Religion in the modern world part 2

Hi everyone, so a couple of weeks ago I wrote a post entitled 'religion in the modern world' and have decided after allot revisit the topic in a part two. These are certainly not my final thoughts on the subject however this will be my last blog for this particular topic.

In our modern, fast paced culture that stigma that goes with committing sins has decreased by quite a lot. As I previously mentioned going to church was a very social thing and in small towns everybody would know everybody else. Not going to church a couple of hundred years ago and even further back was almost unheard of but when someone missed even one sermon the entire town would be aware. Similar thing with sinning, the moment word got out everybody would know and unless you rectified your sin (and sometimes even then) you would spend the rest of your life as a pariah. However in today's world this rarely happens. Sinning has almost become a part of life for us and (unless the person is famous) most of the time sins go unnoticed. With a lessened social condemnation the advantages of having someone cleanse you and your soul are no longer as needed.

For decades word has been coming out about corruption within the church and some less than savoury practises especially within the Vatican. No I do not mean to say that all religious people are corrupt, after all I am one myself, however people looking into faith or to switching faith are far more hesitant to join a religion where such atrocities occur or one that does not 'practise what it preaches' (no pun intended). With societies new and complete awareness of almost every move the church makes (whatever church that may be) it is no wonder that religion is a dying thing.

Finally I would like to mention that the search for religion has become a search for spirituality in many cases. With our highly individualistic world the social religion is dying out and the individual spirituality is coming in. People are also looking for a way to better themselves rather than ask someone else to do it for them.

I am religious, not out of sheer hope but because I truly believe. Religion and the belief of a higher power has been around since the beginning of mankind. It has been shown that mankind as a whole is not truly inventive, we can not create something that does not exist, using parts that do not exist. Think, what is the most bizarre thing you can think of? Let me guess, it has eyes, and a mouth, arms and legs? Some sort of skin or feathering? We cannot create something that does not exist in some way, shape or form. And that is the most logical reason I can give you for me being religious.

The Boston Bombings

Once again a tragedy has shocked the globe, an attack has been made onto an international race, the Boston marathon. How people can justify not only an attack on such an event but the brutal murder of their fellow human beings is beyond me. The final figures for this bombing is tallied as such: 3 dead and over 170 injured. The three dead being 8 year old Martin Richard, 29 year old Krystle Campbell and 23 year old Lu Lingzi.

People, being the paranoid species that we are, have already developed several conspiracy theories concerning the nature of the bombing and who caused it. The first and foremost being that this was a staged terrorist attack formed by the navy. Apparently pictures released by the FBI show navy personnel wearing backpacks similar to those used as explosives. Now there several things that make this theory plausible and of course several that make it unlikely. I personally think that this was too unsuccessful an attack to be considered a terrorist attack, only three people were killed and although this is horrific, by terrorist standards its not significant damage. In addition it was not a particularly professional attack, there were two bomb sites and the second bomb (in the first aid tent) never went off. And of course of the two suspects that they have, one has been killed and the other seriously injured to the point of inability to speak.

The other side of it is that I can imagine the navy leaders organising something like this but how would they get their soldiers to comply with such an order.and what would have been the purpose of such an attack? If it was meant to coincide with North Koreas threats against the world then why would Russia have been blamed. Once again the attack was unorganised and the two brothers that were suspected reacted pretty extremely to the arrests. More bombs were set off and bullets went flying.

All in all I would imagine that the two brothers were responsible, maybe trying to impress a terrorist group, maybe acting as individuals. Although ploys by the navy are never clear I don't think there is enough reason to justify a staged attack against the nations. This was just one more tragedy created by peoples who for reasons unknown felt the need to kill innocents. My heart goes out to those affected and hope for a day where we will no longer have to worry about heartless attacks such as these.

Religion in the modern world

So my last week has been absolutely tragic. Recently I had helped to look after an undersized cat for my nan who is a breeder. Bindi (the cat) was 10 weeks old and only about a quarter of the size she should have been. As such she was quite sickly when she came to us however she rapidly improved. In days she put on weight and started becoming lively as she should. Unfortunately on Thursday night her body shut down, she suffered a stroke and passed away. I have no pictures of her otherwise I would include one.

Now I am religious and did find this a cruel turn of fate. I suppose fortunately I know my gods to be sometimes cruel and they have never pretended otherwise. However the event did turn my mind to a discussion I had in a literature class last year. We were studying a book called 'The French Lieutenants Woman' by John Fowles. It is an absolutely marvellous book and I will highly recommend it however, it is a difficult read and can get quite confusing. It does attempt (and achieve) to mimic the style of the Victorian age writers and does feature alternate endings. Because this book provides a mirror between the Victorian and the modern age and because it heavily discusses religion,it was only natural for one of the discussion topics to have been the difference of religion between the ages.

Of course religion has much less of a hold on today's society than on the Victorians and there are several reasons for this. The first and foremost of course being the incredible advancement of science in the past few centuries. One of the reasons for religion was to explain the unexplainable however now that we have science the need for reassurance through an unseen God is slowly disappearing. Now the main reason for religion is the fact that it has become almost a part of human nature. Religion has always existed and it is something we are raised with and as such it has become a tradition that we uphold. Another reason is the fact that humans are perpetually afraid of what happens after death. It is the only thing that we have no material proof of and it terrifies us. As such we place our faith in something that tries to explain it for us.

Another reason (in my opinion) for the lack of religion in our society is the reduced social interaction. Going to church in the Victorian age was not just for religious purposes but also to catch up with friends and other frequent church goers. You invited people to church with you and they introduced others to you at church. Now in our technology filled age we have constant contact to others and we do not need to use the church as a method of 'catch up'.

Just as a note I would like to point out that this is merely my opinion and what I believed to be true during my class discussion. It is by no means true for individuals but rather a very generalised view of society as a whole. Religion is an incredibly individual topic and I do not intend to offend or act as though I know everything about people's personal choices. I would like to revisit this topic in a few weeks as I do find it interesting and of course I have not nearly began to scratch the surface of it. Once again I will recommend 'The French Lieutenants Woman' to those who are up for a challenge and if anyone is open to it I am happy to have an I depth discussion about the book however you will have to contact me.

Once again thank you for reading and I'll write again in a week.

Telemarketing: the truth behind the phone

I must admit I was a bit stumped for a topic this week, eventually out of desperation so not to miss my self appointed deadline I asked my friends and one of them suggested this. Some of you will know that recently I have been working in an outbound call centre which basically means telemarketing. Now to be fair I do raise money for charities however the concept is still the same. This topic is one close to my heart simply because the job comes with a certain amount of abuse and I think that this is partly due to people forgetting that the one on the other end of the phone is in fact human as well.

Now in the company I've worked at we are a fairly close bunch and the people I met there are amazing. Despite what people think, telemarketers are not the social rejects. People go there for a multitude of reasons. I met one man from England who was travelling the world and stopped to work there because the money was good and the hours were easy before moving off again. Another man because it was what he was really good at, without harassing people. And of course many people who were in the midst of university with huge payments to make. So by no means are these unpleasant people.

Now typical procedure for my company dictated that in order to hang up we needed to get 3 nos from the customer. This means a no to the original ask. A no to the reinforced ask (giving them another reason to give) and then a no to a reduced ask (asking them to give a bit less than originally stated). After this we were to wish them a good day and hang up. Now I don't know if procedures are different for other companies but I'm fairly certain it is similar across the board. Now if you get someone who asks you only once then they are being nice or are just a passive person. A person who does ask you three times is simply trying to do their job and follow procedure. A person who continues to ask you and push is either having a really bad sale day and is just trying to reach target, trying to make a sale and do their job or is being a tad rude.

But the thing that people do forget or do not understand is that it is a job and there are hourly targets to reach. High targets too. Overall about one in every three calls has to be a sale which is a harder thing to do than it sounds. And despite being in need of employees if you cannot reach your targets constantly over a long period of time than you will lose your job. Most people do not last long in a telemarketing position. A long term position for my company is considered only 3 months and anything past that you are put on the honour wall. And for a company that goes through so many employees, let me tell you there are not many names on that wall.

So next time you get a call from a telemarketer, be polite. Try to understand the difficulty of doing your job. Be upfront but don't hang up. Treat them like they are human and don't rant at them just because you can.

Alright, that's my spiel for the week and if you don't here from me by next Sunday then you may have to assume that I've been assassinated by telemarketing ninjas for revealing vital secrets.