From Mr J. Azzopardi

In her letter, Daphne touched on a very critical yet overlooked point: “children being incarcerated after school against their will... ”(TMID, 11 June). All religions thrive on intellectual infancy. They survive mainly because they brainwash the young. It happens in the schools and it happens with tal-Muzew. What is being missed here is that inculcating falsehoods into small defenceless children is a form of child abuse, and a scandal. It is nothing short of fundamentalism. Religions are personal choices and children should be left alone until they are adults and capable of mature consideration. Religions are a systematic perversion of first innocence by falsehood and factionalism. They create barriers on the basis of gender (the insignificance of women and the superiority of men in the Catholic church), ethnicity (the deity’s chosen people), and choice of superstition.

The belief in miraculous powers of relics is no different from belief in the power of “pagan” amulets and lucky charms. They all belong in the realm of fairy-tales. It is absurd to think that the invocation of a relic can suspend the laws of nature for some but not for others. What about child cancers, tsunamis, and the incredible suffering of innocent people all over the world? It is also totally illogical and incomprehensible how the religious have the need to resort to the agency of relics belonging to a mortal at all, and especially when, according to Catholic belief, a supreme miracle routinely occurs day in day out thousands of times a day, merely in response to stereotyped priestly incantations which turn bread and wine into human flesh and blood at will. (Did it ever fail?) All such “beliefs” have their parallel in the mythology of many peoples across the globe, and their stories predate the Catholic faith by thousands of years.

Religion must be returned to the private sphere. We should stop the folly of promoting superstitions and religious segregation in education. The alternative is a return to the Dark Ages. What is needed is proper discussion about ethical principles of mutual concern, imaginative sympathy and courageous tolerance on which the chances for individual and social flourishing rest.

And yes, San Gorg Preca is an ego trip for tal-Muzew.

John Azzopardi

BIDNIJA