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Friday 30 May 2008

The man who lied to take us into war says religion is a good thing. Do we believe him?

Father Tony launches his Faith Foundation in New York today. This is the man who became a Catholic last year and now "wants to spend most of his remaining years ensuring that religion is seen as a force for good in the world", according to The Times. Yeah, right.

The new organisation, for which he is seeking hundreds of millions of pounds of charitable funding, will focus on developing better understanding between faiths as well as fostering concrete action on fighting poverty and disease. “In the end, this will be what I dedicate a very large part of my life to,” he told The Times yesterday.

This bit is interesting from the man whose spinmeister, Alastair Campbell, once said, "We don't do God":

Mr Blair insisted that it would be wrong to interpret his decision to launch the foundation at the headquarters of Time Warner in New York as evidence that America, with its strong religious base, was more fertile territory for his message than a home country where he was forced out of office amid mounting unpopularity a year ago.

Are we supposed to believe that? Is this not the man who lied, or at the very least allowed himself to be misled, to get us into a war in Iraq? Is this the man who has so much faith in "faith" that he didn't like his relationship with his imaginary friend to be talked about too much, lest people thought him the fruitcake that he now shows himself to be?

Yep. He's the one who thinks religion is going to solve all the world's problems.

If the no doubt large part of the expected dosh that is being used to create this understanding between "faiths" were put to the charitable part of his organisation, it might do better. Of course, there will be some practical good coming from it if it does what he says it will do, and helps to ease poverty. But his insistence on doing it through religion, which is the most destructive force on the planet, is wacky.

Yes, there are nice religious people and all that, such as Desmond Tutu and the sweet lady who makes tea at the church bazaar, but we're talking about it as a phenomenon. It's destructive and causes war and strife – and human-rights abuses and untold misery are caused in its name.

It's frightening to think this man once led the UK. He's seriously creepy.

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