no_ambiguity

Do you think that without religion far fewer people would do caring work/charity work? I have worried in the past, that without religion, all we'd have is horrible capitalist greed and self interest.

I don't know, and I have no data whatsoever, so feel free to link to things. I think that Christianity can often harm the poor, for instance, in the Catholic church's refusal to promote condom usage to prevent HIV transmission.

1)I've had a few people say to me recently that there is no point in feminism in this country - that women are basically equal. I'm just wondering how common this view is. I think it's entirely wrong, given that women still earn less, are still victims of domestic violence/rape to a greater degree than men, etc...

2)I'm also wondering what type of feminists people are. I've always had problems with feminists who simply want equal rights (bourgeois feminists, as I used to call them). I don't just want to raise the wages of low paid women so that they equal the wages of low paid men, I want to make the wages equal and raise them for both men and women.

Poll #1382770
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 29

Do you think that feminism is relevant in the UK today?

If you think of yourself as a feminist what do you mean by that?

God, Andrew Brown's column in the Guardian is annoying.

He argues here that children need God.

And here he argues that the environment can only be saved by religion.

Women and religion.

I'm getting past the point now of believing that it's simply men's interpretation of their holy books that's the issue, and not the foundational texts of their faiths that are also at fault. To paraphrase the US-based Freedom from Religion Foundation: the Bible itself is a handbook for the subjugation of women. But then the Bible, like religion, was created by men for men, and has been used ever since its inception as a tool to keep women in their place.

Article on benefits and unemployment. This is basically what I think.

Oh, and this is worrying:

The British Chamber of Commerce predicts that things will only get worse, with unemployment rising to 3.2 million by the end of 2010.

Poll #1367499
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 22

Which do you agree with

1) Gordon Brown - Laissez-faire is over.

Why on earth is he still part privatising the post-office, and the benefits system in that case?

2)The Barclay's tax avoidence whistleblower writes very eloquently about it all IMO.

Poverty in the UK.

By midday on Wednesday, Louise Spencer has £6.80 left in her purse to last until Monday, which works out at £1.36 a day to pay for anything she and her two small children might need.

I've been thinking about embryo screening for various genetic conditions a fair bit, for a while. I'm still slightly uncomfortable with it, because I think it might lead to a situation where people are entirely judged by their value to society (if people could screen out mental health conditions and low intelligence, for instance), and I wouldn't want to live in that sort of society. However, I do think that being able to screen for cystic fibrosis is probably a good thing.

Poll #1330598
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 24

Do you approve of embryo screening for cystic fibrosis etc?

[I don't know that it's necessary for breast cancer actually. Surely if someone were born with the gene that makes it more likely that they'll develop breast cancer, a good solution would just be to have their breasts removed when they're 45 or so. It might be upsetting for them, but it does seem like a reasonable, practical solution.]

Really really irritating Guardian article about atheism. And a follow up.

ARGH COLUMNISTS.

But there's a pretty good explanation of atheism written by Jonathan West as a response.