I just saw in the morning news that Justin Welby has been making pronouncements about british politics: in a new year’s address, he called on politicians to treat one another humanely and to “treat political opponents as human beings”. I’m sorry, but I have to say things like this really, really piss me off. As I wrote here, Welby is a man who nobody voted for, whose only authority stems from an ancient, anachronistic belief system; yet he claims a right to speak on national TV and radio, and to tell politicians how to act like some sage old wizard who we should all venerate. That strikes me as obscene. After all, if everyone saw the set of myths which Welby and religious figures like him derive their authority from as the baseless hogwash they are, he would just be ignored like every other lunatic spouting nonsense about their imaginary friends.

Instead, because religion, and christianity in particular, still has so much of a hold over our culture, primarily because the church won’t allow us to call it out as the nonsense it is, such men can tell others what to think and how to act, including our politicians. That strikes me as both extremely arrogant and undemocratic: surely in any modern democracy, political authority should stem from the population, not religion. Welby and preachers like him (note that I refuse to use their self-proclaimed religious titles) have no right to make judgements and pronouncements about politics, and such pronouncements certainly shouldn’t be aired on the morning news.

Blimey, barely a morning into the year and I’m already ranting about politics.