Category: Religion

I Decided to Paint my Smallest Shed Today.

I was moved to paint my shed today, I know not why, idly surfing the net this morning I was overcome with an irresistible artistic urge to paint my smallest shed.

The smallest shed was acquired back at the end of last year when I was summarily evicted from the then exiting smallest shed (now the second smallest) together with my definitive collection of gasoline powered tools, THAT small shed has become a sort of shrine to the garden gods, odd potions, pots, bags of expensive dirt (sorry-potting soil) and chemicals mingling with the usual collection of hand tools, which inexplicably were allowed to remain.

Yes, that is a small refrigerator on the right, it holds that vital accompaniment to serious gardening , cold beer.
Continue reading “I Decided to Paint my Smallest Shed Today.”

Oliver Cromwell v Charles 1 : Setting the Scene

Where to start? Firstly in writing this, my intention is not to try to write a biography of either of my two main characters, Oliver Cromwell or Charles I. Neither will I try to condense the events of the English Civil War into a few paragraphs. Rather my aim is to give you an idea of the causes, economic, political and religious, which led to Revolution and Regicide, and try to explain, not excuse, the actions and motivations of the two main characters, each representative of his background and interests. Most of my readers will no doubt have some knowledge of the period, but for a very easy guide to timelines, battles and short biographies this site may prove useful.

Continue reading “Oliver Cromwell v Charles 1 : Setting the Scene”

Bahrain: The great news blackout

I had another chat with my local friendly pom who works in Bahrain for a large multi-national corporation the other day.

I asked what the latest situation was as we seemed to have very little information here in the UK.

“That’ll be the news blackout that the US and UK security services have negotiated then” he replied confidently with the air of someone who knows what he’s talking about. Continue reading “Bahrain: The great news blackout”

Evil, yes; no tears from me, but…

No man is an island entire of itself; every man

is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe

is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as

well as a manor of thy friends or of thine

own were; any man’s death diminishes me,

because I am involved in mankind.

And therefore never send to know for whom

the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.

John Donne

Oh dear, oh dear…now the BBC’s in on the act

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12927076

I have yet to watch the full hour program broadcast on BBC 3 last night, but if the clip here is anything to go by, the BBC is trying to make Islamic converts look weird, stupid, selfish and plain ignorant to their fellow county folk. Not the usual BBC effort as they tend to be very pro, or at least attempting to be balanced (I know they don’t always succeed, but at least they try). I shall report back when I’ve watched the whole documentary of brother on brother.

I know it’s a sensitive subject at the moment, and I’m not intending to stir anyone up here, but this clip in isolation does offer a very sad picture of why someone would change their entire life around an organised religion (of any variety) I have to say though, every Muslim I’ve ever met has shaken me by the right hand.

And just for the humour – Ginger people just shouldn’t grow beards!

Blasphemy – For and Against

Firstly, I’ll declare my own stance – I’m all for it! But as a Douglas Adams card holding athiest, I would be!

I was driving all the way to Peterborough this morning, not something that inspires Godly thoughts on the best of days, when I listened to a debate on Radio 5 Live that nearly had me apoplectic with rage. It was a serious debate caused by the assasination of a christian minister in Pakistan. If I was technically adept I would insert a nice BBC news hyperlink here, maybe Bearsy can oblige?

A serious issue of course, and my thoughts go to his family. But really, what did he expect in such a medieval country? I thought Christians grew out of being martyrs a couple of centuries ago, when common sense kicked in. Did he really think he’s made a difference? It would certainly stop me wanting to be one! Continue reading “Blasphemy – For and Against”

Assimilation depends on a shared sense of national pride

If we radiate no sense of pride, no community of identity, we make it much harder for settlers to want to belong. If we deride and traduce the concept of patriotism, if we teach that the nation-state is finished, if we affect to believe that British history was a hateful chronicle of racism and exploitation, if we insist that we’re all Europeans now, we can hardly be surprised if people – whether long-settled or the children of immigrants – begin to cast around for alternative identities.

Article here

Continue reading “Assimilation depends on a shared sense of national pride”

Lies, damned lies, and statistics?

Muslim population ‘rising 10 times faster than rest of society’


David Coleman, Professor of Demography at Oxford University, said:

“The implications are very substantial. Some of the Muslim population, by no means all of them, are the least socially and economically integrated of any in the United Kingdom … and the one most associated with political dissatisfaction. You can’t assume that just because the numbers are increasing that all will increase, but it will be one of several reasonable suppositions that might arise.”

I found this in an article from The Times. Alarming headline, certainly and it seems to be endorsed by David Coleman. It has been widely quoted on the internet, as one might imagine. Continue reading “Lies, damned lies, and statistics?”

Reading the Bible

So the Archbishop of Canterbury would like everyone to read the King James Bible “in order to get the Big Picture”.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/8234268/Archbishop-of-Canterbury-read-the-Bible-to-understand-Camerons-Big-Society.html

If he were encouraging everyone to read the Bible (version not specified), I would be in wholehearted agreement. But why the King James Bible? It’s true that the translation commissioned by James I of England 400 years ago has been enormously influential over British culture. And any book that is still being read 400 years after its first publication must have something going for it. The problem is that it is, well, 400 years old. And although it still has a vociferous fan club in the higher strata of the Church of England, the rest of the church (not to mention the other denominations) has moved on – and for good reason. For one thing, although the translation was the best that could be done at the time, many more (and older) New Testament manuscripts have been discovered since – so the modern Bible versions are much closer to what was originally written. (Admittedly, there haven’t been very many changes; and the vast majority are trivial)

More importantly, Continue reading “Reading the Bible”