Tony Blair & God

There is an interesting article on the online Spectator by Rod Liddle entitled "God's role in politics - God’s role in politics is not to underwrite bad ideas"
The crux of the article is in these paragraphs:

The longer Blair remained in office, the more pronounced became the shift away from that first and crucial god — public opinion — and towards some other higher being. As that BBC documentary cleverly evinced, towards the end of his tenure Blair rarely expanded upon his reasons for doing some deeply questionable act beyond the look-I’m-an-honest-sorta-bloke shrug of the shoulders and the repeated mantra: ‘Well, I did it cos I thought it was the right thing to do.’ Over and over again Blair cited this as his sole reason for embarking upon one or another catastrophic course of action; he never said, ‘I thought it was the right thing to do, but sadly I was mistaken,’ and still less, ‘Look, I did it cos it was politically expedient and seemed attractive at the time.’

This seems to have been the gift which God bestowed upon his mate Tony Blair: not humility, an intimation of human frailty, an understanding that human knowledge and human abilities are most definitely finite, that given free will we are at liberty to make the wrong decisions as well as the right decisions, but instead a suffocating and deluding certitude. Blair’s favourite phrase — ‘I did it cos I thought it was the right thing to do’ — is an absolutist’s argument: it cannot be gainsaid. And of course the implication is that he thought it was the right thing to do because he was a man of faith and conviction — and so even if everything turned out badly, as in Iraq, his motive or judgment could not possibly be questioned. So it is a statement that requires no evidence, no explanation and still less anything in the way of an apology.

I always knew Blair was flakey, because of his mud rebirth ceremony with his harridan wife and her new-agey Kaballah bullshit, but I had no idea that he actually believed he had a one-on-one link with God, and felt that that justified his decisions. I always thought his support for America was historical and political rather than because of a shared fundamentalism with George Bush.
At least he had the good sense to be embarrased about it and keep it quiet while he was in office.

French Atheists

I'm going to start collecting and research French Atheist sites and must explore the French Atheist and Humanist organisations.

My first stop is Athéisme - L'homme debout which on their English pages they translate as "Atheism - The capital man" but "debout" means "standing" and I think it translates much better as "Atheism - mankind standing tall"

They have a great page on the Scale of beliefs which I can't show because it's done in html tables, but I recommend you follow the link. They try and show the gradations from animism to atheism through religions as a progressions. It's quite thought provoking to see it laid out in this way.

It's an interesting site, with quotes and jokes (sometimes the humour gets lost in the translation!)

Fossils are the Devil's handiwork

Comedian Lewis Black on evolution, creation and stuff.

"Evolution is a major thread in the larger tapestry that I like to call REALITY!"

Taking the Infidel Challenge

Oh alright then
Thrawn has a challenge for us infidels: create a horribly drawn image of Islam’s prophet Mohammad, and display it in a public area. Yes, the Internet counts.

Here’s my entry:


See also nullifidian
Unaorthodox Atheism

You say tomato . . .

You say "immoral", I say "win-win situation"

A prostitute in Chile has auctioned 27 hours of sex to raise money for a disabled children's charity.
"Maria Carolina has made headlines and appeared on talk shows since she announced her donation to the televised Teleton, Chile's largest fundraising event that will run for 27 hours this weekend.
I am going to contribute with my work to a purpose that touches me deeply," said the brunette.
To dispel any doubts, she promised to post a picture of the bank deposit slip on the website where she advertises her services.
Miss Carolina, who charges $300 for a 90-minute session, estimated that she would raise more than $4000.
"I've already auctioned off the 27 hours," the prostitute said. "One of my clients already paid. It seemed like a good deed to him."
Mario Kreutzberger, the Teleton organiser, was reluctant to accept her pledge.
"Everyone can do what they want," the television presenter said. "But if someone tells me that they'll do something immoral ... I'm not going to encourage it."

I may be wrong, but it's very probable that this woman is entirely in control of her life and her earnings. She offers a service. Willing clients pay and get the services as advertised. No-one is hurt. She decides to put aside her earnings for a charity.
And it is considered "immoral"? Perhaps it is against the law in Chile but we all know that law, justice and morality don't always intersect.
I'm all for charity. I think this story is timley given some of the talk in the atheisphere regarding atheism and charity. I can't afford the $300 for a 90 minute session (90 minutes - bloody hell, if she can ball me for 90 minutes that's good value!!) but on a dollar per minute rate I could probably spring for 10 minutes worth. I can just imagine what my wife's remark will be when she reads this post.

Heroes from History

We have been warned that Christianity knows no neutrality and history has verified the warning. It is incapable of co-existing permanently with a civilisation it does not inspire; and any such that came into contact with it has withered.

Who wrote those words? One of our modern atheist philosophers - a Dawkins or a Hitchens? Perhaps an anti-colonialist - Gandhi or Garvey?

It was Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury three times Prime Minister of Great Britain after Disraeli in the Victorian era.
Ironically the British Empire was at her height, Victoria had just celebrated her Diamond Jubilee in 1897 and Salisbury wrote those words to his daughter explainiing why he was not inclined to support the work of missionaries in Asia and Africa.
He was an enigma - while the British Empire controlled one fifth of the globe he persued a foreign policy of "splendid isolation" trying to maintain a balance of power by not entering into permanent alliances or commitments. While his contemporaries like Rhodes "I would annexe the planets if I could" dreamed of further expansion, Salisbury had said "Seizing a coloured man's land and giving to a white man is an operation now generally known as the progress of colonisation."

I was born in the city named after Salisbury, in the country that Rhodes named after himself. So I am a product of British colonialism. (And very grateful for it - a more priviliged and luxurious childhood could not be wished for) And so it comes as a great surprise to find that Lord Salisbury is the author of these quotes and thoughts.
I leave you with three quotes of his on liberty, morality and common sense:

By a free country, I mean a country where people are allowed, so long as they do not hurt their neighbours, to do as they like. I do not mean a country where six men may make five men do exactly as they like.

Speech to the Kingston and District Working Men's Conservative Association (June 1883)

On general grounds I object to Parliament trying to regulate private morality in matters which only affects the person who commits the offence.

Letter to Sir Henry Peek (1888)

No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you should never trust experts. If you believe doctors, nothing is wholesome: if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent: if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe. They all require their strong wine diluted by a very large admixture of insipid common sense.

Letter to Lord Lytton (15 June 1877)

Dialogs with a Muslim

We have a lot of temporary labour at the factory. This is because french labour laws make it very expensive for companies to take on staff, and once you have employed someone full time it is near impossible to fire them.
So most companies operate a system of limited contracts - 1 month to 3 months usually. They then keep renewing the contract for as long as is necessary. This can carry on (ss it did in my case) for up to two years. After two years of short term contracts the company has to convert the contract to a permanent one, or stop renewing. And find another sap to string along for two years.
In the case of the tile factory, the short term contracts make a lot of sense. There are many people who coan't cope with the shifts. Others can't cope with the physical demands of the job, and still others can't deal with the mind-numbing monotony of the work. So a sensible hiring practice is to take people on contract until they've proved themselves. We also take workers on contract to cover for illness, vacations, ebb and flow in seasonal demand for the tiles. There are fewer roofers willing to up in mid winter!
So I've had a fair number of temps working with me on the press, some good, some hopeless, and some Muslim.

Abdel was a youngster, killing time between the end of school and the start of university. On his first week I had to give him a pep talk. It was the first night shift. He was in a foul mood, not keeping up with the tiles that were arriving on the conveyor, which was causing repeated stoppages. I had already been working with him four days and had spoken with him a few times.
I told him that he was obviously bright, and young and fit. Physically capable of the job. What was getting in his way was that he was too bright for this type of work, and he had to master his emotions. I told him he had to find a way to manage and control his boredom and frustration, take his mind elswhere, occupy his thoughts with plans and abstracts to get through the hard parts of the shifts, at 3am when you're tired and you're wondering what the hell you're doing in this cursed factory.

He took it well, and sorted himself out, and we had many discussions after that.

Abdel was eighteen years old, born and raised in a village jsut down the road. His mother is Moroccan, and his father is second generation french, but also of Moroccan parents. His parents are both lawyers, and well off because Abdel's car was a new hatchback, given to him by his parenst for university. The fact that he achieved a good baccalauriate spoke for his intelligence as well as being evidence of a supportive home life.
I got to see french racism first hand because to the french workers, Abdel was, and would always be Moroccan. The fact the he was born in France, went to school here, counted for nothing. His name and looks will always set him apart. This racism is not (always) malicious, but it is deeply entrenched.
One of the first discussions we had was about Coke. I was drinking a diet Coke and Abdel asked if I had heard that some people say that Coke put pig's blood in their drinks.
"Why on earth would they do that?"
He shrugged. "Well, it might be part of the secret recipe, you know, to make people like it without knowing why they like it"
"That's crazy! If that got found out Coke would be finished. It would be a disaster"
"Well, no-one knows what's in the recipe."

I thought about it while catching tiles. Why pig's blood? Where had he got this story from? It sounded like the kind of internet romour that would be mailed from person to person, like the pork chops and worms in coke thing. And pig's blood would be especially offensive to moslems. Combine that with the modern distrust of big coprporations and the fashion for disliking the USA and you've got a meme on your hands.
Pig's blood in Coke. Patently bullshit, but how to convince Abdel?
I gave him a few things to think about. First, it would be very easy to disprove. Anyone can take a sample of coke to a lab and ask for it to be analysed. forensics can find DNA and evidence of blood in the smallest of samples. It would be a piece of cake to find traces of blood in coke.
Coke is produced in the millions of litres per day. If pig's blood is part of the recipe, even in small quantities, that blood has to be supplied. How on earth are they going to keep a lid on the truck loads of blood coming into the plants?
Why would such a rumour be so appealing? Just because we would LIKE a story to be true doesn't make it so. Was he following his instincts or his reason when he heard and repeated the story. Like all good rumours, the story is based on part truth. Snopes - the home of urban legend on the web has a whole section dedicated to "Cokelore". Coke used to contain cocaine. Back in 1885 the product contained extract of coca leaves and kola nuts. Hence the name. By 1929 there was no cocaine in the product at all.
He didn't mention it again. He probably thought "Shit, I give the guy a little story about Coke and he goes on and on about conspiracy theory and logic. He's wrapped way too tight"
We had other discussions about religion. Abdel was a practicing muslim - Ramadan, no alcohol, the full schtick. He was looking forward to university in Poitiers because at least there was a mosque there. Here in backwoods france there are no mosques. Because of the seperation of church and state, there is no state funding for the building or maintenance of religious structures. Be they churches or mosques. Abdel pointed out that this was unfair because the churches had all been built before separation of church and state came about. Fair point.
He asked me how I could be an atheist when I was surrounded by evidence of God's creation. Deep philosophical and religious discussions are difficult in a second language, but I did my best with the usual stuff - Russell's Teapot, one less god etc. I don't know if it did any good.

Hard cash for tacky religious crap

The Freethinker is offering a free subscription to their newsletter if you can submit examples of religious kitsch for sale.

This has co-incided nicely with the article I saw on Planet Atheism (my apologies for not remembering the author) on the communion wafer for sale on eBay
Following that link, I found myself in the Christianity section on eBay.
It's an interesting section for not only is there religious tat, there are also beautiful alter fronts, chalices, statues and icons for sale.

Sub sections include: Bears, Dolls where you can find the "New US ARMY Holy BEAR Armed Forces PLUSH Stuffed" This delicious item is described as "THE ORIGINAL HOLY BEAR® US Army HOLY BEAR 8”H Plush includes a card that states The Army Vision consists of three interdependent elements: people, rediness and transformation. The United States Army Loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage... "
I don't doubt the courage ofthe US Army, but I do doubt the honor and integrity of the vendors of the item.
There is also the MUSICAL "JESUS LOVES ME" HEAVENLY LOVE PUPPY ">MUSICAL "JESUS LOVES ME" HEAVENLY LOVE PUPPY

In the Charms section, I think it's hilarious that right underneath the 3D Crystal Art Baby Jesus Virgin Mary Guadalupe + Base is found the Biker 666 Dead Sign Embroidered Iron On Patch

Jesus has returned

And he plays for the French rugby team.
.
As France progresses (with some difficulties) through the world cup, the media have launched a new darling, a new hero for us. He is Sebastien Chabal, a towering monster whose beard and flowing hair have earned him the nickname (among others) of Jesus.



Here you can see how he has changed over the years. I hope there's no steroid abuse going on here . . .


And finally, one of many, many versions of clips of Chabal's tackles on France's New Zealand tour. We'll ignore the fact that we lost all the matches . . .



I am very pleased to be able to make a blog ontry on christianity, France and rugby all in one go.

I don't get enough nutters . . .

...to keep me entertained with their rantings.

However, this one did mail me because of my YouTube videos

Subject: Get the book: the bait of satan. Read it, you will retract those videos:
Message:
To whom it may concern,

We have seen your video...the sinners prayer.

Son, you don't understand His love letter to you.

In your sin, [if you receive judgement of sin, it comes from The Lord, and not us: for He judges all things, and has authority to relay in message. He will use anyone to speak, as the Spirit of The Living God descends upon man and speaks through them]. In essence: you have been used as a pawn to discourage the message of eternal life: that IS full of HOPE and the love gift of salvation in Him, the son of all mankind...Christ Jesus our Lord, and your best friend.

We are in the last days, and Christ Jesus is coming for His church, His bride. We that have...received The Son will be caught up, raptured up...to be with God for all eternity.

There are power in your words...go and read in the book of proverbs again. Your words speak against God's will, and perfect plan for you, and for all the other souls that Jesus is awakening.

You are loved, you will always...be loved, as God in deity is perfect love.

You have misunderstood His love gift, His words. He spoke to each individual, as He knew all of their thoughts and their hearts. Each word that Christ Jesus uttered...unto each individual is all according to The Father's design, and everything He did say was right, it's all just, for all...personally.

As an evangelist, a believer, and a blood-bought saint in Christ...we are asking you to turn around from being used by the principalities of darkness, of this world that is to pass away, and help...in His harvest, in preparation: to bring the message of salvation enriched in His mercy, reconciliation, and His agape love.

Look to the fields: look to The Lord: look to the people, help...The One that knitted you together in your mother's womb and set you apart to...make a difference: help bring them in, help bring them home...son. Do it for Him...

You are Loved...on impact,

The Love...of Christ,

pjandkim4 (hopefully...we're kin)

In God's wisdom... He prepares each individual heart in steps and in His timing.

My Reply:

Subject: Re: Get the book: the bait of satan. Read it, you will retract those videos:
Message:
pjandkim4 -

Thank you for your mail. It is obvious that you care deeply for my welfare and future, and I thank you for your concern.

However, it must be apparant if you have watched my videos that I find evidence for god deeply underwhelming and that I find Christianity to be woefully inadequate on many, many levels.

Christian theology is flawed, the god represented in the bible is reprehensible, the concept of eternal damnation is morally repugnant.

Happily I am at the point in my life where I have realised that there is almost no god, and very pobable that Jesus never even existed historically.

Thus, my videos on YouTube serve two purposes: they are cathartic and healing for me, as I "deprogram" myself from years and years of immersion in pointless mindset of guilt and fear. And secondly, they may also serve as a guide to others, for, like you, I am an evangelist - for reason, rationality and truth.

Thank you again for your concern, and time. I assure you that I do appreciate and understand what you feel and believe, having once been a "spirit-filled" believer. It is ironic, isn't it, that you hope we may be kin in the family of god, when in fact we are already kin in the wonderful family of humanity.

Regards

Stewart

Their reply:

Subject: Re: Re: Get the book: the bait of satan. Read it, you will retract those videos:
Message:
Original Message:

> pjandkim4 -
>
> Thank you for your mail. It is obvious that you care deeply for my welfare and f...

*Dear Stewart,

We do care about you, your well being, you spiritually, where you're at in order to try to re-late.

Look at Jesus' disciple John. When you see John, what are your thoughts...? Write them all down.

John's heart was ready to be filled with understanding, because his heart experienced the love of God. When we experience the love of Christ, and we read the scriptures: they start making sense because the heart is open and it's softened...good ground to receive...the truth. The Holy Spirit fills the believer with the understanding, and then the beliver becomes enriched.

If a heart is focused in judgement, the scriptures being read are preceived that way. BUT, if the heart is focused on Christ and has been softened...in His unconditional agape love for you and for everyone...His words will captivate you and they will present themselves in...freedom, freedom in Christ alone: in His understanding.

God loves you...and prayer helps.

Receive this prayer, tuck this into your heart:

May the Lord Jesus Christ touch your heart in such a way, that you will be profoundly moved, may He surround you in His warm embrace, and fill you with His unconditional love that He has for you personally, His mercy, and in grace. May understanding His words...draw you closer...in relationship with Him. May He empower you to move in all areas of your life...giving you keys of understanding...His wisdom. May The Lord give you eloquence to your tongue and increase your knowledge of His words seasoned with...the understanding of each word read. Finally, may the Lord bring you His peace and fill you, restore you with His love and joy in the name of Christ Jesus...our Lord, savior and King.

Come see...our blog. Check our blog out from time to time, this is our love fish...to you.

All God lead, no doubt.

The Giacalone's blog & gallery:

http://360.yahoo.com/pjandkim4 [or]

360.yahoo.com/pjandkim4

The Love of Christ,

*Philip John & Kimberly Ann

pfff! Didn't they read my reply at all? or did the fact that I responded just kick off a "Jesus loves you, come to our blog type response"?

Jonathan Edwards sees the light

'I have never been happier' says the man who won gold but lost God.
I know that in the USA professing christian sportstmen are two-a-penny, but for the United Kingdom this is big, BIG news.

He was of the quiet "muscular" English christianity like you saw in the film "Chariots of Fire" with the character Liddle. Edwards mirrored Liddle's faith by also refusing to compete on Sundays.
He used to co-host a TV program called "Songs of Praise" and was such a decent, upright, open and approachable kind of man that christians were rightly proud to have such a man and athlete fronting their faith.
True to his character, the things he has said regarding his loss of faith show his honesty and integrity:

"I never doubted my belief in God for a single moment until I retired from sport," he says. "Faith was the reason that I decided to become a professional athlete, in the same way that it was fundamental to every decision I made. It was the foundation of my existence, the thing that made everything else make sense. It was not a sacrifice to refuse to compete on Sundays during my early career because that would imply that athletics was important in and of itself. It was not. It was always a means to an end: glorifying God.
"But when I retired, something happened that took me by complete surprise. I quickly realised that athletics was more important to my identity than I believed possible. I was the best in the world at what I did and suddenly that was not true any more. With one facet of my identity stripped away, I began to question the others and, from there, there was no stopping. The foundations of my world were slowly crumbling."

I am so pleased for him.
I am so pleased he is handing it logically, rationally and publicly.
This is a big score for secularism.


(ps apologies for big gap in posting. My Orange LiveBox crashed and I was at the mercy of French customer support. A new oxymoron 'french customer support' + 1 week holiday in Blighty. I was back online at 2pm today with a shit-load of spam in my inbox)

I love the Bible

Because it is so WEIRD!

The latest weirdness I've been looking at in the Bible, is the issue of people taken phisically, bodily, direct to heaven, without dying.
Our candidates are:
Enoch: (Genesis 5:22-24 & Hebrews 11:5)

Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away.

Elijah: (2 Kings 2:11)

As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind

Moses: By inference, because he appeared with Elijah when Jesus was "Transfigured"
Jesus: Well, duh.
Mary, mother of Jesus: by Pope Pius XII, on November 1, 1950

By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory

What I find weird is that we are taught, we assume that heaven is a spiritual place, somewhere we can't go. Yuri Gagarin was the first to go into space and declared that he couldn't find it. And yet thare are at least 4 (if you want to stick to the Bible) and maybe more actual flesh and blood people there. Do the still talk? Sweat? Sleep? Dream? Shiver? Laugh? Cry?
As physical things we are affected by gravity. These guys in heaven, do they walk about or float, or teleport, or what? HOW DOES IT WORK?

But that's why I love the Bible, I never seem to find an end to the weirdness and surprises. Because I was reading about Enoch, I found all that stuff about how old those guys were supposed to be, and about the Nephilim. Weird. I'll never know why christians don't blush. When I was a christian, we studied cults in church (JW, Mormonism, Scientology etc) to be better armed against heresy. How could we laugh at Smith translating the Book of Mormon thru his magic goggles and not see how stupid our own beliefs were?

One set of mythical beliefs and a dead language upset another group of myth believers

Latin Mass may offend Jews

This is the headline in today's Daily Telegraph.
The whole story of course, is more complex but the headline is indicitive of how ridiculous believers can get.

It seems the cause for alarm is not just that the Catholic Church may revert to saying mass in Latin, but that it may revert to the old mass, which has a section in it praying for Jews' conversion.

Any liturgy that presents Jews as being doomed in their faith doesn't present a very healthy attitude towards Judaism and the Jewish people.

Rabbi David Rosen, the president of the International Jewish Committee for Interreligious Consultations

We have here numerous complexities. One is the inability to seperate religion from culture and race. The specified passage in the old mass should not be offensive to jewish people on a theological or faith level. After all, if Judaism is the true religion and the Catholics are praying to a non-existant God, what's the problem? Also, if the g*d of Abraham and Isaac, being all-powerful etc etc is aware of their prayers, he won't take heed of them because the Jews are his chosen people. BUT, because jewishness is not merely defined by religion, but also ethnicity, you can see why they'd be upset.

On the Catholic side, it becomes apparant that tradition and culture are a stronger force than the theology. The punters want the Latin mass back because it is "more beautiful and inspiring than modern liturgies". It's obviously not because Latin is the official language of god. (or is it?) And how can you be inspired by a language you don't understand? No, hang on, apparantly people weep when they hear Italian opera, but that's another can of worms.

Which ever way it twists, however you analyse it and pick out the rights and wrongs, it is justification of Richard Dawkins' idea that religion is a scourge on humanity.

Christians are such lovely people

There's a new little forum I've been visiting.
It's called Russell's Teapot
I'd recommend this site for a number of reasons, not least because of the EXCELLENT cartoons by Chaz Braman, and their BRILLIANT series of "know your Bible" posters.
If you have not seen the cartoons or posters before, stop reading this post and click on the links to go there NOW. Go on, I can wait . . .
The site is named after, of course, Bertrand Russell who said of the ability to disprove the existance of god:

If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time

Now this excellent site has a little, young forum, so far only 36 registered users and not many posts. As a result of their comics and posters content (which you've just been to see, haven't you?) Their server receives constant attack. Chaz says:

It's interesting to note that the site is almost constantly under malicious attack by hackers. ... there's a big group out there working very hard to shut us down. Maybe Jason, my admin, can share some specifics about the attacks we receive. The numbers are pretty amazing actually.

Jason replied:

In the last 24 hours, we've had...
- +2000 brute-force break-in attempts.
- 13 distinct types of SSH, Apache, PHP, and MySQL attacks
- +500 spam e-mail addresses to various accounts
- 2 attempts to spoof or misroute our internet packets

and, my favourite by far...

- Over 100 distinct attempts to logon to the server, webpage, and forum as "JesusHatesYou"

The people involved probably think they are frontline soldiers in spiritual warfare. More likely they are bitter nerds who are breaking the law.

Evolution is full of holes

Thank you to Dave the webmaster at exchristian.net He has the ability to put lucidly in a few words what I struggle with foggily in my brain.

Few people would trust a mechanic to perform an appendectomy. Surgeons are generally not solicited to install circuit breakers in newly constructed homes. And people don't usually seek out shirtless road crew members to officiate at weddings or administer communion. Yet, when it comes to evolutionary science, a bible-school-educated religious philosopher's observations are touted as equally as valid as someone with, for example, a doctorate degree in molecular biology? How does that happen?

I have never understood how a minister can even be in the same debate with a scientist. I equate it to a dentist having a debate with someone arguing that the tooth fairy is the one that takes a child's tooth away and leaves a dollar.

Read the full article here.

Everything is Pointless

Louie Savva has been contemplating the alleviation of angst at his excellent blog "Everything is Pointless"

It's all very complicated, what with the meaning of life and all, but it has been proposed by existensialists that what impedes happiness is existensial anxiety. I presume they mean stuff like worrying about the mortgage and getting twisted up about the boss and work, worrying about the kids, and whether that failure to get an erection last night was a one off or the start of something more serious.

Louie says:

If tomorrow, I were whisked away to a desert island, allowed to live in peace, with a coconut tree on one side and a breadfruit tree on the other, I might attain happiness for a short while. Nothing like the existential joy that the paper talks about, but perhaps for a short time I might be allowed to enjoy, relatively stress free, that singularly unique experience that is, being alive.

However, such a satisfied state will not last forever, and sooner or later something bad is going to happen. My body will age and begin to fail, and then that fear of death kicks back in, leaving me berating existence until the last breath.

I therefore disagree that existential joy is achieved through transcending existential anxiety. It is merely the potential highpoint of a trajectory, from nothing, back to nothing. It is little wonder that people try their hardest to avoid the truth. What choice do you really have?

Now, when I was a freelance computer programmer living in the Thames Valley, I used to drive past road crews and ditch diggers and think "Man, I wish I was like them. If I was a ditch digger there would be no stress".

Well, years later, and here I am working in a factory. Automated ditch digging. It's shift work, so when I knock off, some other guy takes over. I don't have to worry about mounting paperwork, or deadlines. The end of work is the end of work.

And I can testify, as Louie has hypothesised, we make our own stress and anxiety. There is always going to be something in life to get you uptight.

You can't flee from life. You have to find ways of handling it, coping with it. Which is where religion comes in. Religion is pre-packaged how to cope. When there is no god and no religion you have to figure it out for yourself. I'm not painting atheists as life's heroes here because figuring out how to cope is what millions of people do, and have done, day by day. Part of our problems come from being to proud to ask when we find we can't cope, and to shy to share when we think we are the only ones in the world who can't manage it.

One of Louie's recommended aids in the fight against anxiety is . . .
a gum shield! Stops him grinding his teethe while he sleeps, so he gets a decent nights sleep and emerges in the mornings a less stressed man.

Another plus is that no one has ever been persecuted over gum shield dogma. Yet.

France - A Secular Nation?

It's my dream blog entry. I live in France and started this blog to chart the cultural diffrences between the French and me, and the unique experiences of working in a roof tile factory. Lately, the themes of atheism and skepticism has been taking more of my time, and in today's local paper, what do I find, but a pre-Easter survey on the religious persuasions of the French.
And the surprise is that France is becoming increasing secular. I've scanned the graphs in from the article. 4000 people were interviewed, across all ages and sectors.

This first graph is titled "Could you say which is your religion, if you consider yourself to have one?" The interesting figure here is that 29%, nearly a third of French people claim to have no religion. Note also that only 3% are declared muslim, a figure that would have been higher if this survey was exclusively from one of the big cities.

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This graph is titled "People who declare themselves Catholic" But notice that the figures don't add up to 100% What the graph is saying is that 44% of people aged between 15-35 years of age declare themselves catholic while 75% of people over 60 do so. It shows that as time goes by, France will become increasingly secular. (Set aside issues of Muslim immigration)

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This 3rd graph is a breakdown of the behaviour of the Catholics. "How often do you attend Mass or religious services?" The large majority, 53% only ever step inside church for baptisms, weddings and funerals. This is the declared catholics remember. This demonstrates that for most of the 59% declared Catholics oin France, their religion is has only cultural implications, and not deep religious implications. Only 23% say they would pitch up for the big feasts like Easter, Assumption and Christmas

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Graph number 4 asks: "In each of the following areas, would you say, in your life are very important, fairly important, not very imprtant, or not at all imprtant?" And the 2 bars they show in the graph are the figures for people who ranked the areas as "fairly important" and "very important". The thing to notice here is that most French regarded family, friends and social life, leisure and culture and work as important. Religion and spirituality was only rated as "fairly important" by 37% of people and only 13% thought religion was "very important" in their lives.

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This last graph is the killer. Only 38% of french people believ in God. 38% could be called agnostic, and a whopping 22% of french people declare themselves atheist!

There is also an accompanying article that gives a bit more detail and interviews 2 local priests for their opinions. I'll post the translation of that tomorrow

The Atheist Blogroll

If you look over to the right hand side of the page, in my links section, I have added the Atheist Blogroll.
This blogroll is currently running at over 220 sites, they may not all be exclusively atheist content. Like me they may only get on their atheist soapbox from time to time.
If your blog has atheist content, if you have significant things to say about the absence of evidence for any kind of god, and how that impacts on life, get added to the blogroll.
Joe Crumpler at Deep Thoughts can provide code for a rotating 25 site list, or a scrolling marquee. I've opted for the full list because at certain sites I visit daily (like Skeptico) have excellent links that I use daily, and I'd be bugged if I went there and a link I use regularly wasn't there.

Gideon's Bibles

Edward Baker, in his blog "In Defence Of Reason" suggests a petition for the removal of Gideon's Bibles from hotel rooms in the UK.

As I read his piece my thoughts went through a strange process:
1. No, leave them there, then we can insert atheist literature or just keep taking them home.
2. Rather, lets have atheist literature in the rooms as well.
3. No, let's not, where will it end?
4. Yeah, let's sign this petition.

I participate on an Ex-Christian forum and this very topic came up recently. At Friendly Atheist the topic has also been recently blogged. Some people advocate taking the bibles home and dumping them. At the very least it costs Gideons some money.
Someone pointed out the irony that the scoiety is named after a very nasty piece of work. By today's standards, Gideon would have hung alongside Saddam for war crimes.

You can get warning stickers for bibles here and here

Which got me wondering why we couldn't petition to have atheist or humanist literature in hotels. But then all hell would break loose as we'd then have to have the Koran, Book of Mormon and god knows what other crap filling the bedside drawers. Each hotel room would have to have its own mini library of religious bullshit, in the name of equality and balance.

So I've come round to the idea, either leave things as they are, Gideons in the rooms, and feel free to mess with them as you wish, or remove all religious crap from the rooms, including Gideons bibles. Go sign Ed's petition.