I deny the existence of the Holy Spirit as per Matthew 12:30-32.
I watched The God Who Wasn’t There last night. It isn’t a particularly good film and I don’t recommend it, but it is nice that people can make and distribute their own personal documentries. It was better than I could make.
One person interviewed in the film made an interesting point. When we don’t challenge people who pass myth as truth because it is their religion, then these views enventually enter the political arena. The result is that otherwise well educated politicians start passing laws based on faith instead of based on reason. The result could be unequal marriage laws, restrictions on stem-cell research, restrictions on abortion, restrictions on education, or restrictions on the value of π. These are some serious consequences.
I believe in freedom of religion, but I think we can still have this freedom while allowing people to challenge religious myths in discourse. There was no virgin birth because that’s not how people are born. Eve was not made from a rib of Adam because that is not how people are made. etc.
Speaking about religion influencing politics, I should take this opportunity to respond to the pope’s scolding of Canada. The law supporting equal marriage in question is section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (see Halpern v. Canada (Attorney General)). Perhaps his holiness would care to explain his problem with Every individual is equal before and under the law
.
As for the plummeting birth rate, having a birth rate that meets the replacement rate is only important for a society that has a fixed average age of death. Fortunately through our perverse effects of secularism
(a. k. a. science) we are continuously allowing people to live longer and healthier lives. In this situatation it makes sense to have a low birth rate. In other words, so long as our birth rate (11.21 births/1 000 population) exceeds our death rate (7.47 deaths/1 000 population) I don’t think we will be having any problems thank-you-very-much.