Posted in Existential, Faith, Human Rights, Religion, tagged Ariane Sherine, atheism, atheist, bendy bus, bus, Christianity, Jon Worth, Muslim, pledge on July 6, 2008 | 4 Comments »
A few weeks ago, comedy writer Ariane Sherine wrote a piece in the Guardian expressing her view that Londoners were being forced to face disturbing religious messages when they trundled half-awake to work each morning because Christians had paid to have quotes from the bible displayed on buses.
She wrote:
There was also a web address on [...]
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My iGoogle quote for the day gave me the following which I thought was so wonderful I was ‘moved to share it’.
I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.
- [...]
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Posted in Existential, Faith, Internet, Relationships, Religion, tagged anti-Christ, apocalyptic, Christian, email, Rapture on June 11, 2008 | 6 Comments »
When the roll is called up yonder, I won’t be there. Which is good, because I’m not too sure what I should have said in the emails I was meant to leave behind.
I was amused last week by a story from Paul Sims on the New Humanist Blog about a really valuable new use [...]
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Posted in Education, Existential, Government, Morality, Religion, tagged Church of England, clergy, ordinands, training, vicars on May 25, 2008 | 7 Comments »
What would you do with £1.5 million?
I suppose if I were given it to spend just on myself and not feel bound to give it away, I could quite happily think of things. In order of priority - a new phone with all the latest gizmos (yes, I really am that shallow), a visit [...]
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Posted in Existential, Faith, Religion, tagged Jesus, death, Christian, Paul, belief, Muslims, Easter, Theos, The Passion, BBC, resurrection, Christ, statistics, ComRes on March 23, 2008 | 14 Comments »
I really didn’t intend being unusually churlish on Easter Sunday, but when I received an email from Theos claiming that over half the people in Great Britain believe that Jesus rose from the dead, I just couldn’t let the supposed facts stand without at least questioning their apparent solidity.
Theos describes itself as a public theology [...]
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Posted in Existential, Faith, Psychology, Religion, tagged ASA, Erumeli, Freya, India, Kottayam, paranormal, placebo, prayer, psychics, Virgin Mary, Zara on March 14, 2008 | 7 Comments »
There were two stories yesterday illustrating both the power of self-delusion and the potential costs.
I have written elsewhere about the human ability to go to extraordinary and illogical lengths to create meaning (see Nessie, God, and the Creation of Meaning). In many cases it could be argued that this harms no-one, although I would [...]
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Posted in Existential, Humanity, Morality, Uncategorized, tagged Campbells Soups, Edwin Rye, Gardner Merchants, Gressenhall, In Memoriam, King's Lynn, Royal Norfolk Regiment, Ted Rye on March 8, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Ted Rye (Born, August 3rd 1920. Died, March 8th 1999.)
Edwin Rye (known as Ted) was the son of a Blacksmith.
He grew up in, and around, King’s Lynn, and joined the Royal Norfolk Regiment at the start of the Second World War. However, he was soon captured and spent most of the war in various [...]
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Posted in Education, Existential, Humanity, Humor, Humour, Philosophy, Uncategorized, tagged Camus, computer science, Descartes, Hegel, Kant, math, mathematics, maths, Philosophy, Prospect, Sartre, solitaire, sudoku, undergraduates, Varsity on February 29, 2008 | 7 Comments »
I am grateful to Prospect for enlightening me. (And by the way, this is written ‘tongue in cheek’ so don’t flame me with angry comments. It’s Friday morning, and I’ve wound down already!) Apparently there is a big difference between maths undergraduates, and those studying philosophy. I always suspected that was [...]
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Posted in Existential, Health, Humanity, Psychology, Religion, Therapy, tagged addiction, biblical counselor, CBT, Christianity, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, counsellor, counselor, invisible friend, Irvin Yalom, Lorena, psychotherapist, reponsibility, supernatural, therapist on February 21, 2008 | 6 Comments »
“We have the answer. If you have any problem coping in any way, there is a quick and obvious fix. It is free. All you have to do, is just take it. Let it rule your life and you will be free. Compulsive thoughts? No problem, just pray. Depression? [...]
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Posted in Existential, Literature, Poems, Relationships, tagged ageing, autumn, death, love, spring, summer, time, winter on February 15, 2008 | 3 Comments »
One the Death of Summer
Day was a bright one,
A summer, a rain -
Your kiss was a grey one,
A dying, a pain:
And earth was unending,
A round one, a ball -
But love had its ending,
The finite - the gall
Of a life-time,
A season, a year,
Like the dawn of a day-time,
The dew, and the fear
Of a noon-tide,
The parchness, the [...]
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