Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Nikos Kazantzakis' "Askitiki": The Saviors of God

Holidaying in America, I took myself to a small town in Vermont, described intriguingly in guides as an artists' colony. My lodging seemed a fairytale house in the woods; I explored its environs, and took the advice of its proprietress to visit a restaurant in the centre of the town, where I met a trio of boisterous septuagenarians - Princeton professor, psychologist poet, and salty seadog - who regaled me each with tales from his own experience, alternately impressively erudite, unobtrusively insightful, and strikingly swashbuckling, before dragging me on to the bar over the road for beers and cheesy lines to local ladies. The poet-philosopher saw something in me, I know not what, but which moved him to share this piece of Kazantzakis' wisdom with me: "we come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life". It hit the spot; it helped me through some dark moments, and I’m in some way forever indebted both to the author and his representative.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Quick question

I’d already got about halfway home this evening when I decided that enough was enough, and it was now raining hard enough to merit hailing a taxi to get the rest of the way. A couple of them just didn’t see me; a third slowed down and then, for some inexplicable reason, sped off apparently on seeing me. The fourth saw me, pulled over, and let me get in without even asking where I was headed. A good Samaritan, I thought.

We passed the 7 or 8 minutes’ ride in pleasant enough conversation - what did I do, had I been doing it long, what were the people like - until it came to the point about 500 yards from the drop-off opposite my home when he decided to drop the biggy.

“Quick question?”
“Yes?”
“Do you believe in God?”
“… No.”
“Did you see my sign?”
[ A quick look reveals a sign on the front side of the glass barrier saying “JESUS IS LORD. HE DIED FOR US.” ]
“Ah. No, I didn’t see that.”
“Well, do you know about Jesus?”
“I know a bit about him. Sharp guy.”
“Sharp guy, huh. Well, I think he was God, and he died for us and rose from the dead.”
“Do you.”
“Yes. I just thought I’d let you know that.”
“OK. So, £5.60? Here’s £7. Keep the change.”
“Thanks. I just thought I’d share that with you before you got out.”
“OK. Well, have a good night.”

So. Um. Hello? Is there anybody in there? If you’re going to proselytise, oughtn’t you to start a bit sooner? I mean, you left it a bit late there dude, all I had to was just get out of the cab; you didn’t even give yourself time to corner me into a circular theological dispute I can never win even if I choose to engage in it because evidence denies faith and yeah yeah yeah. I don’t think Jesus would have been too impressed. Although thinking about it, he probably would have forgiven you. Sigh. JESUS WIN

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Daniel C. Dennett: OnFaith on washingtonpost.com

Monday, August 13, 2007

“Islam’s boring, smoke some skunk”

“Islam’s boring, smoke some skunk”
Written on the wall of a Turkish mosque on Kingsland Road. What you can't quite see in this shitty mobile-phone photo is that someone’s taken a much less legible ballpoint to the existing marker-pen scrawl and crossed out “Islam” to replace it with “Christianity”. No, you. Your religion’s more boring than mine. You smoke the skunk. Yeah. And your mum. Yeah, well at least I used a legible pen. Yeah, well, that’s ’cos you‘ve got nothing better to do ’cos your religion’s so boring, if you smoked enough skunk you wouldn’t have to write on walls. Yeah, well, the writing’s already on the wall for your religion. Yeah, well, your mum’s burqa’s see-through. Yeah, well »OH, SHUT UP! THE LOT OF YOU! HONESTLY, I DON'T KNOW…«

Friday, August 3, 2007

Why are we so scared of offending Muslims? - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

God's dupes - Sam Harris

Monday, February 19, 2007

Science vs. Faith illustration

heh

Wednesday, October 4, 2006

Why Won't God Heal Amputees?

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Atheist Quotes

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Can an atheist be a fundamentalist?