This is not totally related to atheism, but I feel it’s pertinent to the discussion of death, especially since Kevorkian is our agnostic of the week.
I encourage you all to become organ donors. When we die, we die. But a part of us can help others live full and complete lives.
Does anyone remember when we almost got that amazing law where people were automatically signed up to be organ donors and had to opt out if they wanted to? That might have actually gone through if religious groups had less power. This power is apparently justified because of things like the majority of the country ticking ‘Christian - all denominations’ on the religious question of the national census. This is despite the fact that many other studies show these people aren’t actively religious and probably don’t support the things that Christian (and other religious) groups push through.
The opt-out system would be such a brilliant thing to have and would be a much better way of organising things. We need to seriously declare our numbers and show that we don’t agree with things like…
Faith schools getting extra money and support (even though most: indoctrinate children, don’t give proper religious education, and don’t give proper sexual education), and…
numerous (twenty-six!) bishops being a permanent fixture in the House of Lords.
And that’s just two examples. You can probably think of many more! And you can read about more here.
Tick ‘No religion’ on your census form, and - if you haven’t already done so - sign up to be an organ donor. There is no reason not to.
