Just watched a very interesting documentary on BBC 4 about Madalyn Murray O'Hair. She was a woman in teh 60's, 70's 80's and the beginning of the 90's who led the American Atheists. She campaigned for many things like the removal of prayer from the classroom (which happened) and the removal of "one nation Under God" from the pledge of alegiance (which probably will never happen)...
She seemed like a mighty woman.
Now, I am not religious, neither am I an atheiest, so I feel I can look at this with a fairly open mind.
I think the things she was striving for were good, there are so many cultures and beliefs in the states, people shoudln't be MADE to feel outcast for not believing these things. Cos that's the key word isn't it - belief.
HOWEVER, I do think some of the ways she went about it seemed just nasty. Ripping up bibles etc... I was hoping she'd have been more about just changing the Religion/State part of things - not just infuriating people. That made me a little annoyed. It seemed like she'd tainted her own movement.
However again, seeing how she met her end was pretty horrible... and strangely reminiscant of an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit I saw recently... hmmm....
Anyway... I'm knakkered...
BED!
She seemed like a mighty woman.
Now, I am not religious, neither am I an atheiest, so I feel I can look at this with a fairly open mind.
I think the things she was striving for were good, there are so many cultures and beliefs in the states, people shoudln't be MADE to feel outcast for not believing these things. Cos that's the key word isn't it - belief.
HOWEVER, I do think some of the ways she went about it seemed just nasty. Ripping up bibles etc... I was hoping she'd have been more about just changing the Religion/State part of things - not just infuriating people. That made me a little annoyed. It seemed like she'd tainted her own movement.
However again, seeing how she met her end was pretty horrible... and strangely reminiscant of an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit I saw recently... hmmm....
Anyway... I'm knakkered...
BED!
2 Comments:
At February 08, 2007 6:38 pm,
Ben Schofield said…
The problem with things that are deeply entrenched in society is that there's often, maybe even usually, no subtle way to affect change on them. Often the only way to confront and tackle such things is head on and full force, which sadly is rarely very pretty - it is antagonistic and maybe even offensive - but that is what's needed to really shake things up.
Sounds like a good documentary, wish I'd seen it.
At February 08, 2007 8:49 pm,
Anonymous said…
oh I thank God I am an atheist
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