Toms View of the World

Now, it’s not often I start a rant by being supportive of religion - however this time it’s a classic example of what’s wrong in our education system…

“We want the children to think about the true meaning of Christmas, which is about helping others less fortunate.” 

Now, noble as that idea is - that Christmas is about helping others, more surprising is that erroneous quote comes from non other than the headmistress of a primary school in Wales, who are making the bold (and positive) move of discouraging the exchange of Christmas cards in favour of donation to Charity.  That idea is excellent - however the problem is that statement I quoted above is so very wrong.

“The true meaning of Christmas”

No matter what you’re religious beliefs, the “true meaning” of Christmas (lit. “Christs Mass”) is to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of the central figure of one of the world religions. (for those unaware “Mass” is a type of Church service in some denominations of the Christian Faith - see wikipedia for a fuller discussion).

It’s just shocking that a head teacher in a school in a (nominally) Christian country doesn’t know that.

It’s a Meme! Yes, I’ve been tagged for a meme by Chris over at “Work up this Morning”.. it’s been a while since I’ve been tagged for one of these, so I thought I’d give it a go anyway!

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Now, as many of you know, there’s a debate going on as to whether the theories of Intelligent Design should be taught in science classes, along with the accepted therories of Darwinain Evolution and the Big Bang…

Now, the question is, where should the line be drawn, and should ID theries be included in Science classes…
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According to a survey conducted by the BBC, whilst 67% of the UK population call themselves “Christian”, (in fact, only 22% stated “No Faith” as their answer) - only 14% of the population regularly attend a religious service.

Hmmm…

Maybe this will put an end to the whole “creation vs evolution” debate - the Vatican has deemed that Creation and Evolution are totally compatible, and not, as many beleive, the creation story being the literal creation of the universe, from nothing to fully formed in 7 real ordinary 24 hours days.

Link: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17162341-13762,00.html

Now, the whole Religion vs Evolution thing has been going on for decades - however, some “Christians” in America are now contesting the whole business of gravity - yes, you heard right - there are Christians who now don’t beleive in gravity, but in fact beleive that God is pushing everything down (and therefore away from him)

http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4133&n=2

(yes, “The Onion” is an American Satirical website and magazine, so this shouldn’t be taken too seriously - in fact it’s a total joke - hope it fooled you!)

This post has been rewitten now to reflect my feelings on this subject - Initially I wrote to reassure people that I wasn’t in London today, and wasn’t involved. However now is the time to write some more.

Firstly, my thoughts are with those who have been affected personally by this act - the victims, their friends and families.

We’ve all been fearing a major terrorist attack on the UK ever since 9/11 and the decision to follow the American government into wars - however, we’ve generally not let fear defeat us and have gotten on with our lives. We must continue to do this. To give in to fear of terror is to lose.

Seeing the pictures of the survivors escaping the depths of the tube system, and of the twisted remains of that bus have left me with a hollow, empty feeling to the pit of my stomach, a feeling I’ve not felt since seeing the WTC attacks beamed around the world in September 2001. That the human race hasn’t progressed, that people are still willing to massacre innocent bystanders - for what?

London will recover, yes, it may take days or weeks to repair the physical damage in the tunnels under London, but rebuild they will, and those trains will run again. The emotional damage to those who’ve lost loved ones, friends, colleagues will go on longer - much longer.

As the details of the numbers killed and injured are starting to be revealed, it’s clear that things could have been a lot worse - this is not on the scale of the attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001 when tens of thousands lost their lives, however that anyone can justify planting explosives in a crowded train or bus, fully knowing that they will be taking innocent lives, no doubt beleiving that their God has commanded them to, is just sickening.

I don’t want a debate here about terrorism or speculation as to who committed these atrocities, and why - so comments are closed on this post.