But it's not our responsibility?

Reading my facebook at the moment anyone would think that I hated this country. They'd be right. There's been nothing but things to rant about this week from the countries selfish attitue regarding giving aid to poorer countries to once again the racism shining through the newspapers condemning muslim people to be once again become a target. I am truly sick of it.
The main problem that's angered me this week has been the issue around aid. Yes we are having problems in this country, we have got ourself into a financial mess but it's our fault. Our problem has been greed and the media's obsession with the quick buck it has not been a flood, it has not been a natural disaster that our country has had no choice in which to face. So when it was announced in the spending review this week that the budget for aid has been increased I never gave it a second thought, it seem the right thing to do and for once the only tory thing I agree with but then the paper got hold of it. 'WE SHOULD LOOK AFTER OUR OWN'. Do these people not understand what is happening in places like Pakistan? Do they not understand the sheer destruction that has happened to these people's lives? If that was us, if we were unlucky enough to have that happen to us would we turn down help and tell the country to help themselves? The massive difference is we would have the structures and money in place to cope with these issues, those countries do not and mainly because as a country we went in their to develop our 'empire' and took everything from them worth having!
It makes me angry that people can be so very selfish, we live in a world at the moment that is getting smaller and responsibility for others doesn't end at the boarder line. If I had a choice I would pay for aid out of my taxes rather than developing nuclear weapons but I understand that in the situation we're in as a power nuclear weapons are necessary, giving aid is not only necessary but the RIGHT thing to do. If people want to stop all aid lets get rid of the benefits system, lets get rid of anything that gives people unfortuante enough to be in a situation where they need help the benefits and aid they need. Just because it's not in our country doesn't mean they're not people, doesn't mean they're not part of the human race and doesn't mean they don't deserve our help.
Someone asked me if I'd rather lose my job or give aid. That's the easiest question I've ever been asked and anyone who needs to think about it really needs to take a long look at themselves and their priorities.

The atheist voice

I have been told several times lately that I'm not allowed to talk about something because of my opinions on the subject. What, I hear you say, could possibly be my opinion-crime, could it be that I champion race hate? Do I think that gay people should be banned from society? No. Lets face it I am never ever going to be that much of an idiot.

My crime is not believing in God.

I am a atheist. Atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist. I do not hate faith. If people want to believe that there is a big guy up in the sky who passes judgement on everything they do then fine, that is their choice but I don't and I don't see why I should be punished for that. If someone could come up to me and give me indisputable proof that God exists then of course I would believe it, I would have no choice but no one can do that. When a scientist discovers a new treatment for a disease the onus is on him to produce the proof, he cannot simply say 'well I know it's true, you can't prove it's not' but this is what we do with religion. Why are the two so separate?
Faith however is not my main problem with religion, the problem I have is with organised religion it's self. I find it massively hypercritical, negative and in our modern day society I find it out dated and in some respects harmful. Why do we need to go into a building so ornate it rivals a palace? Surely the money spent making this building so beautiful could be spent elsewhere? Could be spent feeding the starving children that are littered around the world? Even Jesus himself would worship on the banks of the river.

The person they've deemed the person most appropriate to channel the word of God has spoken out against the importance of contraception, the need to procreate and the evils of being homosexual. How in a developed society can we possibly ever accept views like this? What is more terrifying is the effect his words are having on the less developed countries, people who are more vulnerable to poverty and virus's, such as AIDS, are putting themselves at more risk because that is what the church is advising! If AIDS is going to be the emdemic that destroys the world it is going to be at the church's hands.

What really prompted me to write this however was the fact that if I express these views in public I am told I am a hater of the church and wouldn't ever give it a chance, this is rubbish. I have given the church chances in the past, I have attempted to believe, I tend to not close my mind over to anything and that includes religion but it's not for me and what is so damn wrong with that? Just because I am an atheist doesn't mean my opinions are any less vaild, my decision to not believe were borne from careful consideration and gut feeling alike. If you believe in God then that's fine with me but do not attempt to shove it down my neck and do not tell me that my words are not valid because they are not confirmed by a book that was written by man.