Are Atheists REALLY Angry People?

New TV series keep being made here in the UK trying to set the balance right between the believers and the non-believers. And recently, the general goal of the programme makers is to promote "tolerance" between those who DO and those who DON'T.



I have a problem with this.



It's obviously a response to Richard Dawkins' recent attacks on the religious community for their insistence that they have a responsibility to bring the "DON'Ts" into the fold.



Now, while I'm more than happy for the professor to set out his stall on my behalf, (a far more scholarly individual than I!), I do have reservations about being called a "Darwinian" simply because I do not believe the Bible, Torah, Koran (or Qu'ran, or whatever...) to be a true, or in any way, accurate record of history.



It matters little to me that Darwin, or Wallace for that matter, discovered certain principles which lead us to conclude that a Master Creator made everything from scratch could not have done so in the way certain 'Holy' books describe. Yes, it's all very interesting and indeed fascinating. Nature certainly is a fabulous wonder to behold in its own right, but that is not the sole reason for me not-to-believe!



I can begin with some very basic and simple unanswered questions. My middle daughter was aged just six years old when she had returned from her first time at Sunday School. (Yes, I allowed her to attend, and yes she has been given every opportunity to make up her own mind, and no - I haven't imposed my views on her!). Her first question to me was; "Does God have a willy?" The question to the adherents would have been received with incredulous horror in a "Christian" household, I've no doubt, but I asked her what she thought. Her reply was that He obviously had because He had created a man in His image. As she grew more aware of the nature of male and female anatomies and the reasons for said it occurred to her that there must be a miss God. If not; why would God have a willy? And if He didn't have one; why give Adam one?



We live in modern times. Knowledge is easier to obtain for most of us. But for fundamentalists of any religion, it's just not allowed. The Bible states quite clearly that the fall from grace that Adam and Eve endured was not from rape, murder, theft or any other serious misdeed, simply that they'd eaten the fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge"! That's it! That's all it took! Stay ignorant or lose your right to Eden!



Before we've got as far as Cain and Able and where Cain "took himself a wife" from, we have to ask not- does God have a willy? - but why God wants a couple of ignoramuses jumping through the daffodils in Eden!? Why imbue them with a thinking brain?



And, of course, before we even enter into the ridiculous stories in the text, the most glaring question of all is; Where did He come from?



I'm not a "fundamentalist Darwinian", I have no axe to bear. You, and even my kids, are allowed to believe what you want to believe. But please, don't feel pressed to 'convert' me. I have eaten the fruit of the "Tree of Knowledge". I have learned things that I can't un-learn. I'm already dammned to the outer reaches of Eden. And I've no intention of going back!



I'm not angry with you for your need to evade the inevitable truth of your existence. That to me seems perfectly reasonable, but don't judge others in the name of your god. And please don't kill others for the same reason. Surely, if your god is as powerful as you claim, He doesn't need your help! Let Him, and only Him, make those decisions.



Tolerance should come from you, not me. You're the ones who are supposed to set the example, aren't you?

I Used To Be....

...a postman, y'know! But I made a mistake that cost me my job. Not a warning, or a reprimand and an order to "get it right", no; I got fired!

The dispute between Royal Mail and the CWU is not about money. It's about safeguarding the jobs of the workers who are being bullied into working longer shifts, taking bigger deliveries, and losing pension benefits. And that's just for starters! Many postmen and women in my region lost their jobs unfairly, yet the union legal team have been losing nine out of ten appeals. The rot has set in good-an'-proper!!

Part of the problem (and probably the biggest part) is that Adam Crozier; the highest paid civil servant in history; wanted to sell off parts of Royal Mail to his wife's company - TNT. The government were behind him all the way up until thoughts of elections turned their heads. Crozier becomes another Dr Beeching!! Let's kill the Royal Mail and make it cheaper for my wife's company to but it!

He's lied about the fall in mailings to get the government back on board. Less letters mailings appears to equal less work. BS!! The rise of internet trading has INCREASED mailings significantly!! That's how the Royal Mail were able to announce record profits this year!! Strikes are affecting the internet trader more than any other business sector. Because that's how they make their money. And the internet is still in its infancy.

We're all victims of "the Corporate Dollar". Service industries should be 'not-for-profit'. They should not be at the mercy of the greedy few major shaerholders. Industry is for that!

Here's another thought on the Corporate Dollar - We're constantly reminded of the dangers of leaving our DVD players on 'standby'. As a postman it was my job to deliver letters to an unsuspecting host of customers. A good 80% of what I delivered went straight into the bin unopened! Mostly because it was unsolicited advertising gunk. So I did a quick calculation: a single item of mail, averages around 22grammes. We delivered to some 35million addresses in the UK. If each address received just 1 item of junk mail per day, that would equal around 7000 tonnes of waste paper per day, six days a week! However, given that we delivered unsolicited product catalogues weighing in at some 20 times more than the average, and promotional magazines with even more pages, how much paper is wasted on chasing sales?

Baby, baby, baybeeee!!!

Our beautiful daughter Martha Olivia was born (finally) at 7minutes past one on the 24th!

A long, and incredibly arduous, labour belied our romantic ideas of a home birth in a pool. No more gruesome details, but to say, in the words of Jim Reeves; "Welcome To My World" - you gorgeous thing!!

Narcissism

A word I'm likely to use on a number of occasions is "Narcissism". I'll give my working definition which may differ from any reader's.

My take on the word is that it represents self-interest. I won't go into the history, (the Greek myth, Freud, etc.,) I'm sure you'll have your own views. The reason I use it is to explain how I think we operate.

As an addict (ex-addict, if such a thing exists!), I remember being completely self-absorbed. Although I had to capitulate to some degree to get my needs met, most of the time I thought only of my next 'fix'. To relieve myself of that burden of self gratification, I had to learn a little humility. My tiny world had to expand somewhat for me to find a place in it where I could feel as though I was a part of it all. However, I have since discovered that we all need Narcissism to some degree if we are to survive.

How do I know to what degree of Narcissism is healthy? When does standing my ground become forcing my will? How much of what I do is about my needs, and not about my wants?

Most of us have, to some degree, capitulated too much, or have demanded unjustly, which is one of the reasons communication is such a struggle at times. I complain at times that my partner doesn't understand me, and vice-versa! When we sit down and analyse what's going on between us, we tend to agree that we've both made mistakes. But on the odd occasion, we've both been left frustrated at the others' inability to 'understand'. On those occasions, I feel we have regressed to some infantile place in our heads where, as a child, things didn't go our way.

I believe that, on a larger scale, this happens at my place of work. Currently, I work as a postman. Despite a history of senior roles in mental health and years of study, I've found myself in a relatively menial role on the current minimum wage for this country. My ego, which I thought I'd lost, has been seriously bruised! My boss is a 'user' of people and his boss considers drivers to be the lowest form of life! It's been years since I was in such a position in my life and I find it hard to come to terms with it. I also discovered that I've become something of an intellectual snob! I really struggle to keep a cheery disposition with my co-workers when all they seem to be interested in is the next soccer game and which player is worth his salary.

(I first published this in January 2009!)