No room for the faithless on the moral high ground

With swine flu anxiety edging up, the religious/'spiritual' crowd are, as ever, shoving the rest of aside in the scrabble to gain ownership of human values, ie thinking things may turn out for the best and being nice to others.

In Sunday’s Observer Karol Sikora argued - though that's putting it rather highly - that because we have ‘lost’ both our faith and extended families, we’re all falling pray to panic about swine flu as apparently only those two entities can offer freedom from fear, and also support. He claimed that 'When our own mortality is suddenly questioned, we need a shoulder to lean on. If we have no family infrastructure or belief, what is there?'

Well gee, I don't know about you, but I had a family last time I looked. They're a bit ragged round the edges. The extended bit contains stepbrothers and sisters rather than grannies. They even have different belief systems. My mother doesn't like Christmas and my sister does Channukah instead. But I'm fairly sure that if I fell ill they might bung me a card, or hell - even visit. I also belong to two amazing networks known as neighbours and friends. For anyone of the faith/spiritual disposition who doesn't know how it works, you get to know people, either because you like them or live nearby, or you've been to school together, or your children have, or combinations thereof. You hang out a bit, share stuff about yourselves, and do each other little favours. Examples might be, ooh, minding their kids while they go to an interview or the doctor's, or giving them a bag of icing sugar at 10pm when they're making their child a birthday cake and have run out. (No, that wasn't me; it was my neighbour though.) Then, when crisis strikes, you help in whatever way you can. It's easy. Mr Sikora, you should try it. It might open your eyes to the joys of being human, and even make you less cynical.