Piety

I have two types of memory of the school that I attended in England between the ages of 11 and 18 - bad and foul.

Once in a while though (due to my name and the school appearing together on some website or other), I am contacted by someone from there.

Last year I was invited to the Old Boys' dinner. I contemplated going, a chance for my wife to visit my aunt, and to meet some people who knew me nearly 50 years ago (perish the thought in several instances). The idea was abandoned when I was informed that she could not come, as it would be an all male affair. Looking back, one of the major problems with the school was just that - all boys, no girls!

The prospect of getting from Frankfurt to Humberside and back for a weekend is daunting enough. The fact that the person paying for the trip could not even attend the function that was the major reason for travelling? No, totally unacceptable. Vetoed. Next!

A year or so previously I was invited to attend an event where we would meet in the school hall and sing the school song for one last time. Apparently they were closing the building and tearing the place down. I will refrain from any cynical comment here, but let me simply say that I was not even tempted to attend. No misty eyes, just pragmatism!

The school song though is an interesting concept. Does anyone still have them, or need them? I recall one line from ours:

"But the pious man who this school began"?

This sounds like two mistakes being lauded in one short sentence! "Pious" here is meant apparently as a compliment.

OK - most Catholic nuns you would imagine to be kind, dedicated people (but check out Michael Moore's comments on the nuns who taught him!), and the Buddhist monks whom I have met since marrying my Buddhist wife are undoubtedly sincere people, and offer much that is laudable.

But the whole concept of piety requires unquestioning devotion to a religious belief. The teachings of that religion are never to be questioned, they cannot be seen as in any way mistaken, and the rules are to be followed to their ultimate limit.

If the tenets of the religion are wise, consistent and peaceful, then you can live with the consequences of the closed mind impact that it will have on the world as a whole. So at this point we acknowledge pious Buddhists with the respect that they deserve, ignore Hinduism as we know precious little about it, dismiss Jainism and the like for the same reason, and flash the number of proverbial fingers (one in Germany, two in the UK) at some of the others.

Islam in particular (though I have no interest either in defending Christianity or Judaism).

The young Nigerian man who got on to a plane going from Amsterdam to Detroit a couple of Christmas Days ago with explosives in his underwear, was described among other things as "pious".

A wonderful word for a terrorist bomber without the slightest concern for the rest of the people on that plane, some of whom must have been Muslims themselves!

For "pious" read "fanatical", "uncompromising" .... or just plain "stupid"!

We have brains to think. We have brains to analyse. We have brains that can be put to many worthwhile uses (not that intelligence seems to count for much in this world these days). Simply allowing the brain to be a sponge that absorbs a series of ancient myths and the questionable morality that accompanies them is a waste at best, and outright dangerous at worst.

There is in my mind nothing worse than unquestioning servitude to some holy book, the wisdom of whose texts is very much open to question when tested from any rational perspective.

"Pious" for me is no compliment, it is a word that I would gladly see eradicated from the English language, though given that much of the world's future may well be decided in the madrassahs of Pakistan, it is extremely unlikely to happen.

Eventually we should open up our minds and try and understand. It seems an increasingly difficult thing to ask for. But the real problems of the world that need to be resolved - poverty, unemployment, disease, overpopulation, debt, war-mongering to name but a few - are unlikely to be resolved by the "pious". In fact they are the last people that you could probably trust to resolve the issues!

Eventually we need working, practical solutions, not dedication to the hideous limitations imposed by some book of ancient myths!