Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Category: Folklore

  • Waffle II

    I mentioned the video discussion between Alister McGrath and Richard Dawkins a little while back. And marvelled at how McGrath seemed to say absolutely nothing with so many words.
     
    If you like this sort of tilting at windmills, then may I refer you to the discussion that began with the posting of this video on the Richard Dawkins site here. It begins on the 30th May and is still going today at the current count of 1,580 postings. Most of the sparring is between Dianelos Georgoudis and a variety of godforsaken atheists. It is an entertainment of sorts, but I do find Georgoudis’ rationale for his beliefs to be pretty threadbare. Still, it’s clearly something that gives him something to hang on to, so I suppose that’s fine. It’s just his touching belief that therefore it must be true that rather sticks in my craw.

  • Waffle

    Get it while it’s hot. Alister McGrath in full flow. Gawd, it’s like nailing jelly to a tree, and equally as pointless.

  • Schisms-R-Us

    I couldn’t help but feel a tingle of schadenfreude over the Pope’s pronouncement that Protestant churches ain’t the real thing. It underlines the reason why the bigot on the bridge is the funniest religious joke – it contains a thumping great nugget of truth at its heart.
     
    And I’m sure that it is pure coincidence that BBC Three is showing Stigmata tonight, but it’s a very delicious irony, all the same.

  • Two Peas In A Pod

    Jesus and Julia have a lot in common, apparently…

  • I Beg Your Pardon?

    The Economist’s reviewer seems to have lost the plot:
    What is missing from the book is much sense of what a world without religion, or one that had not had religion in it, might look like. Lots of the principles that Mr Hitchens holds dear, like tolerance and justice, are secularised versions of religious ideas. 
    Secularised versions of religious ideas? This is the cart before the evolutionary horse, surely. Humanity strived to make sense of the world, and made religion to stake its claim on the parts unknown… Simple survival of the fittest makes tolerance and justice simply good ideas. Anything else is just lace frills on the dresses (sorry, robes) of Catholic Cardinals.  
     

  • That Explains A Lot

    Following on from yesterday’s fine example of woo from a journalist (I use the term somewhat loosely) called Julia Stephenson, someone has discovered that Julia appears to have a web page. If indeed this is Ms. Stephenson, then reading it explains a lot. As someone mentioned over at Bad Science, “The real problem is that genetic mutations that normally would have died out are now being allowed their own newspaper columns.” Somewhat cruel, but it has a smattering of truth.  

  • Clearing The Airwaves

    Well, that may be what Julia Stephenson thinks she’s doing, according to this article in The Independent. But to Ben Goldacre, over at Bad Science, it looks more like muddying the waters. I have to say that I agree with him. Her article is a wonderful example of woo and complete lack of understanding of natural science.

  • Wishful Thinking

    I see that tomorrow marks the start of Compassion To Action.
    CommonPassion.org, in cooperation with many local and global groups, is orchestrating the world’s largest interfaith global meditation and prayer event ever performed. This will be a series of meditation and prayers for community and global peace to be held between May 15th and May 29th, 2007. It is anticipated that over 1,000,000 people will participate in this two-week program from virtually every faith-system, religious group, indigenous community and meditation assembly currently in existence. 
    Apparently they also think that as well as making themselves feel good, they will have a positive effect on the rest of us:
    Concurrent with the prayer-meditation practices we will monitor crime statistics, emergency call data and other social indicators to ascertain change as a result of this peace-creating program.  
    Oh dear, more woo, I fear. I’m sure that they will collect data, and I’m sure that some carefully selected data will show positive correlations. But it would not surprise me if there is other data that doesn’t. After all, they seem to have selected data before…

  • Ouch!

    This is almost certainly an urban legend, but it brought tears to my eyes (of pain and laughter) just the same.
     
    And then there’s this little ditty…

  • In Good Company

    I find myself in good company…
     
     

  • The Banana

    Although this seems like something that the Monty Python team would have produced, apparently it’s a deadly serious attempt to show how God has designed the banana for human consumption. Words fail me.
     
     
    Someone should tell the makers of this video that the culinary banana is the result of selective breeding by humans.  

  • Are You Sure?

    Yes, just like Matthew Parris, I am sure. He didn’t, he isn’t, he won’t. Period.

  • Canine Balance

    Sir Alan Sugar got it right: "Nutters will spend a fortune on trinkets and gadgets for their dogs." Not only that, Sir Alan, but many of the nutters are definitely unhinged if they fall for claptrap such as this: Canine Balance. And, doubtless, many do. As David Hannum said: "There’s a sucker born every minute".

  • A Nasty Piece Of Work

    Yes, I know that I claim that my blog is supposed to be a "religious-free zone". But, you have to admit it is difficult when Ratzinger comes out with stuff like this. I can but echo Ophelia – he is a thoroughly nasty piece of work. Amen.

  • The God of Eth

    Stephen Law has another excellent post over at his eponymous blog to get you thinking about the nature of god. It’s always seemed "patently obvious" to me that if such a being exists (I’m a six on the Dawkins scale), that it must be supremely indifferent of us. 

  • Clutter

    Another quiz. I seem to have absorbed more than is strictly relevant. Well, let me rephrase that. I treat it as having as much relevance as Grimm’s Fairy Tales. Interesting as folklore, but unlikely to be strictly accurate.
     
    You know the Bible 92%!

     

    Wow! You are awesome! You are a true Biblical scholar, not just a hearer but a personal reader! The books, the characters, the events, the verses – you know it all! You are fantastic!

    Ultimate Bible Quiz
    Create MySpace Quizzes

     

  • A Date for your Diary?

    Somehow, Las Vegas feels like the perfect choice of location for this: an International Alchemy Conference. A place (built by profits transmuted from the hopeless dreams of people who fail to acknowledge that the house always wins) hosting a conference for the hopeless dreams of people who fail to acknowledge that alchemy is nonsense. I foresee more profits for the house.
     
    (hat tip to Les over at Stupid Evil Bastard)

  • Smoke and Mirrors

    This week’s Improbable Research column in the Guardian has a piece on Barbara Tedlock, distinguished professor of anthropology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Apparently she’s just published a study on a "theory of practice for divination".
     
    I got two sentences into the piece before I went: "hang on a minute…".
     
    Sentence 1: How do diviners divine? A reasonable question, I think. What is the process that they follow? How do they interpret their data, whether it be twitching of a rod, the pattern of cracks or the state of a dog’s intestines? From aeromancy (divination by wind) to zygomancy (divination by weights), the trappings of diviners are many and various.
     
    Sentence 2: How do they achieve such dependable results? Er, excuse me? Did you say dependable? I puzzled over this for a moment, and then realised that what must be meant is that one can depend on the results being governed by the laws of probability, i.e. we know from scientific testing that the results are the same as for random chance. Phew, what a relief, I thought for a moment there that professor Tedlock was implying that divination actually worked. Silly me…
     
    Er, but what’s this: These practices are so prevalent we must assume they work, Tedlock says. Er no, that’s about as valid as the old joke: eat shit, nine billion flies can’t be wrong.
     
    And this: Given that scientists are now imagining gravity-bent light "and other strange concepts that defy common-sense reality", Tedlock says, "why should we not approach divination with the same conceptual openness?" Careful, professor Tedlock, too much of an open mind can make your brain fall out.

  • Meet Clint…

    …The Christmas Cowboy Merman. Okaaay… What’s the backstory on that? Our tree doesn’t even have a fairy this year (more’s the pity, but then I’m not in charge of the tree decorations this time around).

  • Bah, Humbug!

    I am getting increasingly irritated about the so-called "War on Christmas". Luckily, the sainted Oliver Burkeman is on hand to dispense a dash of cold water against the fevered brows of zealots.
     
    I am reminded about a conversation I had recently with a friend in London. The children (6 year-old twins) of an ex-lover of his, Mohammed, treat my friend as their favourite uncle. They have been excitedly telling him about their forthcoming roles in the school’s nativity play. These are children of Muslim parents being educated in a mixed school where they acknowledge Ramadan, Diwali, and Christmas. That sort of education is to me much more preferable than what I see as the growing cancer of “Faith-based” schools, which seem to divide communities rather than integrate them.