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How Ground Zero looks today.

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Iran, the leading light of countries with a dark ages mentality, has decided via supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that music should not be taught nor practiced in Iran. A proclamation doomed to failure as music is one of the most powerful forces on this planet.

Iran does seem to have a thriving if isolated underground music scene. Below are two clips from the documentary Global Metal with interviews from people involved in Iran’s metal scene and interesting comments about metal on the Middle East in general.

Gosford council have approved an Exclusive Brethren hall for Kariong. This was against the council’s own officers. The ridiculous bit:

But councillor Jeff Strickson urged approval, saying traffic impact would be small.

“We’re talking about a maximum attendance of 90 people,” Cr Strickson said.

“A lot of people will walk so we’re talking about maybe 15 cars once every six weeks.

There is an Exclusive Brethren hall just down the road from my place. At lot more than 90 people attend their and even with the car park, the street outside and the pub car park fills up pretty quickly a couple of times a week. And looking at the religious affiliation for Kariong, there are only 23 people that list their affiliation as Brethren. Strickson is being very flexible with the facts.

I’m sure the same consideration would have been given if an Islamic group had proposed a similar venue for Kariong.

Was amused to read in the paper and hear on PM that Peter Jensen, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, is upset that there is a plan to teach secular ethics classes in NSW schools.

It seems religion doesn’t like competition. Especially when the competition is winning which even has the Catholics worried:

ROBERT HADDAD: It’s not what’s happening in Baulkham Hills North for example where they offered, the school there offered the ethics trial to all the parents of the students in years five and six, not just the parents who opted out of SRE (special religious education).

As a consequence there was a 47 per cent uptake by the students for the ethics-based course. That reduced the number of students in SRE down to 50 per cent while another 3 per cent are still doing nothing.

Or course religion decides the best thing to do is lobby politicians rather than examine the reasons why secular ethics wins the popularity contest. (Hint to religion: You need a little more than ’cause Jensen or Pell said so).
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Terry Pratchett recently had the honour of giving the Richard Dimbleby Lecture. It was actually given by Tony Robinson as Pratchett’s early-onset Alzheimer’s can make it difficult to read. But Robinson was wonderful himself and Pratchett’s lecture lost nothing by using a “Stunt-Pratchett”. It was sad, funny, wonderfully argued and most of all, defiant.

Pratchett mounted an excellent case for assisted dying. One that will be very hard to counter.

In the 21st Century, we have pushed death far away from us. Even when Death is at the door suggesting that we might be off now, we use whatever medical technology we can to forestall the inevitable, often at a terrible cost in pain for the soon departed and their family. There is no dignity in a lingering death in pain with one’s faculties withered. It is simply cruelty no matter the intent.
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This in mind boggling stupid. A US company that manufactures rifle sights has been found to be including references to Biblical passages on the rifle sights.

One of the citations on the gun sights, 2COR4:6, is an apparent reference to Second Corinthians 4:6 of the New Testament, which reads: “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Other references include citations from the books of Revelation, Matthew and John dealing with Jesus as “the light of the world.” John 8:12, referred to on the gun sights as JN8:12, reads, “Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

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Dick Gross, an atheist, has a column in where he defends the canonisation of Mary Mackillop. It is a meandering, wishy washy post.

The first point I contest is the idea that saints, like MacKillop offer, consolation to the sick. It is a false consolation. Miracles do happen as described in the uncritical reporting of testimony of Kathleen Evans. She prayed to MacKillop and was then found cancer free. Indeed, her case is amazing and a wonderful thing to have happened to her and her family. But as I’ve argued before, it could very easily, and more likely, be a case of spontaneous remission.

There is a danger that that false hopes of saints could lead patients to place less faith in doctors and treatment and more in miracles to their own detriment. The charge that I may be taking away something positive away from cancer suffers is I accept but Barbara Ehnreich’s experiences show that positive thinking can be dangerous in itself.
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Australia has taken the superstitious nonsense of Catholicism to heart with the strange collective pride that Mary MacKillop is going to be Australia’s first official saint (some say Howard tried to push for the canonisation of Bradman but it didn’t go anywhere).

I have no judgement on MacKillop’s life and the importance of her work. My problem is this whole idea of miracles via intercession that a prospective saint must provide two examples of.

Which suggests that God doesn’t listen very well to people’s prayers if a third party is needed to get some action. Or that he is a hard bastard who is going to do anything unless someone puts up a pretty good argument as to why he should perform miracle.

Also, what happens when someone prays with a saint for intercession and it doesn’t come? If a terminal disease and they die then the conversation in Heaven could end up being pretty awkward. It would be hard to come by but a table showing the number of intercessory prayers made and intercession granted as a result of those prayers would be very interesting.

Maybe it is the super powers of atheism, but the miracles don’t seem that special. It is just playing the odds for cases of spontaneous remissionwhich are documented without apparent Saintly intercession.

Obviously there is a sense of national inferiority masquerading as nationalistic pride that extends beyond Catholics with Mary MacKillop. A rational perspective would be to celebrate her life and works as they were. Celebrating an act of rank superstition does not become a modern nation.

Then again, it is a strange state of affairs when some find it easier to believe in miracles than the science of climate change.

Recently on a Amazon book buying extravaganza, I decided to pick up Robert Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated. I’m not a fan of Crumb (but that I do recognise him well culturally) and it was out of curiosity that I made the purchase.

Crumb’s approach to Genesis was to represent the text (with a few changes here and there) and the stories as written. So there is plenty of violence and sex far more explicit than some who hold Genesis dear would like acknowledge. As Crumb says:

“If people of faith say what I’ve done is blasphemous or profane, I’d shrug my shoulders and say, ‘I just illustrated what is there,’ ” Crumb says. “I’m not ridiculing it, just illustrating the exact words that are there. I restrained myself. I really didn’t want to make visual jokes about it. I hope people see it for what it is.”

It is the strength of the book that Crumb does take such a literal (albeit in a different manner from Christian Fundamentalists) approach to the text. After having to deal with Genesis in the context of tired debates regarding evolution, reading the text in the spirit of Crumb was indeed a revelation.

Warning: Some images below may be NSFW.
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At first it was rage as a listened to George Pell display his noted efficiency of combining arrogance and ignorance as he talked about climate change on Richard Glover’s Drive this afternoon.

Then it became pity as I realised the man has so greatly compromised his intellect to accommodate his reactionary views that he has lost any vestiges of credibility. A transcript is not available but Pell claimed that certain facts about climate change are not deniable. The one that stood out was his claim that no warming had occurred since 1998.

Really George? Have you read this? Or this? How about this? Then there is this.

Consider what can’t be denied soundly and effortlessly denied.

Then again, given George’s day job is peddling myths it is not surprising the subscribes to some in his personal politics.