Racial and Religious Hatred Bill

My Lords, I am reminded of the remark recently made by Madonna; that Tom Cruise could do what he liked, even if he wants to worship a turtle. It does not bother her if some people worship turtles as superior beings. The noble Lord, Lord Lester, anticipated something that I wanted to say. This definition of religion certainly does not cover Buddhism, Sikhism or Jainism. None of those three belief systems would be covered by a belief either in God or in a supreme being. In the case of Sikhs, they might actually worship a book—the Guru Granth Sahib—or, in the Jain case, a number of gurus. If we are to have a definition of religion, and whether we do is a matter for the Government to choose, I would wish for the definition to be cast much wider than it currently is. Certainly, it should cover all religions. I was once asked by someone, in an application for the Charities Commission, whether I supported Scientology being a religion. Since I believe anything can be a religion, I said ““Yes””. Therefore I wrote a definition that a religion was, more or less, a coherent set of inconsistent, irrational beliefs about the nature of the universe. The Scientologists objected to my definition and asked me to withdraw the letter in their support. But there is, possibly, some point in defining religion, provided we can do it broadly enough so that all religions can be covered by it.