I've Been Sprung By Spring!

OK so it doesn't officially arrive until Tuesday 20th March... but I'm convinced that the new season is well under way. The flowers are out, the birds are singing, the bees are buzzing... and I've just been overwhelmingly smitten for the first time this year like a bolt from the blue. Those kind of hits don't happen in winter... it has that special kind of freshness to it... like the cool and clean bite that air has in the morning on a brand new day.

It happened just before lunch, the front doorbell rang and a colleague answered the door, letting the visitor in. It turned out to be someone who had come to read the building's electricity and gas... what is more she was from the female of the species!

She was amazing... raven haired and with a facial piercing... (not normally my type). There was something familiar about her, she reminded me of a good friend I have. It was a culmination of these things that struck me like lightning.

I'll probably never see her again... if you happen to know a girl fitting that description who was reading gas and electric in the Stratford-upon-Avon area today... let her know please.

All I can say is it was a good job she was only checking the buildings gas and electric because my digestive system and neural pathways were going hyper!

I'd love to have gone for a coffee with her, just to see if she was as nice a person as she came across. I guess I'll never know now... SIGH!

Why oh why do I have all these internal directives that I subject myself to?

Note to self... be impulsive for once, find a nice girl, have a friendly chat and just chill out. Stop taking yourself too seriously you pilchard!

The Fanatical Atheist Strikes Again

As Monty Python would say - "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

However, as time wears on it seems that we can increasingly expect Richard Dawkins.

Intolerant, obdurate, contemptuous, dogmatic and fanatical... words and charges that many people lay at the door of the religious minded. I now nail those very same charges firmly on the door of Dawkins.

His latest target is the comic Peter Kay... Peter Kay? For pities sake! This isn't even (by his own admission) some great theologian, this is just a guy who in his humour, pretty much represents the man on the street. I'm sure this is no coincidence... but both men have books nominated for the Galaxy British Book Awards. If ridicule of Kay's work as an act of sabotage is the real motivation behind Dawkin's attack, then his strategy is knavish, underhand and unprofessional... and will, if there is any justice, be taken into account by those deciding who receives the accolade.

Kay, in his autobiography "The Sound of Laughter" writes:

"I believe in a God of some kind, in some sort of higher being. Personally I find it very comforting."

Dawkins quoted this very excerpt and scoffed waspishly:

"How can you take seriously someone who likes to believe
something because he finds it 'comforting'?"

It's a little bit of a jump - an unscientific assumption on Dawkin's part, because Kay didn't necessarily say that comfort was the motivation for his belief... but that a byproduct of his belief was comfort. I'll put it into a scientific allegory for those who might find simple truths hard to understand... helium is a safe theoretical byproduct of the fusion process.... but it is not fusion itself.

Dawkins argues that we find everything that is true on the basis of hard evidence... but that isn't strictly true. Do we take lovers or make friends on the basis of hard empirical evidence that the people we meet are good for us?

We do not.

We begin these relationships on the basis of impulse, emotion and experience... we may recognise the feeling and act upon it... but we aren't doing so purely because neural interactions and chemicals in our bloodstream tell us we should. Sometimes our bodies betray us... someone who is physically attractive can be poisonous to us on a deeper level. Our choices are not necessarily made on the basis of what the hard evidence of our physiology is telling us.

I don't have a problem with atheists or atheism, if people wish to believe or disbelieve in anything... that is their right and priveledge. What I absolutely object to, is the notion that any one group - theist or atheist, has the right to object to public expression of another groups point of view. Richard Dawkins often epitomizes this very attitude.

Dawkins is becoming increasingly militant as he ages... is it possible that somewhere deep in the closet of his subconscious - locked away where his ego can merrily ignore it, he is not comfortable with the position he has taken? Is he in fact denial? If he is, then perhaps the only way his conscious can handle this discomfort is by vocalising his aggression towards religion even louder... as time begins to run out?

As for Peter Kay... I'll leave you with a pearl of wisdom he once impressed me with:

"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad."

A Grave Mistake

So, the director James Cameron has suddenly decided to jump on the Dan Brown bandwagon and unearthed the biggest scandal in history.

I don't think so.

This story is old hat... I had my panic attack over this back in 1996, when BBC's Heart of the Matter first broke the story. I did a little investigation work back then as I'll admit in those days I was a little insecure about such things.

Back then, Joan Bakewell used audio recitals from gnostic gospels set to eerie music, asserting that the life of Jesus was not what we might have believed.... and then used the very same archaeological site to back that claim up.

The major hole in Bakewell's argument is that she lacked objectivity. Never once did she point out why Christians do not accept the gnostic gospels (they were written by people who had infiltrated the Church from the gnostic sect of Judaism and they wanted credibility, they were also written ludicrously late in some cases... Judas in the 2nd century.... oh please!). Now her error (was it deliberate?), was compounded by various historical scandal authors including Dan Brown (although if his books get people talking about Jesus, on the whole I suppose that is a good thing).

Now it would appear that James Cameron is doing likewise. If you've read the BBC article, you will have read the counter argument.... about the names being common. This is true. Context is everything:

• The Jews were an occupied race and looked for a saviour.
• An extremely well known prophecy from the time of exile, could have been interpreted to mean that a saviour was coming at the time of Jesus. Whether you or I believe that isn't relevant... if there were Jews who did at the time, is.
• Jesus name means "The Lord saves."

Now in a time of occupation, when you are hoping and may or may not be imminently expecting a saviour to come and rescue you from the Romans... is it really that large a leap to consider people would be naming their children messianic names... as a reminder that God would come to save them? I don't think so. As for Mary... there are several in the Gospels alone, so it's obvious that name was popular. Several prominent Joseph's were kicking around too. As for the name Jesus, some people have even gone as far to suggest that Barabbas (the criminal released when Jesus was sentenced to death), also bore the first name Jesus. It's believable because Barabbas just means "son of a father" which is the equivalent of a surname. Imagine that though - Jesus, Son of the Father stood next to Jesus, son of a father. There seems to be a lot of parallels in the Bible that point towards the principle of substitution.

I'm not biased against Cameron, I generally speaking have liked many of his films... The Abyss even ranks among one of my favourites, although Titanic was a load of hyped over sentimental nonsense... and can we ever forgive him for unleashing that awful Celine Dion song on our unfortunate ears?

I'm sure Cameron believes he is on to a winner, with the rise of historical scandal books among the bestseller lists... and the film will probably be a hit, because as the academic interviewed rightly said:

"Sceptics, in general, would like to see something that pokes holes into the story that so many people hold dear."

That is why films and books like this do so well, because some tragic people like to knock the beliefs of others - especially if they have been raised in a particular tradition and come to reject it later on. I saw plenty of those archetypal sceptics being created many times over myself, at school.

This is just another example of entertainment raping history in the name of financial gain.

Nuclear Pop

Did my eyes deceive me, or are the Sugababes re releasing a track for inclusion in the Eurovision Song Contest?

Of course they aren't (although they are one of the few pop acts I actually respect - Keisha is my favourite). Though there is a song called "Push the Button" being entered into the annual contest (which I religiously avoid due to having an affliction otherwise known as... taste), alas it is not the one sung by the Sugababes.

No, this "Push the Button" is an anti-nuclear anthem (apologies for picture or any other quality you may find distasteful), believed to be written in response to the potential threat posed by everyone's favourite poison dwarf - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It was overwhelmingly chosen by the Israeli public. You can read more about it in this BBC article.

Many would accuse Israel of hypocrisy (they maintain a policy of nuclear ambiguity, but most people don't doubt they have the technology). However, to my knowledge Israel have never once publicly voiced an opinion that implied any desire to entirely obliterate a nation with such technology. The Iranian President, compensating for his insecurities, has made such statements without as yet having that technology. .. and that is the major difference. Iran does have serious energy needs... but you can understand why people are jittery about allowing such a nation to have nuclear power, when their most prominent spokesman has himself propagated the notion that Iran harbours nuclear ambition for an entirely separate agenda.

I call upon the Iranian people to throw down this vile idiot, he puts his own personal insecurities before the security and wellbeing of his nation. I say to you, deal with the monster on your thrown and we will deal with the monsters on ours (Bush and Blair will both be out of office by the end of 2008).

Going back to Eurovision and it will be interesting to find out how well this group performs, because it may well reveal just how strongly Europeans feel about nuclear technology, for or against.... the song isn't just restricted to Israel'[s specific situation.

On a side note, reading the BBC article revealed an interesting fact. It is against Eurovision rules to quote the Bible (and presumably any other religious text) in any song entry. What is with that? We know what happened last time a European nation started getting overly worried about books...

Debtwatch 5

I've got a little spare time on my hands at the moment, as I have got a couple of days off work (which I had totally forgotten about until someone reminded me late on Tuesday). I've just returned from a visit to the bank with the latest exciting news on my continuing voyage of financial redemption.

Apart from the money I usually set aside for saving against debt, I managed to hold back an extra £200 in reserve. It was therefore a great relief to punch a few buttons onto the account management machine and see my repayment figure finally come down below the £1,000 threshold for the first time. It currently reads £998.03 but that's not the end of this month's calculations... because the normal direct debit has yet to take effect.

If I managed to hold back some money on top of my current account this month, I believe I could do it again next month... but I don't know if I need bother. In any case, it won't affect my repayment date as I fully intend to transfer £100 direct from savings rather than wait another month... and this will already take me into the intended completion timescale of Mayday.

So this by the grace of God, is how I currently stand:

Balance left on debt: £688.03
Cash in short term savings reserves: £0
Cash left in current account that I hope to spare for debt repayment £0
Estimated balance for next Debtwatch report: £278.00
Original Finish Date for completion of Payments - October 2007
Estimated Completion of Payments - MAYDAY!