Holy cr*p!

So here's a cute little story, some American chap thinks he's had a message from Yahweh, not a burning bush or a bolt of lightening of course but a splat of bird poo on his windscreen that looks like Jesus (how would we know?). The opportunities for making fun of this kind of thing are like the traditional Christian view of their glorious leader, i.e. infinite, which is strange since this Christian at least thinks he's a shit communicator. (phnar phnar)

There were 10 in the bed and the little one said..

I read that Catholic Cardinal Keith O'Brien has quit his post today. O'Brien is someone I've blogged about several times before regarding his seemingly arrogant and antiquated outbursts on social subjects such as same sex marriage, secularism and abortion when such views appeared in the media. I must confess that it's with a smidgen of  schadenfreude that I see accusations regarding his own (alleged) dubious behaviour have forced him to resign his position only weeks away from retirement.

Against the backdrop of the Pope himself stepping down and various birds coming home to roost regarding the sexual and financial in-proprietaries of several of the candidates in the new leadership race any casual observer could and probably should reasonably conclude that the whole damn organisation is rotten to the core and long overdue for a complete overhaul.

Hopefully justice will prevail and hopefully rational and fair-minded people will not loose sight of the fact that it's not same sex marriage that's "grotesque and unnatural" as Mr O'Brien puts it, rather, it's the ludicrous adherence of certain religions to obsessive, outdated and misogynistic ideas about reality, specifically the realities of human Biology. If O'Brien is found guilty and is truly a moral man he will have a fantastic opportunity to help many other people in similar quandaries by simply admitting that he was wrong and by encouraging people to accept the realities of their own Biology and not cling onto unnatural and harmful abstinences.

Homeopathic cartoon

Atheist Church Services

Here's a wacky idea I came across today, Atheist Church. Well more like church with a small "c" I suppose but it does sound a lot like the other kind to me, with someone at the front talking, audience participation and singing songs etc. I'm not convinced this would be for me. I'd be the one sitting at the back thinking of all the things I could be doing with the time, like enjoying the one life I have, but I can certainly appreciate how some people might feel the need for the community and ritual aspects of a regular gathering like this, albeit minus the supernatural parts.

There was one thing I liked, a clever inversion of Pascal's wager which goes like this,

"In the absence of firm evidence for any particular God, why not to live your life as though it is the only one you have? Every moment will be sweeter, every minute more precious. Then, if there is a God, they will doubly reward you for living a good life without the bribe of heaven, or the threat of hell."

Job hunting?

Saw this today, fine Friday (fun) material..

Dumb news

Ever since the Pope resigned yesterday superstitious people have been scrambling around trying to find some omen to tell them if it's a good thing or the signalling of the start of the "end-times", as they do. The mainstream media picked up on a story that a bolt of lightening struck St. Peters Basilica in Rome a few hours after the announcement, this story has been leapt upon by credulous people worldwide. What a natural imbalance of electrical charge in the atmosphere has to do with job vacancies in the Vatican I'm not too sure, but those among us more prone to believing in the power of non sequitur clearly think it's a sign from their big man in the sky.

This kind of thing always amuses me, if these people really think that their God communicates with us via electrical discharges then why put lightening conductors on tall buildings like churches? Surely this is as "contra Deus" as wearing one of those little rubber thingies, you know, those "man-focused" temporary coverings that also prevent unwanted consequences from other kinds of discharges, a theological quandary if ever there was one.

So the search for a replacement Pope begins, much like organised religion itself really a process involving the perpetuation of worldly self interest wrapped up in mystery, ritual and obfuscation in order to elevate it above the mundane affairs of its "flock" and secure their reverence  The Cardinals need not vex themselves too much though, I'm pretty sure I know who should take over. The answer to their prayers was revealed to me in a dream, there exists a perfectly qualified person; a person who lives in Italy, is not a Woman, definitely not gay, used to handling obscene amounts of money, power and arrogance and to cap it all he's currently looking for a job...

All hail Pope Silvio...

Atheists for Jesus

Following on from the Super Bowl post last week I happened across this, it's some kind of advertisement for Atheism. Very nicely made but slightly odd viewed through English eyes, what's it for I ask myself? I imagine that it plays out better in America where Atheists are certainly under a lot more pressure from the various aggressive religious factions there. I suspect that just having something to accompany the overt (and pervasive) public religious messaging stateside makes non-believing people feel better or maybe it's aimed at provoking fence-sitters, who knows, it's a free country as they say.

ex-Popes

In what sounds like the beginnings of a Monty Python sketch I read today that we now have an "ex-pope", Pope Benedict having quit his post as "Vicar of Christ on Earth" via the somewhat mundane act of releasing a resignation press release through international media channels this morning (what no angels?)...

I'm intrigued, does this mean Herr Ratzinger is now fallible again, will he wake up tomorrow morning, stumble down to breakfast bleary-eyed like the rest of us mortals only to stub his toe on the kitchen table leg and swear like a trooper? The world needs to know! I'd love to be at his next job interview too, so Herr Ratzinger, why did you leave your last job, personal development opportunities not good enough? Did you feel like you were in a bit of a dead end, was your boss simply not listening to you?

Seriously though, I can't help thinking there's some massive revelation about some horrible scandal just about to break across the worlds media, I do hope not.

Super-natural Bowl

Here's a scary statistic, 27% of Americans think that "God" (presumably their God) has a hand in determining the outcome of the Super Bowl. Wow, how conceited can some people get? To think that God would take time out from ruthlessly slaughtering African children by the 000s every day in order to preside over a silly game of football, and not even real football at that!

Dem bones etc.

I read with interest that the bones found under a car park in Leicester are indeed those of late King of England Richard III. DNA tests have confirmed royal genealogy and carbon dating has placed the body at the temporal scene of Richards' last battle Bosworth, where he was killed in action and York begat Tudor as the name of the leading crime family in medieval England, the rest is history as they say. (cue lots of infantile scatological jokes about Leicester)

Wondrous Life of Brian

A new BBC science series started yesterday, called the "Wonders of Life" it's been advertised all week and is fronted by the ubiquitous Prof. Brian Cox, so, at 9 pm I settled down on the sofa with a nice Thornbridge IPA and tuned in.

The first thing that became clear was that this program will almost certainly generate a lot of "letters" to the BBC from quivering Christian and Muslim apologists who will probably be offended by the lack of deference to their various myths. Brian Cox is a fairly outspoken rationalist, he doesn't believe in God(s) and is outspoken on the subject of woo-woo (i.e. things like homoeopathy and astrology) this was clear from the outset. Life as he described it is a natural process, no need for magical spirits or souls and science should be able to explain everything about it using only the laws of physics. He's got all the evidence on his side of course but as the words were emerging from my TV speaker I was thinking about all those tedious CIF comments espousing "mystery", "fundamentalist atheists" and "you never know..". It was refreshing to watch something that went to the heart of things and took a strong position rather than the usual dancing around the handbags when it comes to public broadcasts and the origins of life / nature of conciousness etc. Creationists be damned.

As for the content, I quite liked it, I learned a few things and overall I though that it handled some complex topics with reasonable examples and analogies whilst not dumbing down too much. The filmography was slightly cheesy (lots of stunning backdrops, unnecessary helicopter shots and dramatic music) but then again his hero is Carl Sagan so what do you expect. I recorded it for my kids to watch at an earlier time, that's usually the acid test for me, if it holds their attention for an hour then it's all good in my book.

Lines on the map (and in our heads)

Once we've voted on whether the UK wishes to remain in Europe or not I think we should vote on our position in the North Atlantic, personally I've always preferred the Mediterranean, the food is so much more interesting and the wine situation incomparable. Then we should sort out the thorny issue of planet Earth, I find the gravity here limiting, somewhere with less mass would be much better for those of us reaching a certain age and starting to suffer minor niggles with our backs and joints, isn't the democratic process wonderful.

Time flies like bullets at an NRA open day..

Where has January gone? Last time I looked at my watch it was new year, and now it feels like everyone is well and truly gripped by a bad dose of the mid-January blues. Apparently the 21st of January is the most depressing day of the year, I wouldn't argue, what with the mildly inclined road I live on under 2 inches of solid ice; every morning is an angst filled adventure. Will I make it to the main road or will I join all the other under-qualified ice-drivers in the front garden of the nice (but rather depressed) man who lives at the bottom of the hill.

Anyway at least the kids are having fun throwing ever more discoloured snow around at every possible opportunity. Mine get home from school looking like they've been dragged through a cold car wash backwards but at least they have rosy cheeks and smiles on their faces unlike most of the adults arriving at my office in the misty first light of morning; they grasp their cups of tea in clenched hands and stare unblinkingly into the middle distance as their stress levels and core temperatures return to normal.

Still, mustn't grumble, there is always someone worse off than you, spare a thought for the many people killed or injured from accidental shootings whilst attending the recent NRA "Gun Appreciation Day" event in America, I suppose at least they now appreciate the problem with guns, well, the ones that aren't dead.

What discrimination?

Looks like the European courts have junked all but one of the recent religious discrimination appeals although the one upheld was certainly the case that made the least practical sense. The ECHR upheld the appeal of Nadia Eweida who back in 2006 had a job as a check-in clerk for BA and was told not to wear a piece of jewellery which happened to be a cross on a necklace. At the time BA had a very strict policy on jewellery (which I can sort of understand for public facing roles) regardless of the religious significance or otherwise. The BA rules have since changed (2007) and interestingly Nadia still works there, so I guess she forgave them. In any case I'm not sure where it says that Christians must wear crosses, I always thought fishes were the approved symbol, then again, I'm no theologian. Perhaps one of my religious readers could point me to the verse that says "And Jesus said, take this rather delicate and attractive 9 carat necklace and wear it in remembrance of me...and perhaps a nice little brooch sometimes too"?

The downside of claiming the moral highground

Here is a fascinating insight into the mind of a Catholic apologist, his article is from 2011 before the Jimmy Savile scandal was unpleasantly inserted into our conciousness. The author of the piece is irate that the press would report on the death of a celebrity like Savile (who died in 2011) elaborating on his many charitable and voluntary acts but not reporting on where these things came from, which according to the author was the fact that Savile had "faith" and was a devout Catholic attending regular Mass. The choice of quotes in the article about the fallen star is (with hindsight) chilling, the author particularly likes the question Savile is reported as asking Broadmoor inmates, “what do you want to go round strangling crumpet for?”.

The problem with this kind of claim of course is what happens when it all goes wrong, as it invariably does, and the people you hold up as leading lights of your faith/political party/race/nationality etc. turn out to be nothing more than ordinary, weak, flawed and sometimes monstrous human beings. If religious people of any flavour feel inclined to attribute good things like charity, flowers, sunshine and puppies to their particular omnipotent Deity then they also need to accept the logical necessity of attributing the bad as well, suffering, disease, hate and child molesting ex-BBC presenters.

I maybe sometime

Here's an interesting idea, retrace our species ' "long walk" out of Africa through the Middle East, Asia, North and South America to the furthest point of our colonisation of the planet Tierra del Fuego at the Southern tip of the American continent, and do it all like they did, i.e. on foot.

It's estimated that humans made this migration around 45,000 years ago although there is evidence of earlier migrations 65,000 years ago and as many as 100,000 years ago, in any case even at walking speed this journey will only take US journalist Paul Salopek 7 years to complete (and he won't be walking every day). Of course it's not likely that early humans did the trip in a oner as Salopek will, most of them probably found a nice spot along the way somewhere and stayed a few generations before moving on. Even when they did some must have left the odd tribe behind since we now see people that are physically adapted to the climate and environments of their chosen plots along the route. Its also interesting to consider the land bridge that must have existed at some point between Asia and America during this period, we already know from fossil evidence that other species made this same journey back and forth much earlier (Bison, Horses, Bears etc.) but even during warmer periods the crossing must have been a fantastically daunting proposition for barefoot primates equipped only with with fur coats, stone tools and curious minds.

How do you know you're old?

I remember seeing my first personal computer when I was 16 years old, I thought it was amazing, the size of 4 bread bins stacked on top of each other and a tiny monochrome screen with a resolution of  40 X 25 characters. In the picture above we have a potty with an integral iPad mount, perish the thought that little junior could go more that 15 minutes without a full colour, high resolution, internet connected, multi-core multi-media, touch sensitive computing experience; that's progress I suppose.

This photo did make me think though, a device like this could be quite handy for those excruciatingly long meetings with arty agency types who bang on interminably about how wonderful Apple products are and how "they just work", no need for even the shortest comfort break.

Perspective..

Here's a chilling photo for you, it shows (amazingly) the super massive black hole at the centre of our galaxy and the white stuff is matter (planets, stars etc.) being sucked in and mashed.

We tend to think of our cosmic backyard in the universe as safe, unchanging perhaps boring even, but as this picture shows even our own neighbourhood we have some pretty scary stuff going on. Once black holes start digesting stuff then you tend to end up with chaos, beams of matter blasting out at nearly the speed of light, bursts of high energy X- and gamma rays, and pretty much annihilation for anything with a few hundred light years. Fortunately for us our galaxy is a hundred thousand light years wide and we're located out in the sticks, so we're safe... for now.

Autocorrection

We've all been there, pesky auto-correct software on mobile phones that messes around with the banal, poorly spelt and grammatically incorrect stuff we type and turns it into pure comedy gold. Follow the link here to see more of the same although be careful if you're in an office, you will laugh out loud.

News me

I spotted a couple of interesting stories on the BBC site today. First we have news that the oldest man in the UK has died at the grand old age of 110, wow now that's a pretty decent innings! It made me think, imagine having the title of being the "oldest" person in any given population, a cursed position if ever there was one.

I also spotted this little Biology story, it's about restoring the sight of mice by transplanting photoreceptor (light sensitive) cells into their eyes. The hope is that similar treatments might be developed that help humans with degenerative sight disorders, I must admit though I was distracted by thought that there was probably only 3 mice and the scientists probably spent a lot of time watching them run.

Lastly we have the on-going saga of gay people and the slightly weird simultaneous obsession and revulsion that organised religion has with them. This time it's my favourite state religion, the Church of England and their recent decision to allow gay men to become Bishops so long as they don't actually have gay sex with anyone. It amuses me how otherwise normal educated people can support the idea that an all powerful omnipotent deity really cares where certain men put their penis. This is doubly baffling to me since this edict is clearly taken from a book Christians supposedly revere (the Bible) that also endorses slavery and treats rape as property crime among many other things that modern Christians would abhor.

My verdict on Christmas TV

Worst ever...

Final Hitch

Well, it's Christmas eve and before I settle into a good film and some mince pies here's my last Hitchens quote. Talking about life and death in direct language like this means that superficially it may look depressing or unwelcome to some, but look further than shallow fear or desire and you may find something more worthwhile than you think.

"Death is certain, replacing both the siren-song of Paradise and the dread of Hell. Life on this earth, with all its mystery and beauty and pain, is then to be lived far more intensely: we stumble and get up, we are sad, confident, insecure, feel loneliness and joy and love. There is nothing more; but I want nothing more."

Hitch 6

Only one more day to go, here's the sixth hitch quote to Christmas...

"Atheism is not a creed, it's the only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance."

Hitch 5

Here is my fifth quote of seven from the late Christopher Hitchens, only 3 sleeps to go :)

"Atheism is not a creed, it's the only position that leaves me with no cognitive dissonance."

Last (EOW) joke

Well that's another apocalypse negotiated without incident, hopefully we can all breath easy again and focus on the calorific catastrophe that is rapidly approaching us, i.e. Christmas lunch..

It's interesting to see the affect that this particular non-event has had on everyone, it's been a constant topic of conversation in the office for the best part of a week (in a humorous way), the best one-liner I heard today, which will be my last word on the whole "end of world" subject (until the next time), was the following,

"people are making apocalypse jokes like there's no tomorrow"

te he..

Stone huggers

I see with some amusement that our stone hugging brothers and sisters have been having fun at Stone Henge today. As I'm sure most enlightened people know today is the shortest day in the UK or the Winter Solstice as its known, when the Northern Hemisphere is at it's maximum tilted distance from the Sun, i.e. the Sun appears lowest in the sky at it's highest point. The good news is that from here on in we're approaching next Summer as opposed to retreating from last, certainly something to celebrate for warm blooded mammals like us.

The orbit of the Earth around the Sun is a great example of cycles in nature, the clue is in the name, i.e. they're cyclical, they will just keep going around for ever until some element of the system causes a tipping point and a new trajectory is established, nothing pre-planned, nothing aimed at human beings and certainly no anthropological guiding hand at work, just physics doing what it does. The exciting thing for me is not that these cycles occur in nature but that we now understand (more or less) why, something our Mayan forebears unlikely ever did.

Hitch du jour

Continuing the theme of quotes from the late Christopher Hitchens, here is number 4...

"Gullibility and credulity are considered undesirable qualities in every department of human life -- except religion."

Keep calm

I hope people aren't going to get silly about this silliness...

Reasons to be fearful, part 1

Following the dreadful school massacre in the USA last week I spotted this story today. I guess it's inevitable but still seems catastrophically stupid to me, an 11 year old has brought a gun to school for "protection". I can just imagine playground disputes over sweets, marbles and kiss-chase being resolved via a Glock 9mm and a clip of soft nosed rounds, what the hell kind of society are they trying to create over there?

Third day

Day three of my countdown to Christmas with another Hitch quote...

"Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it."

Holy tweets

On the money as usual;

Hitch quote

Here's the second of my top seven favourite Christopher Hitchens one-liners, only 6 sleeps to go now..

"That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence."

Political analysis (for morons)

That odious American entrepreneur James Dobson who made his fortune from selling dreams (aka religion) has offered his followers an analysis of the political state of the union and suggests the reason for the recent mass murder at a school on the East coast of the USA. You can probably guess where this is going but Dobson believes (or says he believes) that the reason for the slaughter is because America allows abortion and gay marriage, the awful events of last Friday were nothing to do with gun controls or mental health issues, nope, Jimmy reckons it's all down to his vengeful God.

I always find it surprising that moderate (and sane) Christians don't do more to discredit morons like this, they continually give secularists spectacularly good arguments with which to marginalise them from the public square. They also don't do religion any favours either, even if his "God" existed at all then who'd want to worship an entity that kills terrified young children in a brutal and sadistic fashion just because some other (unrelated) people don't follow some random sub-set of interpreted rules. The cognitive dissonance this drivel causes is palpable.

Quoting down to Christmas

As we run down to the consumer-feast that is Christmas these days I thought I'd remember that feisty old curmudgeon Christopher Hitchens who died of cancer a year or so ago. Here is the first of seven of his more well known quotes, a pearl of wisdom for each day.

"Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way."

Mapping madness

I saw this sobering picture today, it's the 13 countries in the world today where I could get punished or even executed simply for not believing that there exists an invisible, all-powerful supernatural man in the sky. 12 of the 13 countries are Islamic, which isn't a surprise but Laos? what have they got against us atheists I wonder?

The full list is as follows,

- Mauritania (officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania)
- Sudan
- Egypt
- Eritrea
- Maldives
- Comoros
- Saudi Arabia
- Kuwait
- Iran
- Afghanistan
- Pakistan
- Indonesia
- Laos

Anyway, more places to be struck off my holiday list, their loss.

Micro-blogging miracles

I was most concerned this morning when white smoke started coming out of my iPhone, fortunately it was only the Pope sending his first tweet...

Its only a theory...

Love this picture, it shows the proportion of (current) peer reviewed scientific papers supporting the idea that we're heating our planet up versus those that reject this view. Looks suspiciously like a wedge strategy to me.

Down, down, deeper and down

Findings from the 2011 census for England and Wales have revealed the number of people who say they are Christian has dropped dramatically from 72% to 59%. The figures published today by the Office for National Statistics also show the number of people who say they have no religion has risen from 15% to 25%.

Its interesting to ponder why this may be the case, I think there are several key factors involved. Since the last census in 2001 we've had a surge of Islamic extremism spawning the 9/11, London and Madrid bombings among other atrocities both in the Middle East and in other parts of the world (Bali etc.) Closer to home we've seen a reactionary lurch toward evangelicalism, during the Bush Era and particularly within the Catholic church but also within more traditionally moderate organisations like the Church of England. From religions in this decade we've seen many despicable and arrogant attitudes being thrust into the public square over issues like child abuse, misogyny, gender discrimination and other matters of simple Human equality like gay marriage. The fact that members of these religions are out of touch with modern society is not in itself the point, they can believe what they like (even though they don't often espouse that right for everyone else) the issue for them is that their medieval attitudes are simply driving the support of moderates and "undecided's" away at a ferocious rate. It's probably reasonable to say that the default stance of most people born in the UK since 1980 is either Atheist or Agnostic (which we all know is just a softer word for Atheist)

Hopefully this is a trend which will continue, realising that you don't need to believe mythological authorities to live an ethical, healthy and fulfilled life is one of the most liberating experiences a Human being can have in my view, it certainly was for most Atheists I know. I also note that the number of Jedi's is on the decrease too and that's never a bad thing, may the force be with you :)

Getting with the plot

It would seem that members of the Christian Union of Bristol University have been caught with their trousers down (not what you're thinking!) over the issue of gender equality. In an investigation by the student union there a memo emerged that stated Christian women were not allowed to present at weekly meetings, but could address an audience in other settings if accompanied by their husbands. I admit I had to do a double take over this article, I thought for a second I had been bodily transported to the Islamic Republic of Iran. No, apparently Christians affiliated with this organisation feel that in 21st century England it's still OK to discriminate on the basis of gender.

The (majority) secular community figured all this out back in the 60s however the Christian community still seems heavily divided on this embarrassingly straightforward question, as evidenced by the recent furore over women bishops. My question is, when will these retards ever learn and why the hell should the rest of us take them seriously until they do?

Ice bugs

Here's a picture of a bacterial cell found in a lake under the Antarctic ice cap, the environment there is described as aphotic (with little or no light), anoxic (without oxygen), and slightly acidic brine with a temperature of -13C. Carbon dating has indicated that the inhospitable-sounding brine has been isolated for more than 2,800 years, and yet there is still life there. It kind of suggests that life is significantly more durable than we thought, as I ponder this amazing fact, I'm beginning to think my Mother-in-law might be from there.

Chromosomal discrimination

I read with interest tonight that the Church of England (the state religion in my country) has voted "no" to a proposal to allow Women to become Bishops even though they may be perfectly able and willing.

Next week they'll be voting on the thorny issues of people with ginger pubes becoming grave diggers and allowing lactose intolerant people to ring bells; in fact many traditionalists insist that anyone with a genetic difference greater than 0.001% from the DNA extracted from molar teeth of the late Thomas Becket shouldn't be allowed to join the Church in the first place, apparently it makes their God very cross!

In other news Nick Clegg is relieved that there's now at last at least one major UK institution less popular than the Liberal Democrat party.

Its all about the kids

Lots of focus on children in the news this week, first we had the depressing story about a couple in Ireland who lost their baby due to a miscarriage, however it was reported that the hospital refused to abort the foetus until there was no trace of a heartbeat, this took days during which time the mother developed blood poisoning and died. The reason given for not performing the required medical procedure much earlier was, yes you guessed it, "Ireland is a Catholic country".. In more depressing news we have innocents suffering as a result of escalating violence in Gaza and of course they continue to suffer in Syria too. In the UK we have "children in need" weekend where people up and down the country do daft things in a good pro-child cause this is in stark contrast to the continuing story about the young Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by a much less enlightened anti-child segment of her society just because she wants to go to school. Fortunately Malala seems to be doing well in hospital in the UK at the moment.

As always the excellent cartoon series Jesus and Mo (above) sums up how certain sections of our various societies feel about children, for me, I'm just looking forward to the weekend and finally spending some quality time with my own.

Pool rules

Time for something less serious and more light-hearted...

Here's a pool that could use a few more rules, like, no dive bombing and no heavy petting (whatever that means - I was never entirely sure...)

Symbollocks

Its that time of year again here in the UK when we remember the sacrifices of our ancestors in the (far too many) wars and battles that have been fought in the name of our little island and its ideas and interests over the years. Some of these engagements have been much more noble than others but I don't believe that fact diminishes the struggles and bravery of the people involved at the cutting edge. I'm very keen that we force ourselves to think about the past, to think about the people and what they endured but we also need to understand why it's a good idea to focus on people (like us!) and not facile symbols like flags or poppies. The only worthy reason I can think of to dredge this unpleasantness up again every year is so that we re-double our resolve that the horrors of the Somme, Dunkirk and Auschwitz must be avoided in the future.

Whilst I believe it's really important to think about our history and to teach the next generation about it (warts and all) I would not agree that everyone has to reach the same conclusion nor think in some uniform "state-sanctified" way. If anything, I'd have said that diversity of thought and free speech is one of the most valuable jewels to be salvaged from the blood of the 20th century. But, even today I read of some bloke in Kent who has been arrested by the Police there because he posted a picture of a burning poppy on Twitter, really? arrested? What the hell did all those people die for if not to protect a tolerant, rational society where diversity of opinion is allowed if not encouraged, sticks and stones people, sticks and stones.

Herd mentality

I was watching the final part of Andrew Marr's "History of the World" last night, its been an interesting series tracking the progress of Homo-sapiens from when we first emerged from Africa to the present day. In many ways I agree with his final commentary which (summarised) was that our scientific and technological progress has been amazing (once the crippling retardants of religion and superstition were marginalised) but our political progress has been much less impressive.

I was thinking about why this might be, it seems to me that we invariably go astray when we put too much faith in people (and their delusions) over evidence. The programme last night focused on the 20th century and posed the question "how and why did a loser like Hitler manage to create such a cult of personality and achieve absolute power over millions?" I'm sure the answer to that question is complex, but I think there's value in examining our inherited social primate instincts; these behaviours are still very powerful and clearly we haven't travelled the long road out of Eden fully yet, even though many might think we have. We all know what it feels like to do something stupid against our better judgement and innate morality just so that we can feel part of the in-group. It must have happened on a grand scale in Germany in the 30s but we can see it going on around us all the time. Take the current storm in the BBC, I still can't quite figure out how the mishandling of a particular story by one programme team could amount to such a crisis and why there seems to be a lemming like wave of people falling on their swords right now? Has some internal spell been broken has the fog of delusion cleared exposing the blade edge of reality. Just like the fate of every other in-group there has ever been, has the cult of "Auntie" reached its inevitable end?

Drilling for souls

I read with interest today that the new Archbishop of Canterbury is to be ex-oilman Justin Welby; I'm wondering if this means the Anglican Church will now be introducing loyalty cards and selling charcoal and flowers from naves up and down the country? Seriously though, I wish him luck and hope that his "real-world" experience will help him to speak more rationally than his predecessor on topics of privilege and secularism from his albeit privileged position in our country.

Best election photo..

Love this picture of those nice people at Fox News, maybe they just didn't pray hard enough? (or perhaps to the right God instead of the God of the right?)

Update: Seems like I'm not the only one that thought that ...

Hey Euro weenie's, whatever...

I saw this amusing story in the Telegraph today, it's basically suggesting that people in the US don't give a damn what Europeans think about their election; in fact the grass-roots undercurrent (particularly from Republicans) is more like "f**k off and mind your own business" (does this means they feel they are losing?).

As someone who has spent a decent proportion of my life working for and with Americans and also having lived in the country I would argue that I have an above average interest level compared to most other Europeans but in any case I think its actually quite a healthy thing for anyone to be interested in world affairs, particularly when so much of what we do at work and play these days involves interacting with people from further afield than the next village. So, I'd say to those Americans who don't like the idea of non-Americans expressing their opinions "right back at'cha!" Perhaps if certain Republicans had more of a grasp of world affairs, maybe if they realised there actually was a world outside of 'merica, they may get more sympathy from it.

Madrid

I spent a very enjoyable weekend in Madrid (see above) recently, we went to pick up my Son who was staying with a friend of his from school and took the opportunity to do a bit of exploring. I made several new discoveries, one of which was a wine that I hadn't tried before and liked a lot. It's called Hacienda Monasterio from the Ribera del Duero region and is made from that standard bearer Spanish grape of Rioja fame, Tempranillo with a splash of more international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. The man behind the label is Peter Sisseck who made a name for himself making the iconic "Pingus" which is eye wateringly expensive. This wine it's not cheap (although it's cheaper in Spain than here) but if you're looking for a classy wine that would go well with a special meal (beef or duck etc.) then it will be a great match, I expect it will also improve over the next few years as well; I might even give it a try with the Turkey over Christmas (shock horror, thinking about Christmas in November!).

Can't trust those atheist muslims...

Don't get me wrong, this kind of daftness obviously isn't confined to one political following or another (and clearly the clips are edited to get a particular effect) but some of the views being expressed by the people in these interviews are downright scary. I was particularly interested to hear that Obama is a Muslim and an Atheist and hates America also that Bhuddists are flooding into the USA and stealing freedom of religion, no wonder they're upset... (Oh and just how rough does Meatloaf look!)

Chiroptera excrement crazy

For those following the American presidential elections here's Mitt Romney talking about his "religion", or as the rest of us know it a Victorian scam invented by a convicted con-man called Joseph Smith, it's very enlightening.

Mormonism has everything a good religion should have, angels, demons, magic, elitism, dubious right wing tendencies and most importantly it's all completely unfalsifiable; the only concrete evidence (angelic golden plates) apparently having been spirited up to heaven before they could be examined by anyone other than Smith himself, always handy that. One of the more odd things that Smith invented was a story about one of the lost tribes of Israel ending up in the USA, this is where American Indians came from according to him. Modern science has debunked this already absurdly unlikely claim through examining the DNA of Jews and American Indians, but I suspect like the psychic in my previous post true Mormons just think that those nasty scientists will do anything to spoil a good story. They also believe that Jesus will re-visit the Earth landing in Jerusalem (where else!) and then rule over the Earth for 1000 years (why 1000, maybe Joseph smith didn't know any bigger numbers?) apparently Jesus will rule the entire planet from the two most obvious global centres, Jerusalem (yawn) and Missouri, er, yes that's right Missouri, by a strange twist of fate that's precisely where Smith lived too, what are the odds?

Don't believe me that such an obviously transparent lot of old cobblers could be believed by any serious person, well, listen to Mitt and believe in America...

I could have told them that...

Scientists at the University of London have found that two psychics who volunteered to be subjected to regular scientific testing were unable to show that they had any special powers of cognition. In tests carried out at the University neither of them were able to demonstrate any ability whatsoever to discern anything unusual about a group of volunteer subjects using psychic powers alone. What little they did get right simply corresponded to what would be expected by blind chance alone.

One of the psychic's claimed afterwards that the tests proved nothing and that scientists are "closed minded", I suppose that response could have been predicted.

Halloween?

Can anyone explain to me what the point of Halloween is? I've been baffled for years, a celebration of a bunch of evil entities that don't exist but apparently still scare the crap out of some people (Catholics I'm looking at you!) at a time of the year when its always cold and drizzly, why? And just don't get me started about "trick or treat", what a stupid (American) tradition, if you're going to go to the bother of dressing up and wandering door to door extorting sweets from people by threatening them, at least be prepared to follow through with something that's original and ideally amusing or even ironic (which it never is!)

At least we've got bonfire night coming up, now there's a proper celebration grounded in reality....

Digitally touching cloth...

This little clip made me smirk today, it's a totally serious piece of engineering research and hugely impressive it is too (so long as the obstacles aren't pre-programmed); the thing that made me giggle was simply the thought that scientists and engineers have probably spent millions of dollars and many years of effort to produce a robot that looks just like the average drunken youth staggering around our town centres come Friday or Saturday night, I love it, especially the bit at the end, is it me or does he look desperate for something?

I'm a C grade sinner..

Here's a picture taken outside the recent Texas Freethought Convention held in Austin; it's a Christian chap (of some sort) warning the attendees of what awaits them if they continue on what he thinks is the path of un-righteousness, destination hell of course; presumably the fiery, infinite torment variety so bafflingly beloved of so many of our religious brothers and sisters, love em.

Possessing a liberal perspective on life, but mainly just being a grown up, I'm not offended at this kind of thing; my normal reaction would simply be a quick roll of the eyes before moving swiftly on, but being a devilishly competitive soul I paused to take a closer look at the list and realised to my horror that I only score 5/10! A rather paltry C grade (or B* if you measure it by modern A level standards) I really must try harder.

Now, where can I get a cauldron full of stolen golden cows?..

Elitism for dummies

Hat-tip to my fellow blogger and Archdruid over at that epicentre of Beaker culture (near Milton Keynes) for this little story. It's about 11 year old wannabe boy scout George Pratt, resident of Midsomer Norton near Bath who has been chucked out of that movement after 10 months of service because he doesn't believe in God.

I posted on this subject before when I learned that the boy scout movement is an openly elitist organisation who insist that members must believe in God (they're not particularly fussy about which ones) in order to attain full membership. A unbelieving cynic (like me) simply sees this as a way of ensuring the maintenance of an unquestioning "in-group", i.e. that regardless or your character, ethics, ability or background, as long as you have an invisible friend that you are willing to make a promise to then you're in. This is a shame since what I fear this constraint actually does is make unnecessary bluffers of a good proportion of it's young members (great moral lesson for future life there!). Anyway as any parent knows, forget Yahweh, Allah and Buddha how many 10 year old kids actually have enough insight into anything to have strong convictions about it? (other than PlayStation or XBox of course...)

As the good Archdruid points out (and she should know!) this entry qualification is actually more onerous than those required to join most mainstream religions in the first place, entry into those organisations seems to rest with some third party mumbling a few words whilst dribbling magic water on a baby's head or hacking at some body part or other of an unfortunate infant, in both cases reassuringly far too young to understand what the hell is going on.

Hopefully if Pratt junior can manage to dodge the multitudes of murderers that live in places called "Midsomer" long enough to accrue some broader perspective on this matter he will realise that he's actually lucky to have avoided yet another mechanism for religious indoctrination, but more importantly as he gets older he'll realise that you don't need a woggle to have fun rubbing things together outdoors!

Human traffic

I've blogged on the subject of Gary McKinnon before it's a matter that's been around for quite a few years now. Today I'm pleased to learn that the extradition case against him has been dropped and he's going to stay here in the UK.

The thing I could never get my head around was why the US authorities felt it necessary to conduct legal proceedings against McKinnon in the USA when his crimes were actually committed in the UK? The potential double standard at work here always seemed inedible to me, it wasn't so long ago that a New York judge refused to extradite an IRA terrorist to the UK on the grounds that his murderous acts were "political", a somewhat optimistic interpretation of events. No doubt questions will now be asked about the differences between a rejected case like this one and that of Abu Hamza; one major difference that I can see is motive, McKinnon was looking for UFO's; Hamza's beliefs are much less credible.

Weird ideas, pt. 1

I think therefore I am (or not)

I must remember to speak to the Inland revenue about this...

TGIF

This one is for those of us that make a living by writing software (aka coders), it's a comparison between writing software and creating music; they are both similar in many respects and are things I love to do, but as can be seen from this chart only one pays the bills adequately ...

Dignity

This is Malala Yousufzai, she is a Pakistani school girl who had the balls to stand up to the bearded cowards who claim to be the custodians of morality in her region of Pakistan. We know these thugs as the "Taliban", and moral they are clearly not; by any standard, seeking out a young defenceless child on a school bus and putting a bullet in her skull is a morality and a system of ethics that most people would rather die fighting against than play any part in, regardless of their religious indoctrination or lack thereof. If you haven't heard of this story before it's about a teenager (Malala) who simply wants the chance to receive an education and live a normal life, her only crime is that she isn't afraid of saying so and speaking out against the oppression she and her fellow female Muslims suffer at the hands of these misogynists. Now she lays in a hospital bed fighting for her life. It doesn't take much intelligence, even for an "Islamic scholar", to realise that Malala is victim of injustice and along with all the other Women the Taliban have executed has more courage and dignity in a single blood cell than all the rug-butting retards that put her there have, or will ever possess. I wish her well and hope she makes a full recovery.

How can we be moral without religion?

Its Friday so time for a (nicked) cartoon, this one says everything you need to know about the relationship between theology, religion and human morality; from the excellent "Jesus & Mo" series.

I rubber stamp this art..

Occasionally you see a piece of art and think wow, that must have taken huge skill, persistence and effort! This is one such a work, it's by an artist called Federico Pietrella and can be seen at the Saatchi gallery; believe it or not it's made entirely from a simple rubber date-stamp, if you don't believe me then check the image below (which is a close-up) view.

Amazing!