And so Easter has come and gone again.  An excuse to each chocolate and to dust off my Jesus Christ Superstar CD.  Yes, I know I blog regularly about being an atheist, but I love a bit of Webber and Rice (that could go a long way to explaining why I’m single!) and it’s a good old story.

This year I also decided that I’d give the new dramatisation on the BBC a go - The Passion.  There were lots of familiar faces amongst the apostles and filmed in Morocco it was a attractive and intriguing retelling of the story.  Unlike the musical version, this one unfolded in almost ‘real time’ spread over Holy week and portryed events right up to the discovery of the empty tomb and the resurrection.

The final scene made me think that perhaps those with faith are in some respects the lucky ones.  The final scene showed the risen Jesus reassuring one of the disciples (Peter?) that he would always be with him.  How reassuring must it be to feel that you always have a companion?  We all get lonely from time to time, but those with faith always believe that there is someone with them, watching over them, perhaps guiding them.

Of course, appreciating how something could be comforting doesn’t change my beliefs (or lack of them).  Just as wanting to believe something doesn’t make it so.  I am perfectly happy with my approach to life, but occasionally it’s interesting to have a glimpse into how the other half sees things.

The Science of Happiness

I haven’t waxed lyrical about the joys of yoga for a little while now, so I figured it was probably time.

As anyone who knows me might well be aware, I’ve had a rough last couple of months.  Change is stressful and I’ve had a lot of change.  However, I can honestly say that I’m not sure how I would have got through it and come out the other side a stronger and better person without my yoga sessions.

Again, as anyone who knows me with be aware, I’m an atheist - but that doesn’ t mean that I can’t appreciate the need that we all have to take ourselves out of our everyday lives and spend some time reflecting, meditating, ‘me-time’, whatever you might want to call it.

My teacher  at the Wednesday sessions has an uncanny ability to say just the right things at the right time.  Yesterday he told us to have the strength to make the necessary changes in our lives - something I need to be reminded of I think.  I’m not always sure what the necessary changes are, but still…   He is also one of the most positive, kindest and welcoming people I have ever come across.  Nothing is ever wrong - if you can’t do it, then ‘that’s what next week is for’.  Judging from his webpages he has serious yoga crudentials, but somehow he seems to make teaching a bunch of inflexible students seem like the most important thing in the world.  If that is what a dose of Zen can do for you, then I’m all for it…in a strictly secular way of course.

The Out Campaign

I was standing at a bus stop in North London last week. A women came up to me and showed me a leaflet. It read something like, ‘Who really rules the world?’. I was confused at first, as the way she presented it was as if she was asking for directions or showing me a map. Then I realised what it meant. I asked her, ‘Is this religious?’ and she said it was. I smiled and said to her, ‘I’m an atheist, thank you.’

I was polite and friendly, but she seemed rather taken aback, and although I hate to admit it, I felt rather strange saying those words out loud in public. In the past I have told other people that, ‘I don’t believe in god’ or ‘I’m not a Christian.’ However, stating my atheism in such a direct and unequivocal way seemed to take it one step further. It felt strange, a little scary, but very liberating.

I imagine that this the kind of experience that is behind the newly launched ‘Out Campaign’ being promoted by the Richard Dawkins website. This campaign is about giving atheists the opportunity and courage to declare themselves as such. Whilst the use of ‘out’ draws obvious parallels with the gay community it also has several other sides to it.

Come OUT, reach OUT, speak OUT, stand OUT, Keep OUT (religion from our schools and institutions), fill OUT (atheist on any forms which ask for personal information) and one of my favourites, chill OUT - as Dawkins says, “Atheists are just people with a different interpretation of cosmic origins, nothing to be alarmed about.”

If you’re interested, there is more information on the campaign website and on RichardDawkins.net. They also have some funky t-shirts for sale!

Some thoughts…

My ongoing interest in capital punishment has become rather more intense than usual over the last few weeks.  This is mainly, I think, due to seeing several films related to the issue and reading a couple of books documenting the lives of Britain’s hangmen.

Last night I watched ‘Infamous’ - the second film in the last couple of years following the work of Truman Capote as he researched and wrote his book ‘In Cold Blood’.  This ‘non-fiction novel’ documents the murder of a family in Kansas and the subsequent capture, trial and execution of the culprits. 

Whereas, when reading the ‘Chronicles of a Victorian Hangman’ or the autobiography of Albert Pierrepoint (or watching the excellent film based on the latter) it is in some way possible to distance yourself from the events by consigning them to history, the difference with the US-based Capote films is that this still goes on there.  Perhaps they no long hang people in a shed, but in the USA the state routinely takes a perfectly healthy human being and ends their life in the name of justice.  There are currently 3350 people on death row in America.  29 people have been executed this year, including 3 in the last week.

I do not believe that anybody is fundamentally evil.  I believe that people sometimes do evil things and that many people are victims of society, circumstances and chemical reactions in their brains.  With this view of the world any acceptance of capital punishment is beyond comprehension for me.

Brotherly Love on Question Time

Question Time on BBC1 is usually a bit past my bedtime, but I caught it last night and it was a fascinating edition. The panel was made up of the usual cross-section of politicians from each major party (Boris Johnson, Alan McNulty and Shirley Williams) and other leading figures. Last night these other speakers included two brothers, Christopher and Peter Hitchens. I’d heard of Christopher Hitchens through the Richard Dawkins website but never heard of his brother. Talk about a contrast!

Christopher is an outspoken author and journalist with views on a wide array of issues. Most interesting to me are his antitheist writings including his recent book God is Not Great. His brother, on the other hand is a columnist for the Mail on Sunday. I hope, dear reader, I need say no more.

Both brothers were British by birth, but Christopher now lives in American and has recently become an American citizen.

Personally, I found myself agreeing with almost everything that Christopher said - many comments on the Question Time website say that he was aggressive, angry and full of ‘hatred’ but I believe that what we were seeing was a passion for what he believes in. The less said about Peter and his views the better, but needless to say it more or less fitted in with what I would expect for someone writing for the Mail.

Anyhow, anyone who is interested can watch the programme on the BBC website.

Charity begins…

Last night I was travelling back on the bus from a softball game in Wandsworth, when I saw something that made me really sad.  We passed a charity shop.  I didn’t see which one it was particularly, but someone had left a couple of black sacks of clothes outside, obviously as a donation.  Two women were standing by them, had ripped them open and were going through and helping themselves to anything they fancied from inside.  This reminded me that I’d seen the same thing happening outside a charity shop on Upper Street in Islington.  A woman helping herself to clothes from a bag left outside.  Whoever had donated them intended that they be sold in aid of a particular charity, and I don’t imagine for a moment that these people weren’t completely aware of that.

I mean, I know there are terrible things going on in the world; war, prejudice, persecution, destruction of the environment to name but a few, and that possibly in comparison some tight-arses filching a few secondhand clothes might not seem such a big deal.  However, it just seems to me to represent in a very specific way the level that we humans can sometimes sink to.  Although the scale is completely different, perhaps we might think that the kind of selfishness and disregard for others  that leads a perfectly well dressed woman to steal from a charity shop is not all that different from that which at least in part underlies larger scale atrocities and tragedies.

I’m not suggesting that pestilence, war, famine, and death can all be entirely reduced to the same basic motive as this.  However, it is all on a scale of what is acceptable behaviour - not just because a law or religion say it is so - but because a human being finds it so.

Why blog?

Someone asked me this weekend why I have a blog? What is the point of it? If it was just to record what I’ve been up to then I’d just keep a diary, wouldn’t I?

I’m been thinking about this and the motivation behind maintaining these pages, and I think I’ve come to some conclusions. I’ll try not to get too deep…

Ultimately we are on our own in this world. Nobody else sees through our eyes, walks in our shoes or experiences the sensations of life in quite the way we do. However, by sharing our experiences we can find common ground with other people and imagine how our lives and world views might intersect with theirs.

I pride myself on having a wide range of interests, hobbies and passions. Whether it be something simple like knitting a blanket, growing some herbs on my windowsill or watching the cygnets outside my window grow up day by day, whether it is the progression of my PhD project, an inspiring film, book or play or just a thought about life, the universe and everything, there is so much in life to think about, wonder about and to find joy and inspiration in.

All these things become even more enjoyable and rewarding if you can share them.

Now, I know that many of my friends aren’t interested in the same things that I am, or don’t agree with me, or see the world in the same way as me. However, this doesn’t stop me having the urge to share. By writing about my thoughts and experiences on this blog, I am putting my stuff out there and asking people to share it with me.

I guess that is why I check my blog stats every day to see who has visited, and why I get over-excited if someone posts a comment. I am imagining that someone out there is sharing something with me. Finding the same thing interesting, funny, annoying, inspiring or whatever!

Three books that I ordered arrived in the post for me this morning. I can’t wait to read them, but there is nobody in my immediate physical or email vicinity who would be interested in the subject matter.  However, I very much look forward to sharing them with any virtual readers who may, in the future, come across my humble little blog!

Deep thoughts

I’ve recently become very interested in the work of prominent secularist and atheists, such as Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. Unfortunately I know that some people around me feel that such people are just as arrogant and intolerant in their views as the religious fundamentalists. I don’t agree with this - they are passionate about their belief in science and their rejection of anything supernatural and they want to share this with the world. For some reason it seems to be more acceptable to believe in a culturally specific supernatural being than to reject it as improbable and prefer a method based scienfitic approach to life the universe and everything.

I find it quite difficult to express my views on the subject eloquently as I don’t want to insult other people’s beliefs, but at the same time I want them to understand mine, and acknowledge them as just as important to me and just as legitimate. My boyfriend frequently tells me such things as ‘ you don’t believe in anything’ ‘you don’t believe in a soul’ which upsets me as it completely misses the point that I am trying to make.

I don’t believe in God in the same way that I don’t believe in fairies. Simple as that. It doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in principles or morals or in beauty or meaning.

I am also a linguist, so I thought that I would link to this interview about such matters with Noam Chomsky - a great thinker and the father of modern linguistics. Some people complain that Dawkins is arrogant, but this video interview of Chomsky is far from arrogant. Just a great man explaining the way he sees the world. I dream that one day I might be able to explain myself so calmly and eloquently.

Hanging around.

I learnt something about myself the other night as I sat in my flat surfing the internet. I was watching videos on YouTube. There is an active video message discussion on the site concerning athesim, religion and the like. I was watching a few messages and casually moving from link to link. Inevitably it was not long before the related videos section contained the infamous unofficial filming of the execution of Saddam Hussein. As anyone who has anything more than a passing casual relationship with me will probably be aware, I am very interested in the death penalty and capital punishment. The whole concept of putting someone to death seems to be to be so horrific and barbaric that I find myself with a kind a morbid fascination with this kind of news story. I am totally against the death penalty, even in exceptional cases like those of Saddam Hussein and his fellow defendents. Even in the unlikely event that there is no doubt over someone’s guilt for a heinous crime, and even if they show no remorse I still believe that the taking of human life in this or anyway is fundamentally wrong.

I have read a lot on the subject and watched many films following cases both real and fictional. I find it slightly ludicrous that the media and politician are getting so upset about the manner of the execution and the fact that it was filmed. In my opinion it is the act itself with is wrong and deplorable. When the condemned man is faced with the knowledge that so many people want him dead, are a couple of comments really going to bother him so much. If we really believe that this man does not deserve to live why are we so outraged by a few hecklers? Similarly, if it is right to kill someone in this way, why shouldn’t the world see it? Why shouldn’t pro-death penalty people be able, if not forced to see the reality of what they support. I think I know the answers to these questions. Supporters of capital punishment want to feel that the process is somehow ‘better’ than the crimes it is used to punish, that it is carried out in a respectful manner. How can the taking of life ever be respectful?

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think it was right that the man was insulted in his last few seconds on earth, or that his crimes should have gone unpunished. However, I feel that getting all worked up about the manner of the execution misses the point that the fact that there was an execution at all is fundamentally wrong. Killing is wrong, and killing a killer only makes a double wrong. How can anyone argue that being told that your life will end at this date and time, in this place and by this method is not a form of cruel and inhumane punishment. Imagine the mental torture that every condemned prisoner must go through. Surely knowing that you will never be free again is punishment enough.

So, faced with the opportunity to watch the Saddam Hussein footage, I thought I would find myself clicking play. But I didn’t. When it came to it, I just couldn’t. I can’t really explain why. I don’t think it is wrong to see it, I believe if it happened it should be witnessed and we should digest the horror of what we humans are able to do to each other. However, from a personal perspective, I just couldn’t watch it. Once seen how could anyone ever forget such a thing? I have never seen anyone killed, or even seen a dead body, and I think I am happy to keep it that way.

A dramatisation of an execution is a world away from the real thing. Last night I watched the film, ‘Pierrepoint’. This understated but beautifully made film follows the life of Albert Pierrepoint, the most famous hangman in British history. According to the film he hanged over 600 people, including Nazi war criminals and famous cases such as Derek Bentley and Ruth Ellis. After his retirement, Pierrepoint spoke out against capital punishment, saying that in his opinion it was no more than revenge.

The film left me confused about what to think of such a man. Pierrepoint himself distanced himself from the job he performed. He was not the one who wanted these people dead. The courts had decided and it was out of his hands. Of course, if nobody agreed to do the job, then the executions would not have gone ahead, so in some respect I feel that Pierrepoint has to be seen as in some way responsible. However, in reality, there will always be people who are prepared to do such a job, and in fact many people would, I imagine get some pleasure from it. With this in mind, maybe Pierrepoint was simply doing what he saw as the right thing. He treated this ‘clients’ with respect and prided himself in dispatching them quickly and with minimum fuss.

I now really want to read his autobiography. Both to get more of an idea about the man himself and to see how close to reality the protrayal in the film really was.