Good heavens, Theo Hobson has written an article that I actually agree with. It’s a Christmas Miracle!
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A Miracle
2 responses to “A Miracle”
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Bloody Hell Geoff! But naturally you would, it was an ok article. But I’m glad to see miracles are alive and well.
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[…] much I disagree with his writings – well, I have to say that once I was astonished to find that I actually agreed with him. It was, truly, a […]
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Vote Now
It’s time for the New Humanist’s Annual Bad Faith Award. Go and cast your vote now. A glittering lineup (apart from the obvious Groucho Marx touch of Richard Dawkins’ nomination to the list). It’s a difficult choice. I almost went for the Bishop of Carlisle, but he’s clearly deluded. In the end I went for Archbishop Francisco Chimoio on the grounds that he is more likely to have actively done harm to his flock by claiming that condoms are deliberately infected with HIV.Leave a comment
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Law and Lawson
There’s an interesting debate shaping up over at Stephen Law’s blog about whether faith schools are a good idea. Law’s position is that, too often, children at such schools are not exposed to critical thinking on the faith of the school, or even taught comparative religion. He’s had a response from Ibrahim Lawson, the founding head teacher of Islamia School. So far, I am more persuaded by Law’s arguments than by Lawson’s. No surprise there, then.Update 13 December 2007: Is it just me, but isn’t this response from Lawson just obfuscating hand-waving?I feel that I want to take a large needle and prick a windbag full of hot air. Appalling.2 responses to “Law and Lawson”
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The children of some relatives attend a Church of England Faith school. However, as well as an excellent academic record which attacts non christians too, it studies other world religions as part of RS, and encourages question and debate. Their parents are Christian and obviously hope their children will be, but the climate is one of open choice. I’ve been privy to some great debates, and the kids make their own choice about whether to look into it further or reject it.
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That’s the sort of education that I support, and, it might surprise you to learn, so do Dawkins and Dennett. Here’s Dawkins: "Let children learn about different faiths, let them notice their incompatibility, and let them draw their own conclusions about the consequences of that incompatibility. As for whether any are ‘valid’, let them make up their own minds when they are old enough to do so."
The sort of school where comparative religion is taught, as well as understanding of the great literary and cultural history of the major world religions, I have no issue with. The sort of school I object to is where the head of science teaches creationism: "As we stated at the beginning, Christians, with very good reason, reckon the Scriptures of the Old & New Testaments a reliable guide concerning just what we are to believe. They are not merely religious documents. They provide us with a true account of Earth history which we ignore at our peril." Oh, and this particular teacher also insists that Noah and the Flood are historical facts having geological consequences: "We must acknowledge within our grand geophysical paradigm the historicity of a world-wide flood as outlined in Gen 6-10. If the Biblical narrative is secure and the listed genealogies (e.g. Gen 5, 1Chro 1; Matt 1 & Lu 3) are substantially full, we must reckon that this global catastrophe took place in the relatively recent past. Its effects are everywhere abundantly apparent. Principal evidence is found in the fossil-laden sedimentary rocks, the extensive reserves of hydrocarbon fuels (coal, oil and gas) and the legendary accounts of just such a great flood common to poulation groups world-wide. The feasibility of maintaining an ark full of represenative creatures for a year until the waters had sufficiently receded has been well documented by, among others, John Woodmorappe."
A letter raising concern about the educational standards of this school was drafted by the Bishop of Oxford and sent to the Prime Minister of the time, Tony Blair. The letter was jointly signed by the Bishop and Dawkins, and by a further eight bishops and nine senior scientists. Unsurprisingly, as Dawkins writes: "we received a perfunctory and inadequate reply from the Prime Minister’s office, referring to the school’s good examination results and its good report from the official schools inspection agency OFSTED. It apparently didn’t occur to Mr. Blair that, if the OFSTED inspectors gave a rave report to a school whose head of science teaches that the entire universe began after the domestication of the dog, there just might be something a teeny weeny bit wrong with the standards of the inspectorate."
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Artificial Stupidity
In addition to Muse, Microsoft had the bright idea of adding another Artificial Intelligence bot to its Windows Live Messenger service. So last week, Santa Claus made his appearance. Unfortunately, it appears as though this particular Santa Claus is rather a loose cannon, and not particularly child-friendly. The Register has the details.One thing though, I see that the Register was alerted to this by someone whose 11 and 13 year old nieces "do not still fully believe in Santa Claus". This I find bizarre – it implies that the older one gets, the more fully one believes in the man in the red suit. Even if the whistleblower meant it in the reverse sense, I’m still somewhat surprised – I twigged that Santa was my parents at a much earlier age, and we lived in much more innocent times then…Leave a comment
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Bringing Statistics Home
The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics has done something rather interesting and scary with its census data. You can now use Google Earth to check out census data at the level of neighbourhoods across the country. Hours of fun and sombre reflection.Leave a comment
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The Pullman Interview
Here’s an excellent interview with Philip Pullman conducted by Peter Chattaway, a film critic and self-proclaimed religion junkie. I found myself nodding in agreement at a number of points in the interview, particularly where Pullman expounds on his feelings towards those slippery customers: spirit, spiritual, and spirituality. I also found it interesting that Pullman places himself in the panpsychism camp – I’m firmly across the road waving the emergent phenomenon flag.
I see that Chattaway refers to a tiresome piece by Daniel Moloney in which he wrote (amongst other guff): "if the Christian myth actually is true, you would expect a gifted storyteller trying to tell a true story to arrive at many Christian conclusions about the nature of the world we see." Chattaway and Moloney both fall into the trap of seeming to believe that the Christian myth is all there is. They don’t seem to be aware that the same archetypes occur again and again in myth; not for nothing did Joseph Campbell title one of his books The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Pullman rightfully acknowledges that he is a child of his upbringing:
My answer to that would be that I was brought up in the Church of England, and whereas I’m an atheist, I’m certainly a Church of England atheist, and for the matter of that a 1662 Book of Common Prayer atheist. The Church of England is so deeply embedded in my personality and my way of thinking that to remove it would take a surgical operation so radical that I would probably not survive it.
But that doesn’t prevent me from pointing out the arrogance that deforms some Christian commentary, and makes it a pleasure to beat it about the head. What on earth gives Christians to right to assume that love and self-sacrifice have to be called Christian virtues? They are virtues, full stop. If there is an exclusively religious sin (not exclusively Christian, but certainly clearly visible among some Christians) it is the claim that all virtue belongs to their sect, all vice to others. It is so clearly wrong, so clearly stupid, so clearly counter-productive, that it leads the unbiased observer to assume that you’re not allowed in the religious club unless you leave your intelligence at the door.
Go and read the rest – it’s worth it.
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The Temples of Damanhur
Old cynic that I am, I can’t help feeling, as I explore the Temples of Humankind, that it’s all a bit twee and very kitsch. Yes, it’s an amazing accomplishment, but it doesn’t make my heart sing. I note that even in the Hall of the Earth – the temple dedicated to the Male Principle – the main figure is depicted without genitals. That just about sums it up for me – no balls.
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How We Die
That’s the title of a wonderful book by Sherwin Nuland. I came across Nuland a little while ago when a talk by him was posted on the TED blog. As I said at the time, the talk is well worth watching and listening to. It brought tears to my eyes.As a result, I sought out a book by him: How We Die.I’m still reading it, but I am here to tell you that Nuland writes from a heart that is full of compassion, yet is realistic enough not to paint life in false colours. It is an amazing book. I have the feeling that he tells the truth, no matter how unpalatable that is. Yet he tells it in language that shows humanity, even at the direst end.There are chapters in the book that spell out just what will happen when you have cancer, or AIDS or Alzheimers. He takes you to the brink of the pit and turns your face to gaze into its depths, but the strange thing is that having shown you the horrors, the reader (or at least, this one) comes away strengthened and ready to face what life (or rather, death) might bring.I am reminded of this book because I was watching the John Grierson Awards on BBC Four, and Paul Watson won the Grierson Trust Award, in part for his documentary: Malcolm and Barbara: Love’s Farewell. I have not seen the whole documentary, only parts, but what I have seen only underlines that I would prefer to see the heartbreaking truth of things, rather than obfuscation and false colours. Truth matters, however uncomfortable it may be. In googling for the documentary, I came across this hit on the Orthfully Catholic blog that seems to me to miss the whole point so completely that it almost beggars belief. It’s a complete travesty of what Barbara Pointon was experiencing. That’s why I get so angry with religion, and the people who espouse such views.3 responses to “How We Die”
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I have to say I’m a bit scared of death Geoff but am going to have a look at this book. The film you mentioned I intended to watch and missed it. I saw only part of it and was impressed with how they handled it. My grandmother had dementia. The only thing I want to add is – the catholic article about it – no need to get angry with religion or the people who espouse such views. That article was the response of one person – not one I agreed with, nor I think, even if they were against the idea of euthenasia, would most of the christians I know agree with what the article said about that very affecting film. Sorry to keep niggling about this point. I can shut up about it if you like. 😉
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Gelert, no, don’t shut up! I hope that you do get hold of a copy of Nuland’s book. It’s out of print, but you can pick up secondhand copies via Amazon Marketplace. Mine is inscribed with the name of the previous owner – Thomas Kluge, Omaha 1994. It’s possible that he is dead. Once I’ve finished the book, I’ll add my name and, hopefully, when I’m dead the book will find its way to the next reader…
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My name is Kathy, and I am the primary caregiver for my 79 year old Dad who has Alzheimer’s disease and lives with me in North Carolina.
I am writing a daily blog on my Alzheimer’s caregiver website that shows the lighter side of caring for someone with dementia.
Please pass this link along to anyone you feel would enjoy it.
http://www.KnowItAlz.com
Thanks,Kathy
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Never Let Me Go
That’s the title of a haunting book by Kasuo Ishiguro. I mentioned it here. I see that it’s cropped up again on a couple of blogs in the last week. First, Jean Kavez mentioned it over at Normblog, and now Philip Ball mentions it over at Homunculus. My take on it was the same as that of Ball. It’s not really about science and cloning at all. It’s about what it means to be alive and fully human. It is an astounding piece of writing. If you haven’t read it , then you should.Leave a comment
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World AIDS Day
I should note that today is World AIDS Day. While some things have changed for the better since the syndrome began to be noticed, some things have not, as Ben Goldacre notes. As he says, AIDS quackery is still very much with us.Leave a comment
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A Server In The Home
I see that Microsoft has started tongue-in-cheek advertising for their Windows Home Server. Not bad, I rather liked the children’s book:When a mommy and a daddy love each other very much,the daddy wants to give the mommy a special gift.…So he buys a "Stay-at-Home" server.There’s actually quite a serious point being made here. How do you market something like Windows Home Server to the consumer? The team behind the Windows Home Server discuss it over at their blog.Leave a comment
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A Storm in a Teacup
The case of Gillian Gibbons is a salutary example of how truth is stranger than fiction. I admit, that when I saw the headline that people were demonstrating against her sentence of 15 days for allegedly insulting Islam, I thought: at last, people are coming to their senses. But no; it turns out that the demonstrators want to have her executed. I’m sorry, but I am going to turn into a cranky misanthrope, if this is the best that my species can muster.I trust that at least Khalid Al-Mubarak is reflecting on his ill-chosen words that the whole affair is simply a "storm in a teacup". But I leave it to Mo to point out the idiocy of the whole affair.Leave a comment
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Immanence
Here’s a nice post from Ebonmuse that captures the feeling of connectedness with the world without the pollution of religion.7 responses to “Immanence”
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A wonderful post yes. And I am not one who claims you can find or ‘prove’ God in the experience of nature. Yet … when he says this:
‘But it’s not God’s love surrounding us from outside, as many religious believers would have it. What it is, instead, is our own love for the world, projected outward. It’s the rapture of being alive, of realizing our true depth of interconnection and solidarity with all living beings, that priests and churches try to recapture with ritual and ceremony. But their efforts are, at best, a pale shadow of the real thing.’
I would say it is ‘merely’ – his opinion, as much or as little as those ‘priests and churches’ give, and that he judges their experience to be a ‘pale shadow’, without any real means of judging this, as an athiest. I guess the problem is that I have experienced both states of being – the athiest and the believer, and comment on both perspectives. As ever, I find many atheists speak with a vocabulary of position – a made up mind that too often has an agenda.
I hope you don’t mind my giving of an opposing view – it’s just that I like my debates to be as far as possible, free of agenda, and so many athiests words are weighted with decided disaproval, of something they have no experience of, but appear to have made up their minds about – usually with negative connotations. Is this correct would you say? -
Well, I’m not sure what my agenda is, but I certainly try and speak with a vocabulary of position… it’s so that I can try and convey the concepts and ideas that I hold. Others may not agree with them, but that’s the starting point of debate. I really don’t see why you make this sound as though this is not the way to progress. And, of course I will often focus on decided disapproval of many aspects of religion and belief, because these are the aspects that drive me to anger or despair.
Basically, my position is that I see absolutely no evidence of the existence of the type of theistic god as described in the major world religions. The closest I could see myself getting would be to allow for the possibility of my being a deist – if it weren’t for the fact that it still doesn’t answer the condundrum of what created god.
Organised religion strikes me as sharing a lot in common with Homeopathy. There are positive aspects to both – which help adherents of both belief systems to feel good, and to a greater or lesser extent, feel part of a community. But there is no evidence that Homeopathy is anything more than the placebo effect ritualised. As I say, that may not be a bad thing, so long as it doesn’t overstep the boundary. But when homeopaths start to proclaim that Homeopathy is an effective treatment of diseases such as Malaria and AIDS, then it has become dangerous. So it is with religion.
I agree with a lot of what David Sloan Wilson says in this "debate" with Natalie Anger. I put that word in quotes, because I don’t think that there is too much disagreement between the two, it’s more where the emphases are being placed. I do think that the quote that Anger leads off with is particularly apt in today’s world – and it was written back in 1927. -
"conundrum" – not "condundrum" Gah!
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come back to you on this one, its currently 2.40 am. arghgh
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Yes. Of course we all have a position when we enter any discussion. What I meant was that when discussing things, our position is of course behind what we say, but that I found his position aggressive in that he was not discussing in a spirit of enquiry and learning, but making personal belief statements as fact – as in: ‘…it’s not God’s love surrounding us from outside, as many religious believers would have it…’ and then: ‘…that priests and churches try to recapture with ritual and ceremony. But their efforts are, at best, a pale shadow of the real thing..’ This is closed. Decided. End of subject.
Maybe I’m being picky, but it comes over as a definite anti – an already decided view. If he’d said for eg – ‘Personally, if I as an athiest feel the same things in nature as relgioius people claim, what does this say? Could it not be just the ‘rapture of being alive….’ etc.
That would be a discussion, and an interesting one, that I could engage with. Religious people do this too – ‘What atheists fail to realise with their godless view of the world….’ for eg. which I saw somewhere. Its just a closed discussion then, from a closed viewpoint that comes across less as a desire to seek and examine one’s own views, and more as a slap. It means no debate is really possible. Do you understand my waffle? I do try. And I do miss the chance to talk with a receptive alternative viewpoint. -
Gelert, I can understand what you say, and I do have some sympathy for it. There was a time when I prefaced every statement I made with "It seems to me that…" or "It strikes me as though it might be possible to say that…". But I have to say that in the running of the sands of time that I tend to cut to the chase more directly. Part of that is as the result of living inThe Netherlands for over 20 years. The Dutch have a directness that when many people (particularly the circumspect Brits) encounter it, will take their breath away. The Dutch do not pause to call a spade a spade – they will hold it in front of your face. And yes, for many of us who have been used to more cautious language, this comes across as an affront.
But I have to say that I have also grown to appreciate it. I now think, let’s cut the crap and get down to the nub of the argument. This is my position; now let’s hear your counter-proposal… I am tired of this flowery faux-respect. Give it to me straight. -
Straight I can deal with. We could have a good debate you and I on those terms Geoff.
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Cost/Benefit Analysis
Here’s a terrific little video on a quick and dirty analysis of Climate Change, and what we should do about it. Needless to say, I support his argument. I really don’t want to live in the world of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, and neither would I wish that on our descendants.Leave a comment
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Ramachandran Webcast
I see that VS Ramachandran is giving a talk at the Royal Society tonight. Even better, it will be webcast. I’ll be watching.One response to “Ramachandran Webcast”
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I’ve read this man’s work before, and he is a marvelous mind. This area of brain research is leading to marvelous new possibilitites in medicine, and new understandings of the brain.
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DG’s Classical Music Store
I see that Deutsche Grammophon has launched an online music store. It’s notable for a number of things:- it offers MP3 format without the curse of DRM (Digital Rights Management)
- the music is encoded to a very high quality (320 kbps instead of the more usual 192 kbps)
- the catalogue inludes recordings that are no longer available on CD.
The current catalogue contains 24,000 items, and the prices are reasonable. This is the first online music store that I’ve seen that I really feel tempted to buy from. Up until now, I’ve always resisted buying just bits (that is, MP3 files) – I really wanted the security of atoms in the form of a physical CD as well.Update: Hmmm. Perhaps it’s because it’s the day of launch, but the web site is extraordinarily slow. It’s also very clumsily designed (IMHO) – new windows pop-up all over the place. I note that they also offer a promotion of one free track if you register before next February. Trouble is, they tell you to "enter your promotion code" when you check out the "free" track. It may be another teething problem – but I don’t seem to have got the promotion code… This experience is turning out to be frustrating and infuriating. Not a good sign for the success of DG’s venture…Update 2: I was sent a message by one of the worker elves on the DG site, who provided me with a promotion code and encouraged me to try again. This time, I got as far as being told that the link to download my track had been sent in an email to me. Trouble was, it didn’t arrive. At least, not until 14 hours later. That seems to be rather a long delay for an online purchase experience. I hope that DG were just experiencing pressure from a large number of visitors. I’d hate to think that this is the norm. In any event, I do tip my hat to the person who took the trouble to try and help me out. That is good customer service and I appreciate it.Leave a comment
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Reality
Jesus and Mo discuss the wilful ignorance of second-year students at Dundee University. Emily Mackie, get a life – no, first get an education, then you might understand what life is about.One response to “Reality”
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It’s not badly timed, or insensitive to Christians. Nor should fundamentalists be afraid of challenge. Nor should people think that all Christians think as she does. I don’t for one. I do enjoy, however, discovering how woefully ignorant many – especially the large numbers of home schooled American Christians – are about the entire subject of evolution. This is the problem.
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RIP Verity
Damn, Verity Lambert has died. While she’s best known for producing the first two series of Doctor Who, she left her mark on many other notable productions in British TV. She will be missed.Leave a comment
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Launchball
From the first time I visited it over fifty years ago, the Science Museum in London’s South Kensington has been a favourite haunt of mine. It’s just revitalised a gallery – Launchpad – and celebrates with an online game: Launchball. Very addictive.Leave a comment
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