Freedom of Religion

Eventually I'll get back to blogging about the normal mundane aspects of my life... well if my life ever becomes normal that is *lol* Maybe reading Adbusters was a bad thing. It got me questioning things again.... critical thinking is not a skill I had seen in myself since my university days.

Now anyone in Canada will tell you that one of the fundamental freedoms we have is the freedom of religion. But is that really the case? I guess the better question is, are all religions created equal? The answer would be an unequivocal no. Of the approximately 10,000 religions that exist in the world only about 60 are truly protected.

About 85% of Canadians identify themselves as Christian so they would have nothing to worry about. Let's say I practiced Scientology (it was the first one that came to mind... well second.... but the other one has a few more issues). I would have to tolerate your religion and could not discriminate against you for your beliefs but the reverse is not necessarily true.

Makes me wonder who decides which religions are protected and which ones don't make the grade. I've posted before about the truth behind voodoo and as you can probably already guess it is not amongst the 60. In the US it is a recognized religion.

I believe that as long as your religion does not break the law then you should be free to practice it without fear of discrimination and harassment. Just because it's not a mainstream religion does not negate your beliefs. So feel free to make those voodoo dolls.

And now I am back to wondering just what rights we have under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It seems that the freedom of religion is only true if you practice certain religions that the government approves of. Maybe freedom of any kind is nothing more than an illusion.