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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Thought for the Day - BBC Radio Bristol - Julian Baggini - Forests are the HASSNERS churches

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Thought for the Day - BBC Radio Bristol

Julian Baggini (noreply@blogger.com)Sep 24, 2009 09:51:00 GMT Share
Text of this morning's thought, which you can listen to here, at 1:50:45


Yesterday an English Oak was planted in Bristol’s Leigh Woods to commemorate the centenary of its ownership by the National Trust. 100 years may be longer than most people’s lives, but it’s barely middle aged for the oldest trees in the Avon Gorge.


Woodlands have a wonderful way of changing our perception of time, making us think of the longer run. In that respect, they have something in common with churches and temples, which have the capacity to fill us with wonder, and encourage us to see things through the eye of eternity.


However, for me, forests do those jobs better than religious buildings. For one thing, for all the awe they may inspire, churches are clearly human constructions. Woodlands, in contrast, may be managed by us, but they are not fundamentally our work. They show the natural as it is, not the supernatural as we imagine it to be.


But more importantly, woodlands do no not present us with an illusion of permanence. Churches, with their stone walls, are reassuringly solid and unchanging. Woodlands, however, are constantly changing, from season to season, from year to year, from decade to decade. They remind us that human lives are just a blink of an eye to nature, but also that everything that grows is also subject to decay.


This, I think, is more truthful and more life-affirming than the idea of life everlasting. When I breathe in the air and look at the beauty around me, realising that the moment cannot be captured, I value being alive much more than I would if I thought I had forever to repeat the experience. That’s why for me a walk in Leigh Woods is not a religious experience: it’s better than that.






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Sunday, September 13, 2009

Top Atheist T Shirts


source: via http://www.facebook.com/dariusz.andersen?ref=nf
More T Shirts... mostly amusing. Great selection at AtheistTShirts.co.uk.

Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence. - Richard Dawkins

There may be fairies at the bottom of the garden. There is no evidence for it, but you can't prove that there aren't any, so shouldn't we be agnostic with respect to fairies? - Richard Dawkins

A universe with a God would look quite different from a universe without one. A physics, a biology where there is a God is bound to look different. So the most basic claims of religion are scientific. Religion is a scientific theory. Richard Dawkins

Religion teaches the dangerous nonsense that death is not the end. - Richard Dawkins

By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out. Richard Dawkins

A believer states everything must have a creator but fails to say how he was created

A lie is a lie even if everyone believes it. The truth is the truth even if nobody believes it. - David Stevens

A man full of faith is simply one who has lost the capacity for clear and realistic thought. - Henry Mencken

All religions have been made by men. - Napoleon Bonaparte

All the biblical miracles will at last disappear with the progress of science. - Matthew Arnold

An agnostic is an atheist that doesn't want to admit that he is an atheist because he is afraid that if he does God will strike him dead.

An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support. - John Buchan

An idea does not gain truth as it gains followers - Amanda Bloom

Another godless atheist for peace and world harmony

Atheism is a non-prophet organization. - George Carlin

Atheists will celebrate life, while you’re in church celebrating death.

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination. - Edward Abbey

Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color. - Don Hirschberg

Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world. - Voltaire


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Thursday, September 10, 2009

Are you a Possibilian?

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sum_(book) via Today, Radio 4
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Are you a Possibilian? Hear neuroscientist Prof. David Eagleman talk on URadio 4 Today programme (iPlayer). Skip to 2 hours 22mins 22seconds. Sum is his book of literary fiction. Its supposed to be funny. All stories are equally improbable. Science proceeds by evaluating different stories. If you are born in the USA you are more likely to love Christianity, if in Tel Aviv Judaism. Explore the vast possibilities going on out there. Stories are mutually exclusive. Dont be dogmatic. I have no idea what happens afterlife. Compare atheism v religion. Both can be dogmatic - Eagleman is a possibilian. Facebook groups have turned up on Possibilianism.

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Friday, September 04, 2009

The Atheist & The Bishop, part 3

source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mbzvw#synopsis via http://julianbaggini.blogspot.com/2009/09/atheist-and-bishop-bbc-radio-four.html
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Series in which an atheist and a bishop come together to apply their own philosophies to the experiences of people they meet, with Jane Little chairing the discussion.
Lord Harries of Pentregarth, the former Bishop of Oxford, and Dr Julian Baggini, editor of The Philosophers' Magazine, take on power and wealth.
They visit a church which is challenging the Establishment on the treatment of the homeless, hear from a social entrepreneur who is creating wealth for poor communities in India and Nepal, and visit the House of Lords to examine the role of religion in public life.



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Thursday, September 03, 2009

beyond Humanism, beyond Atheism ... HASSNERS!

source: http://www.secularhumanism.org/
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HASSNERS.org comments: beyond Atheism, beyond Agnosticism, Secular Humanism. What a great summary! Inspired by Council for Secular Humanism new strapline, HASSNERS have created their own:  beyond Humanism, beyond Atheism ... HASSNERS! Thanks CSH.


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