Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   Yes, if I’ve got anything remotely like a phobia, as an ex-fundy, its bibles, churches, tracts etc. I like to…

2. 

   Imagine us trying to sue for a phobia of seeing a dead bloke on stick outside a church or Bibles.

3. 

   The values that Christians say will be lost require very careful selection. The bible is strewn with statements which are…

4. 

   The human species seems en route for species suicide or, at least, causing dramatic damage to itself. And, amongst other…

5. 

   If non-religious employees of religious employers may not have employer-provided healthcare coverage that includes birth control, then religious employees of…

BRITISH journalist and TV presenter Esther Rantzen,, above, diagnosed with terminal lung cancer last year, reignited the debate on assisted dying by recently calling for a free vote in parliament for the legalisation of assisted suicide.

In doing do she opened the floodgates of religious opposition. Priests began falling over themselves to rehash their earlier objections by babbling on about “slippery slopes” and the benefits of “palliative care” but none infuriated me more than Catholic Bishop John Sherrington, Lead Bishop for Life Issues, who stupidly suggested that Jesus was preferable to a dignified exit for the terminally ill.

This is what the imbecile said earlier this month:

Jesus was always close to the sick and healed them. The life of Jesus has led the hearts of countless Catholic healthcare professionals to be close to the sick, to treat, and care for them. Women and men religious have followed this vocation and founded Catholic hospitals around the world, nursing homes, and motivated many Christians to dedicate themselves to the care of the sick. A change in legislation about the end of life would threaten their work …

Jesus is the Good Shepherd who carries the broken and wounded sheep on his shoulders. He offers consolation, compassion and hope. He is alternative to the choice to end one’s life with assisted suicide. He is present to the dying as they are accompanied by others on this journey.

What utter claptrap, especially given that an increasing number people in the UK are thankfully rejecting all matters pertaining to Jesus and the ghastly death cult he spawned—and that 77 percent people in the UK are in favour of assisted dying.

That figure comes from a poll conducted by the Mirror last December, and a petition, calling for the Government to allocate parliamentary time for assisted dying to be fully debated in the House of Commons and to give MPs a vote on the issue, has been signed by almost 123,000. If you haven’t already done so, please sign it.

The petition rightly says:

Terminally ill people who are mentally sound and near the end of their lives should not suffer unbearably against their will.

Last December Labour leader Keir Starmer backed calls for a change in the law on assisted dying after the issue was brought to the fore by Ranzen.

The Labour leader added that he believed any vote by MPs should be a free one, because of the “divided and strong views”.

I personally do think there are grounds for changing the law; we have to be careful, but it would have to be, I think, a free vote on an issue where there are such divided and strong views.

But the Conservatives, as usual, continue dithering over the issue. Health secretary, Victoria Atkins, said the issue was always treated as a “matter of conscience” but declined to say whether she thought it was time for another vote in parliament.

‘I would ban religion’

Born into a Jewish family, Rantzen presciently said in 2009 on the BBC’s “The Big Question”‘ programme about the Middle East wars, terrorism and hatred across the world:

If I was God I would tell the Jews, ‘you are not the chosen people’ and the Palestinians, ‘I am not on your side’, I am on the side of mankind and you have all let me down badly.

Different factors within the Jewish faith cannot live in peace together, just as in the Christian and Islam faiths. I would ban religion.

The agnostic Rantzen went even further.

I would melt the ice cap and see if that would get mankind together. My first loyalty is with the country I was born in; Britain. I would include political parties. They all use theatre and fear to retain their own power over the masses.

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