Polly Toynbee's Christmas Message

[ciphergoth]

Too good to excerpt, please read the whole thing. Propogated from palmer1984. Now with fixed link :-)

Comments

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I'm re-reading it now looking for the paragraph that you think is no more than crude caricature. How does the picture of religion she draws differ from the reality? She makes no mention of progressivism, or contraception, or creationism, or any of the other ways you seek to show a difference.

For what it's worth, I think humility is overrated, and I think tolerance is about as much the Christian message as peace is the Islamic one.

[henry_the_cow]

There are several such sentences; this is one example:

"Secularists take offence too at the way the religious paint unbelievers as poor desiccated rationalists, not only without values, but joyless, lacking a sense of mystery, devoid of awe."

This is not just a caricature of the religious, but of secularists too. I know several believers who do not "paint" me in that way. When some believers do say such things, I disagree with them, but I don't "take offence".

The fact that she makes no mention of progressivism is exactly my point.