the present social system. The solution isn’t to make preachers rich, it’s the abolition of capitalism. ‘Televangelist and prosperity gospel preacher Jesse Duplantis, who has an estimated wealth of twenty million dollars, has called poverty a “curse” and said his wealth – which includes a private jet and a 40,000 square foot mansion – comes from being “blessed” by God’ (The Christian Post, 29 April).

*****

News from the National Secular Society, 21 May, that the 2022 census showed that results from the 2022 Scottish Census found that ‘51.1% of people in Scotland have no religion. In 2011 the figure was 36.7%.’ Slàinte Mhath!

DC