No not my view, but that of singer Elton John according to a BBC News story this morning. Elton says “I love the idea of the teachings of Jesus Christ and the beautiful stories about it … But the reality is that organised religion doesn’t seem to work. It turns people into hateful lemmings and it’s not really compassionate.” He’s talking specifically about the attitude of religions towards gays, but he could equally be talking more generally. His solution is to “ban religion completely“.

No, sorry Elton, while I see where you’re coming from this doesn’t work. If you ban religion (or anything else for that matter) all it does is go underground and become more ghettoised and radicalised. (See debates about banning, for example, boxing and pornography.)

Personally I believe that religion is the spawn of the Devil (if people didn’t believe in the Devil they wouldn’t need God/religion to save them from him). However I don’t believe that banning things works. That’s not to say we have to believe, nor that we shouldn’t argue against religion. I don’t find religion intellectually necessary or intellectually satisfying, but who are we to deny a crippled man a crutch? Freedom of speech rules — I may fundamentally disagree with your view but I would defend to the death your right to those views and to be able to express them within civilised bounds (eg. non-violently). Only by having open debate do we make progress both individually and communally.

PS. Oh and I see organised politics in the same way; it is after all only a form of religion where “the party” is god.