Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by kelltrill on March 22, 2010 at 9:58am

I'm surprised this type of thing happens in the UK. I always saw the UK as a fairly religiously tolerant country. I guess this is just proof that it's never safe to generalise, whether the generalisation is negative or positive.
I met a woman here in SA who was a white, middle-aged, middle-class, educated, devout Catholic. Having never met a devout Catholic before I proceeded to inquire curiously and kindly about her religion. Very soon I realised that she was completely off her rocker. She was saying things like, "Women used to be objects of reproduction but because of contraception they think they've become independent but they're actually just objects of sex now." She babbled on about original sin and said things I've only ever heard on forums. I think I was more disappointed than shocked. I knew there were very religious people out there, but it's different when someone in a foreign country I've never even been to says something religiously inane, like Sarah Palin's creationist tendencies/views, to when you hear someone talking like that on your front doorstep.
I'm just glad that the general response to this incident has been shock and embarrassment rather than an uproar of voices condoning it.

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Permalink Reply by a7 on March 22, 2010 at 10:25am

hi kelly

i was also surprised, however you get religous dogma evedn here in a fairly religiously tolerant country like ours.

another two things have happened that has made me choke on my morning porridge oats

1. a multi millionaire has given all his cash to the catholic church and the court have let the catholics opt out of new legislation about giving adopted kids to same sex couples.

anyway it was nice speaking, ill see you around, if you need anything drop a wee note and ill get back to you.

my facxebook thingy is
a7gg10@yahoo.com



take care

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Permalink Reply by a7 on March 22, 2010 at 4:43pm

well said debs, we need more people like you , however it is not only the fundies we must fight but passive atheisim

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Permalink Reply by Christopher McGuire on March 23, 2010 at 3:59am

a7, for a while, I thought I was alone in believing this! Thank you, sir.

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Permalink Reply by Lindsey on March 22, 2010 at 5:17pm

People have a right to not use it themselves if they choose not to, but its wrong to allow people to use their religion to deny other people the right to get legal medications like this. That woman had a legal prescription, given to her by a doctor, and that pharmacist had no right to deny it to her. Period. We atheists need to raise hell about things like these, or else people will just keep on using their religion as an excuse to infringe upon other's legal rights.

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Permalink Reply by darwinbaby on July 25, 2010 at 12:16am

#1) The chemist should be fired. If she can't perform her required job functions, she shouldn't be in that line of work.
#2) I'm kind of insulted. They state that the woman was on the Pill because she has painful periods. She has my sympathy, of course, and I'm glad it helps her. But that intimates that she is justified in her surprise and anger, not because she wants birth control, but because of a painful chronic condition. How would people have reacted if she had said she wanted the Pill because she has enough kids?

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Permalink Reply by M on July 26, 2010 at 5:58pm

It seems to me that if you refuse to perform reasonable aspects of your job, you should be asked to leave your job. I'm sure there are lots of other pharmacists who would be happy to take her position and dispense birth control galore. If I worked at a coffee stand and told people that I absolutely refused to make lattes but that they could have whatever other beverage they wanted, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be working there very long. It's the same thing, only on a much more important scale involving people's health and medications. Whether that woman wanted to prevent pregnancy or deal with painful periods does not matter: it is her right to have that medication.

Not only that, but if religious people would educate themselves on their own reproductive organs and their cycles and how these medications actually work on them, it would just make the world a less stupid place. (Oh, and they might stop single-handedly overpopulating the world and take a contraceptive, too.)

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