I am an atheist. I am a firm believer that people should be allowed to worship however they want so long as they hurt no-one, including the weak of their own subculture, and that they should be afforded no special privileges by the state. In this I am in agreement with the British Humanist Association (BHA). I find their goals laudable and I think they do good work in publicising these. However I can’t quite bring myself to join them, all because of Polly Toynbee.
I dislike this woman. She supports the controlling, nannying state, she supports the infantilising and fear-mongering which I feel is so damaging to our society. I find her smug pronouncements on things like CCTV and economics raise my ire like little else can. In addition to role as columnist for the Guardian, Toynbee is the President of the BHA.
Voted Islamophobe of the Year 2004 for this fairly easygoing article, I find her views on religion broadly compatible with my own. She shares my disquiet over the isolationist nature of Islam in the UK, and over the rise of the religious school. She is very eloquent in highlighting these reasons and showing that atheists have an equal dislike of all religions [Within reason. I find the hymn mumbling and jumble sales of my local Anglican church preferable to the child abuse perpatrated by those teaching creationism as fact].
Despite this convergence of beliefs I cannot in good conscience give money to an organisation that supports her or keeps her in the public eye. I don’t know if she draws a salary for her work for the BHA (I have mailed them to ask), but regardless they contribute to that rarified atmosphere of Italian villas and media dinners that another distasteful journo, Richard Littlejohn so well described.
