Helvetin Pastori/Pastor of Hell

Finland is one the few Western countries to still have blasphemy laws in the books. Bit of a debate rose up on the topic recently. More on that here. https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/yle_survey_most_mps_want_to_keep_blasphemy_law_but_majority_of_finns_party_greens_favour_change/12010478 Obviously I had to give my two cents on the topic and as result I wrote an opinion piece that was published on the website of Ankkuri, one of our local papers on the 7th of July 2021. This is a translation of that piece, the original one is here: https://www.pkank.fi/uutiset/mielipide-ensimmainen-pykala-kuuluu-roskakoriin-6.19.18135.dacdd6e3e6 Recently Yle asked members of parliament about their views on removing the law against "disrupting religious peace" (note: this is a literal translation, made by the writer). The law is considered problematic because among other things it bans blasphemy. In fact, the UN Human Rights Committee has told Finland to remove the law because it violates freed...

This is a translation of an opinion piece I wrote, published in Kymen Sanomat on the 4th of June 2021 (3rd of June on the website). Link to the original here: https://www.kymensanomat.fi/paakirjoitus-mielipide/4170575 For context: Suvivirsi (Den blomstertid nu kommer in Swedish) is a popular church hymn in Finland and Sweden. Due to its lyrics which celebrate the coming of Summer, it has become a popular songs in end of the year celebrations in schools. As you might guess, singing a blatantly religious song schools is something that many people oppose and as a result, Suvivirsi, while a time honored tradition, has become a topic of intense debate, which unfortunately seems to derail the wider discussion on the role of religion in general. Facebook recently brought up memories from three years ago, when I had an argument on Twitter about Suvivirsi. Now that the school year is about to end I think it's the perfect time to talk about it again. Due to the religious nature of it’s lyric...

Up to this point, I've made one post on religion, where I took a look at how religion presents itself in Finland, and shortly mentioned my personal views on it in the introduction to this blog. Apart from that, I really haven't talked about it, even though I feel pretty passionately about it. So, I've decided to change that. This post, as the title suggests, will. I be about my personal experiences with religion and how that led me to abandon religion altogether. The motivation for this post is the fact that many people still find it weird that somebody would leave their religion. There are also a lot of misconceptions about the reasons behind the decision to leave religion. So, I really just want to put my experiences out there to try and fix some of them. In my previous post on this topic, I mentioned that around 73% of the Finnish population are a part of some religious group, with the overwhelming majority, around 71% adhering to the Lutheran branch of Christianity....

Based on the name of this blog, you can probably guess I'm not the biggest fan of religion. While I was raised in a Christian family, for the last three years or so, I've identified myself as an atheist and even before that I doubted the whole thing for years. Also, while members of my family work, or have worked in various roles for the Finnish Lutheran Church, I've personally left the church (and btw. we still get along just fine). That being said, having been involved with this for most of my life, I can say there are some questionable aspects regarding religion in Finland. First some general information. Finland is overwhelmingly a Christian nation, as over 70% of the population are at least nominally considered Christians. In practice however, Finland is one of the most secular countries.. The largest groups are the previously mentioned Lutheran Church, which claims about 71%  as members and the Finnish Orthodox Church, with 1.1% as members, both of which have a speci...

On the 28 of December 2017, multiple protests across Iran broke out, as a result of long lasting economic hardship and governmental corruption. Now, about week and a half later, the protests are still going on, with tens of thousands of people in multiple cities across the country express their frustration with the theocratic government. During that time, a bit over 20 people have been killed and estimated 1000+ people having been arrested. Apart from this Iranians living outside of Iran have been organizing protests in other countries, including a protest in front of the Iranian embassy in Helsinki. This is the most unrest the Iranian government has faced in years, but, where is it coming from? What are the roots of this? In this post, I'll give you some of my thoughts on the matter. First of all, even though economic hardship and corruption have named as the spark for these protests,they have quickly turned into protests towards the government. Iran is officially an "Islam...