Tim Walker’s Religion III

Just days on from Christchurch’s most recent ‘darkest day’, amid a nation forced to accept that New Zealand’s hate issues are no different to those of any other country and that things need to change, what has changed?

In the opinion of some, religion ought to be outlawed. It seems to do nothing but pervade prejudice and incite hatred across the world; yet in the opinion of others, religion builds the foundation, it provides the structure and gives the strength to work through these dark times, it brings people together by promoting harmony and inspiring love…

Friday 15 March 2019. Two Christchurch mosques, one Australian gunman; the lives of 50 innocent people are ended.

…Every one of the world’s great wars have been ultimately inspired by religion, and there is nothing harmonious or loving about pain and suffering; in fact, realistically, across the last hundred years, if not for religious disharmony the world would have been just about devoid of conflict. Still though, ‘religion’ is maintained as projecting the ‘values of good’, the ‘essence of peace’…

The March 15 massacre was a hate crime, that much is clear. While Brenton Tarrant isn’t affiliated with Al Qaeda or other known terrorist groups, he is a White-supremacist and he is an extremist.

…In these modern times where the facts of the world are beyond dispute, how is it still acceptable that there are large portions of this world who are permitted to not only partake in, who are encouraged to worship, the belief of an intangible entity who is purported to have committed deeds of a miraculous nature, deeds in fact akin to magic, and whose presence is, overall, very much akin to make-believe? …

Tarrant’s movements were calculated, and they were deliberate. This Australian national targeted Christchurch’s mosques seemingly because he believed that Muslim worship was damaging to New Zealand’s identity.

…The Greeks, the Romans, long ago accepted that their array of gods were merely mythical and, as is currently taught in New Zealand school’s curriculum, were essentially developed by a primitive populous hoping to provide understanding for all that happened in the world beyond their comprehension…

Breton Tarrant, this Australian-born 28-year-old who has resided in Dunedin for some time, was known around town and by all accounts appeared ‘normal’.

…Religion is one hundred percent a belief system. There is no, nor has there ever been, physical evidence to support religion which is how, even in this modern era with all our supposed knowledge, zealots are able to develop new religions, new belief systems, new logic, then brainwash, exploit, abuse and, as is becoming the fashion among religious sects around the world, sexually assault, its followers…

Tarrant acquired a firearms licence in 2017; five different weapons were then used across two locations to carry out the massacre.

…The embracing of religion, 2000 years ago, was understandable; these people had nothing, they knew nothing. Religion gave them something to believe, gave them some reason to hope, and moreover it gave them some semblance of control

Tarrant had reportedly spent some considerable time at a shooting range, presumably in preparation for Friday 15’s act of inhumanity.

…Control though, undoubtedly religion has always been about control; convince a generation of supple-minded youth that if they don’t behave, they will incite the wrath of a vengeful god, resulting in a generation of well-behaved – God-fearing – youth.

Of all the liberties that world Governments have ever outlawed because they were too damaging, too costly, or not socially acceptable, religion has not once come into focus; yet the truth, the irony is that religion is in fact the most damaging – in that it has ruined innumerable lives worldwide – the most costly – in that it cheats money out of the trusting and the impoverished – and the most socially unacceptable because, simply, society refuses to accept the sequence of events that took place in Christchurch that day.

It is my belief that, in the 21st century, we no longer have any need for the crutch of religion; we know enough about the planet and its creation to dispel these insidious myths of creationism, allowing us to live in a world of genuine harmony.

 

 

Article by Tim Walker

Edited by Weka Upp

Photography by Meke B Leif

 

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