Declan Buckley, Mossad and God are now friends

Oy! Oy! Oy! One of the things that annoys me about religion is the concept of "religious moderates". They're the people who believe (*ahem) that it is entirely feasible to believe in only parts of their faith. (I'm assuming they are those parts that they think make sense or suit their cause).

We all know the type; they don't go to church at the weekends (or ever!) yet they still want the white wedding. Or there's the person who thinks gays should be discriminated against because of something in Leviticus (all the while ignoring the same warnings about shrimp, haircuts and sharing the company of menstruating women - who wrote that shit?!).

It all demonstrates a very shaky belief in any kind of God - particularly the very vengeful God from The Bible, Talmud or Koran. If you genuinely think the God person is real, surely you won't wanna piss her off by being a crap servant, eh?

Recently, I was most disturbed to hear that a good friend of mine regularly prays "when he needs something" (despite not really believing and the absolute lack of any response to previous prayers). It reminded me of that exam I failed as a kid because I spent the time praying I'd pass rather than actually studying!

The reality is that religion serves people well when they want to be selfish. Or impose their political views on others. Or if they are scared (of death, foreigners, women or their desire to sleep with their soccer-coach).

As a wish-granting factory, religion is way down on the list behind Jim'll Fix It or The National Lottery. As a god, God sucks. Either that or he's on lunch for the last 2000 years.

In my opinion, Technology is the new god. It's far more omni-present. When it works, it works in mysterious ways... And it's certainly all-seeing and all knowing.

Take the tale of the Israeli girl who got out of Military service "on religious grounds". The Secret Service snooped around her facebook profile and found that she had been partying on the Sabbath and generally sinning. Bad girl! (More to the point; is anyone else slightly turned on by the fact that hot Mossad operatives could be scoping about our facebook profiles?)

Poor girl has now been forced to sign up for her full military service. I wonder whether she blames an angry, jealous God... or her stupid privacy settings on facebook?