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Hello, everyone! My name is Jeremy, and I come from the United Kingdom. I occasionally dabble in freelance journalism (albeit not too often these days, sadly) and photography, and like to consider myself a political philosopher of sorts.

==My thoughts==

Here are some personal musings of mine. If you would like to discuss them, please do so on my talk page, rather than on here.

===Liberals are the price we pay for Democracy===

Imagine a land where no-one with Liberal viewpoints was allowed into power. Suppose there was just one group of Conservatives that had the right of getting into power, and you were only allowed to vote for the candidates from that party? Liberal viewpoints might even be punishable by violence, imprisonment, or death. How does that sound to you? Exhilarating, or terrifying? Well, hopefully the latter.

Let's face it, at one time or another we've probably all thought "How can Democracy be right, when it lets Liberals and other people with the "wrong" ideology into power?" We'd like to imagine that somehow we could remove any chance of Liberals getting into power while still keeping society a happy place. But that's not possible. If you block people from seeking power or disenfranchise voters, then you don't have Democracy any more. When you don't have a Democracy, then your leaders are no longer accountable for their actions, and you're on a slippery, inevitable slope to a Fascist dictatorship. Or you could reverse the Conservative and Liberal viewpoints here, and you'd eventually end up with a Communist/Socialist dictatorship; either way, it's a bad thing.

Yes, occasionally we'll end up with people we don't like in power - heck, over here we've had the wrong party in power for the best part of a decade (although the Conservatives must accept some blame for that due to their own ineptitude from about 1995-2003)! However, this risk is the price that we have to pay for being able to hold our leaders accountable for their actions - and no, being a Conservative doesn't make you automatically right about everything, although it definitely helps! - and preventing our society descending into tyranny and dictatorship. And quite frankly, I think that's a pretty good bargain!

===Why God is not a fact===

I am a Roman Catholic, by birth and in my current life. I believe in God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. I trust in Jesus for my salvation, and uphold the spirit and nature of the Blessed Virgin (but I don't ''worship'' her, just to clear up that misconception - doubtless some Catholics do, but they're no more representative of the majority than Opus Dei are). In all, I consider myself a Christian, and as said above, I believe in God. And the key word there is "''believe''."

Quite often, I see people saying to Atheists, Agnostics, Buddhists and believers in polytheistic religions things like "God's existence is a FACT! If you cannot see or feel His presence, that makes you a worthless human being." But God's existence is ''not'' a fact, is it? When asking people about their faith, you ask them "Do you believe in God?" You don't say things like "Do you share the knowledge that God's existence is wholly factual and without doubt?" Because that's not what faith is all about. By definition, faith is the knowledge that while God's existence cannot be ''factually'' proven, you still have enough conviction to put your belief and trust in Him.

Let's face it, people. Atheists and Agnostics are not simply putting their fingers in their ears and singing "''La, la, la la, I know that God exists, but I'm ignoring him!!''" They simply have not felt His presence. It's not as if they're denying that the sky is blue; they are simply waiting for that special moment to come. Hopefully one day they will have a revelation, but until then they deserve to be encouraged, not vilified.