Be Reasonable

Twelve days of Kitschmas

A BBC News feature drew my attention to the Ship of Fools Twelve Days of Kitschmas which highlights some truly painful religion-related gifts. I'm pretty impressed with the BBC's lack of reverence.

My personal unfavourite is the Nativity Timer (illustrated) for boiling blessed brussel sprouts to perfection I assume.

But what's that at number 13? It's the Heroes of Atheism Mugs from the National Secular Society. I have those mugs! Why should the Lord have all the best rubbish indeed.

Why does everyone hate Satan?

I love The Onion.

Why does everyone hate me? by Satan.

We are not worthy

Last night Mr Reasonable came rushing into the living room in a state of exitement. He insisted that I come out into the hallway and view the source of his fervour. It was well worth getting up off the sofa for.

Over the weeked we had the plasterers in and the plaster is now drying. As Mr Reasonable came down the stairs he was struck by an image in the plaster:

This is clearly a Yeti (abominable snowman). "I'm so excited, to think this could have happened to us. There must be a reason why we have been chosen." said Mr Reasonable.

We were all set to run a souvenir store from the garage and start charging for viewings when we remembered that the plaster will by dry in a day or so.

Oh well. We feel privileged to have been chosen for this honour, even for such a short time.

What kind of humanist are you?

Just a bit of fun today. I took the 'What kind of humanist are you?' test over at New Humanist. Here are the results:

Haymaker

You are one of life’s enjoyers, determined to get the most you can out of your brief spell on Earth. Probably what first attracted you to atheism was the prospect of liberation from the Ten Commandments, few of which are compatible with a life of pleasure. You play hard and work quite hard, have a strong sense of loyalty and a relaxed but consistent approach to your philosophy.

You can’t see the point of abstract principles and probably wouldn’t lay down your life for a concept though you might for a friend. Something of a champagne humanist, you admire George Bernard Shaw for his cheerful agnosticism and pursuit of sensual rewards and your Hollywood hero is Marlon Brando, who was beautiful, irascible and aimed for goodness in his own tortured way.

Sometimes you might be tempted to allow your own pleasures to take precedence over your ethics. But everyone is striving for that elusive balance between the good and the happy life. You’d probably open another bottle and say there’s no contest.

What kind of humanist are you? Click here to find out.

And there was me thinking I was a militant atheist ;-)

Remember, remember, ...

Today is November the 5th, Guy Fawkes, Bonfire Night. "Remember, remember, the 5th of November, Gunpowder, treason and plot." goes the rhyme. And we have. I think that most Brits know that Bonfire Night celebrates the last minute prevention of a plot to blow up the houses of parliament.

Of course, there's a little more to it than that. The event took place 400 years ago in 1605 and was an attempt by disgruntled Catholics to assassinate the Protestant James I (the King James of  King James Bible fame) and his Parliament.

Do you think contemporary atheists would be shocked if they had known that religious terrorism would still be going on 400 years later?

And yes, it seems that there were contemporary atheists. It was around this time that Francis Bacon felt the need to write his anti-atheist essay Of Atheism. It would have been prudent for a prominent scientist such as Bacon to attack atheism. Heresy was a very serious crime. In 1593 the playwright Christopher Marlowe had been accused of atheism but he was murdered before he could stand trial.

A secular Samhain to you all

Folks have been arriving at my article Do the Christians Want Halloween or Not? with search terms such as 'why christians should not celebrate halloween'. Not sure they'll find quite what they were looking for.

Just out of curiosity I typed 'christian halloween' into google(.co.uk) and was amused to see that the top link was to the True Christian® Halloween Combat Guide over at the Landover Baptist Church. The description of the link is "Learn to fight Satan on his own birthday, October 31, by educating yourself on the Devil's trickery!"

For those of you who haven't visited, the Landover Baptist Church is a rather good parody site (I know, it can be difficult to tell the difference between Christian parody and the genuine article). They have some excellent content and their Halloween material is no exception. It includes great suggestions for Christian Halloween activities such as burning Harry Potter books and going Wiccan hunting!

I'll admit that I get some enjoyment from the idea of Christians searching for alternative Halloween suggestions coming across the Landover link. With the volume of genuine (not quite the right word, but you know what I mean) Christian material out there it's quite an achievement for a parody site to get the top spot. Perhaps the world's not such a bad place after all ;-)

As a non-religious pagan, I'll be entering into the spirit of Samhain.

Happy Halloween