Good Friday?

Good Friday?

So what's all the fuss about? If it's a Bank Holiday, then fair enough.  But it's a Public Holiday, which is different, apparently.  This is another example of where normal, secular life has been hi-jacked by the ages-old religious agenda.  My local swimming pool is closed for the day (and again all day on Monday), even though this is the very time when most people are on holiday, and actually want to use the facility.  The shops and supermarkets will all be closed on Sunday, although the swimming pool will be open. Why? What is the logic behind this?

This is Europe in the 21st Century, where the vast majority of people are not religious, or don't hold religious beliefs. It's not the superstitious world of Palestine 2000 years ago. I happen to be an atheist with, I think, some fairly good scientific reasons for not believing in God.  Some people are agnostics. Some people are religious, although not Christian.  Some people claim to be Christian, yet never go to church, read the Bible or pray. Doesn't this mean that a tiny minority of deluded people, through the apparatus of the Christian Church, are effectively dictating how modern life can be lived?  Aren't they interfering with my (reasonable) freedoms?

I don't have the interest or the energy to sit and argue with Christians.  I happen to think they are deluded, but it's their choice to believe in a jealous, angry, game-playing deity. I have no desire to deny them their rights to believe what they believe, or to practice their ritualistic mumbo-jumbo in Church buildings.  They can do what they like, along with those who believe in voodoo, druidism, Zeus, and all the others. If that's how they want to waste their lives, it's up to them.

But why do I have to accept that they dictate how normal commercial life operates?  Don't make any sense to me.

Copyright Andy Fawthrop 2013