Freedom to practice your religion and religious beliefs. The right to worship God and your faith, religious traditions, and religious customs, without fear or prejudice, provided they do not contravene our laws or cause deliberate conflict with our mainstream society.

We should model our society by embracing the principles and values of the ten commandments and avoiding the seven deadly sins. This alone would see a vast improvement in society and our general wellbeing, whether you are religious or not.

The perceived and actual attacks upon religion, particularly against Christianity and Islam are examples of someone or something wanting to destroy the very foundations upon which our society, customs, traditions, and laws are based. The attack is not just centred on our religion, but is designed to completely undermine our individual personal state of spiritual mind, body, and soul.

We have often heard, that today the westerner eats a lot, but very little is nutritional. So, in effect we are starving ourselves by eating too much of the wrong food. The heavy reliance on junk and processed packaged food, is a fundamental cause of obesity and poor health. This situation never existed in the 1960’s, but started to emerge in the 1970’s when shops selling junk food appeared in our high streets, which coincided with the legislation of women’s rights and the gazumping of house prices. Women wanted to work, as opposed to be homemakers, but as time went by, with house prices becoming increasingly expensive, women had no choice, but to work. This meant that children ended up relying more and more on quick and easy junk food, simply because their mothers were too tied to cook. This has now become the norm in our society, with women wanting to revert back to the traditional way of life, being ridiculed and scorned.

The old concept of going to church on a Sunday morning and then coming home to a lunch time roast have long since passed. Now it is, get up late, watch television or go window shopping and then down to the fast food shop for lunch, followed by an afternoon of eating junk food, followed by an evening takeaway for dinner.

Whether people like it or not, or are religious or not, the simple fact remains, that with the demise of religion in our daily lives, we have become as a society, the poorer for it. Seven-day trading, is nothing more than a grab for money, wrapped up in a packaging of convenience. Our obsession with greed and wanting more, has resulted in the holy day being traded for longer working hours with an expectation to be paid triple time.

Sunday was meant to be a day of rest and to engage with one’s God for a few hours. To learn how to be a better person and be kind to your family, friends, and neighbours. To consider others and to appreciate how lucky you were to be in the position that you were, without clouding your mind with meaningless greed and want. Basically, religion was the food for the mind and soul; and just like the ill effects caused to the body by not eating proper healthy food; denying the value of religion has denied the mind and soul of nourishment.

There is no avoiding the fact, that with the decline of religion and the growth of atheism coupled with the ridiculing of Christian festivals, our society has grown ever increasingly violent, corrupt, non-caring, greedy, and lazy. We have placed our faith in film stars and celebrities and hang on every word they say, but dare anyone question this new idolatry and they are met with the vilest comments and abuse that can be made. Free speech is now just a cliché, used to imply that you can speak your mind, but just try doing so when your opinion differs from the masses of illiterate imbeciles; unfortunately, some people do not live long enough to regret it. The loss of religion is not the only cause of our current societal demise, there are many other contributing factors, but the void caused by the loss of faith has been filled by the seven deadly sins, which all makes for a poorer society.

Our western society was built upon Christian values, with the love of God, the adherence of the ten commandments, the avoidance of the seven deadly sins and the embracement of the seven virtues. In today’s society many people will say that there is no God and even if there was, why do I need to believe in him, after all, what has God ever done for me. Whether God exists or not, cannot be proven either way, but upon one’s death, the true answer will become known. But the point is not whether you believe in God, but whether you wish to conduct yourself in a manner that befits a godly person. That is not say that one must believe in God to be a good person, as there are plenty of believers, who are very nasty people. But is it that difficult to conduct yourself in adherence with the ten commandments and a conscious avoidance of the seven deadly sins. Most of our problems can be identified as being caused by the complete opposite, the ignorance of the ten commandments and the embracement of the seven deadly sins. Not convinced, then repudiate this.

Gluttony – We eat more than we need, most of which is unhealthy junk. We have a growing obesity epidemic, with a substantial rise in diabetes and heart conditions, directly attributable to our eating habits.

Sloth – It is far too easy for some people to simply opt out and live on the dole or other benefits and expect others to pay for it. We have an attitude of why do it today, if we can put it off to tomorrow. Being lazy is now a national pastime.

Lust – Just go to the internet and you will find an abundance of pornography. Young women all dress the same, with tons of makeup, just to make themselves feel better and conform to the latest screen idols look. And how we worship and desire the perfect body and face on all these reality television shows. Where’s the plain Jane news reader, they simply don’t exist.

Greed – This is probably our favourite sin. We just love to buy the latest gadget, the biggest house and flashiest car. Find a bag of cash, do you hand it into the authorities, or just keep it without any though of whose it was. Greed drives soaring profits, high prices, high demand and ultimately rising inflation.

Wrath – People get very anger at the smallest or silliest thing, no turning the other check. Some people are easily offended and they what you to know it and for you to be offended on their behalf as well. Rudeness is everywhere, just look at the signs now appearing in shops, saying “bad behaviour will not be tolerated.” Social media is a hot bed of vile anger and abuse. And war, any opportunity and someone will start one somewhere.

Pride – I’m right, you’re wrong, even if I’m wrong and you’re right. People don’t apologise any more, unless they are forced too, and even then, it is begrudgingly.

Envy – Envy is one of the main drivers for our greed. You have got the latest iPhone, car or clothing, so, I must have them as well. Envy also drives our wrath. Why has that person got a new car and I have not? I know let’s damage it.

Whether we want to admit it or not, our society has become lazy, greedy and spiteful. With violent, envious and lustful behaviour making up the majority of our conduct; to the point where we will kill for drugs, attack disabled people for fun and are generally rude by nature. If anyone says that this has nothing to do with the collapse of religion, in our lives; and is just the normal state-of-affairs, then how do they propose to reverse this sad state. Or are they proposing that we must simply have to put up with it.

If you accept that all this evil is as a direct result of the collapse of religion, then we can change society by embracing religion or at least the principles, values and rules of religion along with the seven virtues.

The solution is simple, but will take time. First, society must adhere to the ten commandments and avoid the seven deadly sins. We must embrace the seven virtues, humility, charity, chastity, gratitude, temperance, patience and diligence; and conduct our lives accordingly. We need to reintroduce the teaching of manners, etiquette and respect in our schools and homes. Educate our children about all religions, their teachings, laws and wisdom of God, Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha and other spiritual leaders that have tried to help and lead humanity. Fifty years of dumbing down in our schools, coupled with the demonising of religion, will not be overturned immediately, but will take time. Start in the home and schools, bring our children up with manners, etiquette and respect and adherence to the ten commandments with the avoidance of the seven deadly sins and surely our society will become more kind, nice, polite and caring.

We must also make Sunday an official day of rest, time for the family, church and away from work. Closing shops on a Sunday will give business owners an opportunity to rest. This will result in the reduction of business costs. It will end triple time wages, which from a business point of view is completely unsustainable. It will also mean that families will have to start learning to cook and hopefully see the reintroduction of the Sunday roast. Junk food will be curtailed, to give people at least one day’s rest from junk food.

Those who are so inclined can reconnect with their faith and attend church or other charitable functions. The purpose of this is to nourish the mind and soul to strengthen us to fight against evil in all its forms and to be the best people we can be.

Churches, Mosques, Temples and Synagogues should all be built together so that they can share the same carpark to maximize the benefits from the same space.