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Your letters: Is religion a private matter?

I distinguish between secular states and atheistic states

The Jakarta Post
Mon, April 6, 2015 Published on Apr. 6, 2015 Published on 2015-04-06T07:27:08+07:00

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distinguish between secular states and atheistic states. States such as the US used to be secular but are now becoming atheistic. When you actively teach '€œThere is no God'€ in school you have become an atheistic state.

A secular state does not endorse any specific religion (technically, Indonesia is a secular state '€” although reality is different from theory), but an atheistic state actively endorses atheism. The West has shifted from the former more to the latter.

The statement that: '€œYou may choose to worship your god(s) in your own private time and your own private space'€ is meaningless. Religion is more than just worship. Indeed, what counts as private space for a start? Churches and mosques are public buildings so do those get closed down? Religion involves the whole of a person'€™s being '€” it is not a part-time hobby.

Of course, the West has taken the above statement to heart, which is why Christian midwives in Scotland must now assist in abortions or lose their jobs, and likewise school teachers must teach that homosexuality is normal across Europe, which is contrary to religious convictions.

So there are those who propose that one affirm one'€™s religion on Friday or Sunday and then deny it on Monday, which is exactly the position in which many religions are placed across the West.

This is actually one of the signs of the new atheism of the West. Once upon a time presidents and prime ministers talked of '€œfreedom of religion'€. Now they only talk about '€œfreedom of worship'€.

Atheism is about the freedom to not believe in a god. If people are accorded the right to believe in an imaginary god then they should also be equally accorded the right not to believe in any. God is not imaginary. The evidence of a creator God is absolutely overwhelming, frankly. I can'€™t do it for all religions, but I have rock-solid physical scientific and historical evidence to the point of absolute proof of one worldwide religion.

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