Religious Discrimination

We often hear of cases where an individual feels they have been the victim of unfair discrimination because of their religion, whatever it may be.  This makes news headlines and has the leaders of the appropriate church up in arms.

Less reported are the cases where someone has been discriminated against because they are not religious.  This despite the fact that people with no religion are far from being a tiny minority.  The cause for this lack of reporting is more likely to be the religious views held by some of the more influential figures in the media.

A case in point is a letter I was reading in a recent publication.  It has been reported that the Scouting movement is in need of more adult volunteers.  The writer of the letter, a father of two and also a parent governor, tried to volunteer.  He was turned down as being unsuitable merely because he is an atheist. 

This is unacceptable discrimination, yet I am sure the press would consider it not worthy even of a couple of lines somewhere.  A man is prevented from displaying his palm cross in his company van and it makes the papers and the TV news.

What is the difference?  Each case is one individual being discriminated against by an organisation on the grounds of what they believe or don't believe.

There are two issues here.  First of all the chap volunteering for the Scouts was rejected for no valid reason, secondly the media are clearly biased in terms of what they report which is another form of discrimination.

I will be interested to see the figures from the 2011 census to show the breakdown of religious beliefs and those with no religion.  I am sure that it will show that a large percentage of the UK hold no religious beliefs.  If this is the case then the media should ensure they represent this fairly.