How to be happy

A lot of people are unhappy in modern society because of messed-up values which I often detail here on my site. Here’s some further advice not from me, but from the WikiHow.

Jesus Camp

I don’t need to say much, you just need to watch this trailer for the horrible film Jesus Camp.
In my view the organisers ought to be rounded up and arrested.

Who Dares Wins

This classic old film illustrates what will invariably happen (and what did indeed happen in the Iranian embassy siege of 1980) when terrorists are stupid enough to invite the Special Air Service (SAS) into their lives.

The SAS are not interested in taking prisoners. They are effectively an execution squad. Part of the reason the members dress as they do is to instill fear and alarm into their enemy: you do not want to be faced with a man dressed head-to-toe in black, wearing a gas mask and carrying a submachine gun, the product of 15 years’ professional training by the British Army in how to kill, who is going to shoot you on sight.

The film shows how things can go wrong in raids (when the curtains catch fire) and it shows how weak-minded leftist liberals are often the source of the problem and not the solution, as they idealistically simplify complex issues. It is not a complete fantasy, being as it was based on the Iranian embassy incident and Lewis Collins served in the Territorial Army and applied to the SAS (he was turned down because of his high profile).

During the Iranian embassy incident, by the way, it is said that one SAS member, on realising that one of the terrorists had escaped along with the hostages, identified the man and began to drag him back inside the building. We need hardly guess what would have happened there, but he stopped (much to the chagrin, no doubt, of Mrs Thatcher) after being warned the world’s TV cameras were watching.

Watch, enjoy, and be thankful we in the civilised world have such brave men doing a job few of us could do – a last uncompromising line of defence to protect us in a world which is now far more dangerous, and more full of insanity, than when this film was made. (And if you are a religious nut – watch, learn, and think twice: when these guys arrive you won’t need your explosive belt.)

Amateur

Today I was working at a design agency in Soho. Though I like the guys there a lot, down in the basement I saw the strangest thing: the entire wall was covered by very amateur and rather pointless drawings. They were okay, but I found myself sincerely hoping that whoever did them was not paid very much. For as a woman says on the person’s site:

“Your drawings are creepy and horribly freakish and show a warped mind that seriously needs to be examined by a psychologist. Whoever wrote the review for your work also needs their head examining and after that if they still think that your work is of a quality that other people should be subjected to I suggest that they see the work of my 3 year old niece who rivals your ‘expertise’ and sign her for a multi million pound deal that she obviously deserves!”

- Natalie Murphy

Nicely put! Actually it has become fashionable these days for companies to pay people who have barely a modicum of talent to do silly things for them – the more pretentious the better – when they could actually pay far more talented people to do better things. This has been discussed by Dawkins and others in evolutionary terms. The idea is that if you waste a lot of money on stupid things you thereby make a statement “Look at us! We are so successful we can afford to throw money away on silly rubbish”. As I recall Dawkins is critical of this argument, but I can only imagine this is why it is done in business, as it makes no moral or aesthetic sense whatsosver.

Dawkins interview

Here’s a good interview with the “Commander in Chief” discussing The God Delusion. It’s a nice one because the interviewer is not your usual Christian or “comedian”, but an apparently open-minded and courteous young man asking relatively sensible questions…

The following review from the site also reflects my own position well:

“As someone who actually read The God Delusion I thank you for interviewing Dr. Dawkins. It is so refreshing to hear him speak. The various religious cults have no foundation for their faith other than books written by dry and bitter old men who stole most of their stories from other cultures or made up some of the most sadistic and fanciful tales written.

The intolerance and bigotry is astounding, not to mention the cancerous commandment to spread it. The Jesus story also tells everyone to disown his family and sell all possessions to follow him. Funny how the wealthy don’t seem to do this. The only reason Christianity toned down its murderous side was because of the events of the Enlightenment and the U.S. constitution which forced the different sects to live with each other under civil laws. The real U.S. citizens have had to constantly battle the theocrats ever since to keep religion out of our federal, state and local governments.

If we lose that struggle, if the theocrats ever win the day, we will see streets of blood and gore that the world has never seen. Why? because they will begin the war amongst themselves to see which sect will dominate and will further carry it abroad. I personally do not relish seeing my hometown look like Bagdad [sic] or worse.

I don’t believe in Zeus, Ra, Odin, Thor, faries, trolls, demons, or any supernatural entities ever invented by the mind of a very imagnative person. As a rational and reasonable person I know I have only this life to live and I want to enjoy it and help others to enjoy their lives. I am not afraid of dying and there being nothing after. Actually it is more comforting to know that when it is over, it is over. It makes me cherish every day I do have so much more and I can fill my days with joy and get my good feelings by being helpful and nice to others just because it is the nice thing to do and it makes me smile to see other smile.

I would never do harm to another except in self-defense because I KNOW that the life they have is the only one they will ever get and I cherish it for them. I also suggest reading Carl Sagan’s The Demon Haunted World. Great books both and many more are available on really good science. Read, read and read and read more.”

11/4/2007 11:58:05 AM LovingLife

In an ideal world…

Prayer is immoral

I have just been alerted to this article. Well, the Harvard Prayer Experiment proved that prayer has no effect whatsoever (except perhaps a negative one). I would like to explain here why, furthermore, prayer is immoral:

• To pray is to disrespect scientific method and delude yourself that someone (or something) is listening to you, when actually you have absolutely no reason to suppose that this is the case and every reason to suppose it is not.
• It is debasing to beg for things instead of simply hope, or (much better) take action yourself to bring them about.
• While you supplicate yourself speaking to empty space you waste time which you could be spending making an actual practical difference to people’s lives.
• It is unhealthy to speak to imaginary beings and wish for replies that never come. You might even start to imagine you’re hearing them.

Simply consider how the thousands of hours people spend on their knees could be put to practical use actually helping people, and you will see the obvious truth of what I say.

Bearly believable

When I heard this story mentioned in a news re-cap on Radio 4’s PM programme this evening I thought it must be some kind of joke (the presenter Eddie Mair has a very wry sense of humour). Even I, well aware of the absurdities of religion and of the menace of political correctness, could barely believe what I was hearing. But it is true.

Make no mistake about it: this kind of religious word control is a direct threat to global freedom. Who predicted George Orwell’s totalitarian state would come in the form of a religion? You had better believe it has happened, and it wants to spread. Resist it vocally.

Nobody has the right to dictate what name a teddy bear has, for goodness’ sake, and nobody has the right to subject this poor woman to “40 lashes”. She has done nothing wrong. She didn’t even name the bear!

By being so paranoid, a religion only amplifies its own intrinsic weakness. The woman might have been forgiven for thinking it would be considered respectful to name the bear “Muhammed”, and in any case (and this is the most ironic thing) it is hardly surprising this name was the children’s first choice when one considers it is a name drummed into them from birth.

This story would certainly be funny were it not so very frightening. It is essentially a case of religion having shot itself in the foot, and if the Sudanese even lay a finger on that innocent woman the British government must come down on them with maximum force and defend her to the hilt. I will be utterly ashamed to be British if they do not.

Let’s be absolutely clear. We rational humanists do not want a military showdown with the forces of irrationality. Frankly we want nothing to do with them. But if they threaten us and our freedom (and thereby threaten civilisation itself), if they encroach on us (as they do already), if they threaten us by refusing to apply standards of reason, compassion and evidence to all areas of their lives without selectivity, we will take the necessary steps to defend ourselves, our families, and humankind itself, without any hesitation. And we will prevail.

Blair the Christian

It’s scary to see this story on ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s religious convictions. I contributed on the BBC site as follows:

“Since having faith means being prepared to believe things in the absence of evidence, and being a Christian means basing one’s principles on a book which recommends many practices which are morally objectionable in this day and age, it may indeed be both relevant and helpful to know of someone’s religious convictions before employing them, and Blair is probably right in calculating that had he been more open about his he would not have been able to hold onto office for so long.”

And now we have Gordon Brown instead, who very nearly went into the clergy. To think these people are running our country, it is truly quite a concern.

Babybird: Better Than Love

Here’s a highly amusing video, even (perhaps especially) for those of us who are not Star Trek fans. The song that has been put with it is Babybird’s excellent “Better Than Love”.

Coldplay: Fix You

Judging a book by its cover

In these days of political correctness it is often said that “you can’t judge a book by its cover”, meaning we cannot validly judge people on their appearance – however this is generally not true. If you are an astute, socially sensitive person, you will able to assess someone in seconds from dozens of factors about them that you will automatically perceive. You have this skill because it has been honed across thousands of generations primarily for defence purposes.

There are exceptions to most rules, and sometimes you might turn out to be mistaken about a person, but in my 34 years so far I have found this to very rarely happen. People give away a myriad of signs about who they are, their inclinations, tastes, psychological state and outlook on the world. You can tell a great deal about a person from their gait alone. Don’t accept the absurd politically correct claim that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Just learn to read even better… and look out for the best books.

(Image above: a bible. If it looks dark and serious that’s because it is!)

Under armed guard

I am paying money each month to help keep this woman alive. She is under the constant threat of death from Muslim fanatics, because she – in soft and thoughtful tones – speaks the truth about her experiences under Islam.

I’m paying this money not only to save an individual. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is more, even, than that. She represents all women who are fighting back against the oppression of theocracies in the world, she represents reason in an age which (incredibly) embraces baseless superstition, and she represents the fact that even heavily indoctrinated people can sometimes break free of, as AC Grayling has called it, the ignoble grip of faith. She also represents the fact that these are people who would like to convert or kill any of us “infidels” if they could (and indeed they would be following their texts correctly to do so).

You can find out more about Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s story and you can help protect her too, and thereby make a statement that you also reject theocratic fascism and absurd superstition, and that – most of all – you value human life.

Grace & style

I have been giving some further thought to the issue of lost grace in the female gender in the United Kingdom (and indeed apparently across the whole world). Following on from my advice to women and indeed my advice to men, I thought I would provide some pictures to help people in need to understand the points I’ve been making. I hope they’re helpful. Let’s start with the most obvious:

Being “cool”

We have an alcohol abuse epidemic in the UK. I understand that many people have complex problems and sometimes feel driven to drink – the issue I am addressing here is that nobody even seems remotely ashamed of it any more.

On the contrary, they’re often proud of it and many people, even women now, go out specifically to get drunk just for the sake of it. You don’t need to look far for evidence – just go out onto virtually any city street on any weekend (or weekday) evening and you will find many women (and men) under the misapprehension that drinking to excess is “cool”.

Excuse me for stating the obvious, but drunk women look pathetic. It isn’t cool to be smoking, drunk, cackling, reading gossip magazines, etc. These values are misplaced. It’s actually cool – and more beneficial to you – to get yourself educated, get some integrity and learn how to behave like a lady rather than a travesty of one. It’s never too late to start.

Kate Bush: The Sensual World

Good old Kate Bush. Such a great back catalogue…