| Boreal and Religion Why all the the postings on religion? Because at Boreal we believe in democracy, freedom of speech and expression, equality before the law, equality of the sexes, all of which are threatened by a resurgence of religious fervour and intolerance which may bring an end to the fragile exception. Why does Boreal, when it comes to religion, focus almost exclusively on Islam and not Christianity which is still Canada's dominant religion? It is not because Christianity is not worthy of more postings. Not at all. The main reason for focusing on Islam is because non-Muslim Canadians know next to nothing about this major religion that will change Canada in ways that we are only beginning to appreciate. Aren't Islam and Christianity more or less the same? Islam and Christianity do have a number of things in common. Both, in our view, are in a conflict of interest when it comes to solving the major problems facing humanity from world hunger, poverty, over-population, AIDS, extinction of animal and plant life to violence against women... to simply getting along. A solution to these problems puts these religions in a conflict of interest, for it would make it more difficult for them to peddle their message that God loves misery, that a wretched existence increases one's chances of entering His Kingdom. For both religions, being poor and miserable while maintaining a blind unyielding faith in humanity's alleged invisible friend is almost a guarantee of eternal bliss after death. Where Christianity and Islam part company is in the message of their respective protagonist. Jesus' message is mainly about loving your neighbour and turning the other cheek, with only scattered references to punishment for sinners, as opposed to Allah’s constant, relentless, unremitting, cruel condemnation of anyone who won’t accept Islam, His “Perfect Religion”, as his or her religion. So at Boreal, there is no God? I did not say that. Who knows! We are not keen on any religious icon, dead or alive, though we did find ourselves rediscovering Jesus, after reading Thomas Cahill’s beautiful portrait of his life and times in his book Desire of the Everlasting Hills, The World Before and After Christ. Cahill portrays Jesus, not as the Son of God as claimed by Christians, not as a prophet as claimed by Muslims, but as a wonderful human being, a prince-of-a-man, a professor extraordinaire of the humanities. His simple philosophy about getting along. “Do unto others as you would have them do on to you” just about does it for us. If you admit to liking Jesus why don't you like his religion? He did not create any religion, others did that. We are not against religion per se, just against religions or religious leaders who hijack the simple compelling message of great men about getting along, completely perverting it and providing the justification for unnecessary wars and unspeakable atrocities So, if you don't believe in religion, how do you set your moral compass at Boreal? Mencius, a disciple of Confucius preached more than 400 before Christ that “human intuition is inherently good and should serve as a guide to action and choice.” This we believe. We don’t need religion, and I suspect neither do you, to tell you what is good and what is evil; to tell you what is the difference between right and wrong. If religion does serve a purpose, it is to warn us that evil comes in many disguises, usually in the form of ideologues and would-be saviours who pretend to know the nature of our existence, where we came from and what is our final destination, if any. So if religion is threatening "the fragile exception" how are they going about it? One way is by compromising the secular public school system. Just like modern business leaders — from the hamburger salesmen to the sugared water peddlers — religious leaders know that the best time to get the consumer to buy into their message, their product, is to get the consumer hooked on their brand while the consumer is still a child or an adolescent and is in an environment that will make him or her more receptive, indeed captive, to their advertising. The American and the French Revolutions brought some measure of protection for children from adults wishing to bring their conflicting religious ideologies into the classroom by banning most religious instruction in public schools. After more than a hundred years of relative calm in Western classrooms, with the focus being on learning and the development of critical thinking (religion’s nemesis), religion wants back in. Since in most Western public schools the teaching of religion is still not allowed, religion is looking for other ways to get back in and one of them is by having school children, not unlike running shoe manufacturer Nike, wear the crest, the hat or other symbol identifying the brand of the faith e.g. the hijab. All the major religions would like nothing better than to turn classrooms into centers of religious indoctrination; to transform classrooms into a religious battleground with children acting out the religious conflicts of the adult world. Have they made much progress? Canada’s determination to be everything to everyone has caused the pendulum to shift and private religious schools have replaced secular public schools in the mind of many as the preferred place to mold young minds, and emboldened religious leaders to demand that God be again part of the public school curriculum. They have been most successful in the province Québec which has done just that (read Teach Your Children Well), while Ontario is getting its feet wet with prayers on school property (read Boys in the Front, Girls to the Back). And this is a bad thing? Yes! Perhaps not surprisingly, an increase in enrolment in private religious schools, and accommodating religious rituals and beliefs in the public school system has led to an increase in hate crimes, primarily of the anti-Semitic variety. Religious differences are probably the most divisive force known to man. Accentuating these differences instead of nurturing a cohesive, egalitarian citizenry which shares the same moral and ethical values is probably the most foolhardy thing a nation can do — Northern Ireland, Serbia, Lebanon, India and Pakistan and others all candidates for poster child for such recklessness. Canada’s continuing accommodation of religious rituals and teachings in what was once a god-free environment, and religion's aggressive incursions into the secular sphere would have warranted religion a prime piece of real-estate on any website dedicated to issues that cause a nation to fall apart. Bernard Payeur, January 8, 2009, Rev. July 2011
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