Thankyou Polly Toynbee

Polly Toynbee is a British Journalist who writes for the Guardian. I first came across Polly's no-nonsense journalism in the Radio Times (a UK TV and Radio listings magazine) and was hooked immediately. Polly had a regular columm in which she covered a wide range of issues and often unapologetically dismissed religion, astrology and similar popular bunkum.

Polly's recent columns for the Guardian are available online. Polly is well worth reading on a variety of topics, but our focus here is on her Rationalism. The following extracts give a flavour of her views in this area:

"The way this government nurtures religion is beyond comprehension in most of its own ranks. Why 150 more separatist faith schools? Why incitement to religious hatred when hardly a voice in the Commons could be found to support it, and when most people profess no religion? And what is all this for? As religion breaks out across the world as the most ferociously divisive force, it is time to be serious about secularism." - The bishops have no right to restrict our right to die

"Race is something people cannot choose and it defines nothing about them as people. But beliefs are what people choose to identify with: in the rough and tumble of argument to call people stupid for their beliefs is legitimate (if perhaps unwise), but to brand them stupid on account of their race is a mortal insult. The two cannot be blurred into one - which is why the word Islamophobia is a nonsense." - My right to offend a fool

"It is time now to get serious about religion - all religion - and draw a firm line between the real world and the world of dreams. Tony Blair has taken entirely the wrong path. He has appeased, prevaricated and pretended, maybe because he is a man of faith himself, with a Catholic wife who consorts with crystals. But never was it more important to separate the state from all faiths and relegate all religion to the private - but well-regulated - sphere." - In the name of God

When I feel exasperated by the media's blind acceptance of religion and superstition, I go and reread one of Polly's articles and feel a bit better about the world.

Thankyou Polly Toynbee for reasonableness of the highest standard.