The bollocks of tradition

As an adult I've always been rather bemused by the grip that tradition has on people. How important it is to hold those traditions and how disastrous it is perceived if any of them are not met? I just don’t get it.

As a kid I loved Christmas. It was a magical time. Me and my sisters used to get so excited. We were lucky. We had a happy family. My parents could just about make ends meet so we feasted quite well. The house would be full; grandparents, great aunt and uncle and sometimes other relations. Whilst we never always got what we hoped for in the way of presents, we were mostly happy with what we got. That's not to say that there were no anxieties. I've always been an anxious person, so why should Christmas be any different? There were many things to worry about. So much to go wrong. Would Father Christmas be able to get down our chimney? Would the bread man or the milkman deliver? Would the chicken/turkey that had been ordered actually be there to collect? Adult worries that I as a child should not be concerned with. But I was. I see now that these were the seeds sown for my adult hatred of Christmas. disastrous it is perceived if any of them are not met? I just don’t get it.

As an adult I have always found Christmas a horrible time. Far too stressful. Stressful because in earlier years there was an expectation to spend money. Money that I did not have. It has taken me a long time but in the last five to ten years I've managed to extricate myself from all of the nonsense. I celebrate Christmas no more. I'm happy. The sky has not fallen in. The world goes on. disastrous it is perceived if any of them are not met? I just don’t get it.

The true meaning of Christmas, or rather Yule because that is what it really is, has been lost. It was a time of feasting around the winter solstice to get people through the dark cold days. Nothing to do with the christian god at all. The buggers just conveniently hijacked it to help reinforce their bizarre superstitions. disastrous it is perceived if any of them are not met? I just don’t get it.

Superstition and tradition oppress. Getting out of it requires you to think. But if you make the effort you will be happier for it. Go on, set yourself free. disastrous it is perceived if any of them are not met? I just don’t get it.

You might say that you love Christmas, which is fine, but do consider others. Spare a thought for those that find it an unhappy season for whatever reason. Others including your nearest and dearest might not enjoy it as much as you think. Please do not inflict forced jollity onto them. Do you want them to be crying inside?

St George - Middle Eastern warrior

St George wouldn’t have known who the English were, basically because as such they didn’t exist. He may have vaguely heard of a distant, cold and wet land called Provincia Britannia, a godforsaken part of the Roman empire, with its barbarian natives, but that would be all.

He certainly wouldn’t have known of the ‘flag of St George’ as that was an invention by the Italians in mediaeval times.

He was born in the Middle East, most likely Turkey, was in the Roman army and is included in some Muslim texts as a prophetic figure. He has absolutely nothing to do with England, nor does his flag.

If you want to read more about him you will find this very useful.

It’s ironic that George is associated with much of what flag-shaggers would hate, but given that most of them are going to be illiterate knuckle draggers, they will never have bothered to find out. Ah, the blissful ignorance of the bigot.

I might add that I don't subscribe to the concept of saints, patron or otherwise. It's all part of the superstitious nonsense that religion is. I just like debunking the myths. There really is no such thing as the English (or British come to that). No, you shut up!

I am an atheist

I shouldn’t need to say that. Being an atheist should be the default human condition. It would be like announcing constantly that you haven’t got the lurgy. Religion is something you catch. It’s effectively a disease.

By the way, and for the record, i haven’t to my knowledge happen to currently be afflicted by the afore mention lurgy.

If you don’t feel that you can get through life without the crutch that is religion then that’s fine with me. Go ahead, but please keep it to yourself. I don’t need to know about it and please don’t indoctrinate others with your strange ideas.

Now I’m very fond of saying that nothing is ever black and white, which is truly the case, but I will try and keep this as simplistic as I can. Mainly because religion seems to be followed by mostly simplistic people. Okay, when I say ‘there is no god’ the god-botherers normally respond with something along the lines of ‘how do you know there isn’t a god?’ or ‘prove that there isn’t a god’. Why? Why do I have to prove the non-existence of something when there’s clearly no evidence for its existence? That’s like saying, ‘prove that Elvis isn’t alive and living on a double-decker bus on the moon’. The onus is on those who subscribe to the superstition to bring forth the facts. To date there is no evidence.

Beware people who quote the writings of Thomas Acquinas, they are some of the most narrow-minded of them all. They use it as ‘evidence’ to validate their superstitious beliefs. There is no evidence. The same applies to those who quote the bible, et al. The bible is a collection of contradictory writings by any number of ancient people’s trying to either explain their existence and or to keep others in line (oppress). This certainly applies to all other writings connected with the Abrahamic religions.

If there was a god, that god would be able to prove their own existence so that we were all beyond doubt. God hasn’t done that. I and millions of others are living proof of that. If there was a god that god wouldn’t want to be worshipped, that would make it needy. For a god to be needy is a flaw. For a god not to be able to prove its existence is a flaw. A god would be perfect, a god would be infallible. I could go on and on but I won’t. There is no god.

Religion exists to control people. Nothing more, nothing less. It is the opiate of the people.

If you’re happy with following a religion that’s fine but please don’t think it’s a normal thing to do. Question yourself, and I mean genuinely question yourself. Look for evidence. I guarantee you will find none. Have a nice day!

Superstition

Religion and right wing politics exist to exploit and oppress large groups of people; enabling a few to control the many. They both offer easy answers. Answers that people can accept at face value without any thought. Answers that are no more than advertising slogans. It doesn't matter that the answers they give are not evidence based, or what they promise fails to materialise; there will either be an excuse, a distraction or a lie to cover up their failings, a papering over the cracks to hide their charlatanism.

Reactionaries and devotees of magic men with beards (right wing politicians and clerics to the simple) operate using the K.I.S.S. form of delivery: 'Keep it simple, stupid'. Not my phrase but one once used in business presentation circles. People like simple. Simple enables them to believe without intellect. They can relate to X being the problem and Y being the solution. They can't relate to the possibility that the solution might require measures that are complex and perhaps need to run in tandem or appear on the surface not to be directly connected. If chaos theory is correct (obviously it's a theory so it might or might not be) then existence is a multitudinal array of chain reactions going on ad infinitum.

Of course some questions/problems in life might not have a known answer/solution. This never worries the right-wing politician or man of religion. In religion if there's something wrong it's the work of a devil or the punishment of a god; little matter that there is absolutely no proof of the existence of either. In right-wing politics if there is a problem it's the fault of someone 'different' to their perceived norm; they'll blame foreigners, the sick, the infirm, the poor etc. There's always a handy scapegoat.

'Humankind cannot bear very much reality'. T. S. Eliot.

It used to be said that the Church of England was the Tory party at prayer. I'm not sure how accurate that is but in many ways they were/are similar in one respect in that they both peddle lies. Religion and reactionary politics are not based on facts; they are based on a warped faith. Faith is illogical, it is not thinking, but laziness. They are each no more than superstition.

Nothing is ever black and white. There isn't always an answer.

And now a few words from the master of right-wing propaganda* Joseph Goebbels:

'A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.'

'There was no point in seeking to convert the intellectuals. For intellectuals would never be converted and would anyway always yield to the stronger, and this will always be "the man in the street." Arguments must therefore be crude, clear and forcible, and appeal to emotions and instincts, not the intellect. Truth was unimportant and entirely subordinate to tactics and psychology.'

'...the rank and file are usually much more primitive than we imagine. Propaganda must therefore always be essentially simple and repetitious.'

* These principles are still being used today.

The end of the world is nigh

For some people this week their world could end. And of course I could be one of those. And whilst you can never say never I think the likelihood of the world ending on the 21st of December 2012 is somewhat remote.

Supposedly the Mayan calendar ends on 21/12/12 according to quite a number of uninformed people. The sort of people that reckoned that the current millennium stated on 1st January 2000 and not 2001. The witch doctor weirdoes and the peddlers of mumbo jumbo jump on this sort of stuff in a feeding frenzy of mystical masturbation and metaphor mixing. The world is full of charlatans ready to pontificate on what it all means and back it up with spurious ‘evidence’ and bizarre theories.

Why are people so ready to accept superstition, conspiracy theories and new-age nonsense over scientific knowledge?

There is no evidence for most mumbo-jumbo beliefs, so why believe?

I might as well believe that the earth is a giant pizza and was created by a sky-blue-pink angel called Doris. And, I just know I wouldn’t be alone in my beliefs!

Horror-scope

“What is your star sign?” someone will ask.

Actually I’m a Gemini.

What does that mean?

It means absolutely fuck all!

I don’t believe in time. That’ll have umpteen academics ripping up Einstein, Hawking et al. When I say that what I mean is that I believe that there is only the present. The past happened, it is literally history. The future is yet to happen and is so far undetermined. The idea that the future is somehow mapped out is ludicrous.

Astrology is for the gullible. Like religion it is based purely on superstition and is yet another way to try and control people. The idea that you can tell someone’s future from their date of birth is laughable. And people fall for it. The future does not exist. This desire to know the future is connected to the human desire to give meaning to their lives; giving it the structure, order and simplicity that most people crave. I’m sorry but I can’t buy into that.

Of course proponents of astrology will say that the horoscopes in newspapers are ‘just a bit of fun’ and that they are a generalisation of what astrology is really about. I accept that, but in turn it doesn’t make ‘proper’ astrology any more valid. They will say that an astrological reading needs to be based on a person’s date of birth, including the year, and other criteria. Cobblers I say. What about environmental factors, life chances and personal decisions? Life is serendipitous. Where the planets and stars were positioned when you were born or where they are now is highly unlikely to affect your life to much of a degree above gravitational forces. Do those born on the same day live similar lives and have similar character traits? I doubt it. And if they do it isn’t going to be anything to do with their star sign. Especially if you take into account the mathematics of probability.

My birthday is on 1st June. I was at school with twins also born on the same day and in the same year as me. All three of us were different. And the two brothers were very different indeed. One was studious, focused, musical, very bright and with mousey-coloured hair. The other struggled academically, was over-enthusiastic about most things but achieved little at school, was emotional, couldn’t play a musical instrument to save his life and had black hair. Whilst I was a day-dreaming layabout arty type that was quite capable but rarely met expectations. I kind of think that we should have been so similar that you could have hardly been able to tell us apart, don’t you?

Astrology my arse.

It’s all mumbo-jumbo!

If you like a lot of chocolate on your biscuit join our club

“God is a concept/By which we measure/Our pain” – John Lennon

I’m an atheist, but I’m sort of drawn to religion, even though I fight it. I’m not sure why as I’m not necessarily looking for answers. I suppose what I’m after is to obtain a peace with myself.

“They call me The Seeker/I’ve been searching low and high/I won’t get to get what I’m after/Till the day I die” - The Who

Some of my earliest searching led me to read about Buddhism. I knew I didn’t want anything to do with ‘god botherers’ and Buddhism seemed to offer a religion that sort of made sense. I say sort of because I have one really big problem with Buddhism and that’s reincarnation. I don’t believe in it. For me gods, reincarnation and time don’t exist; only the here and now.

As I’ve mentioned before on this blog I used to attend Quaker meeting for worship. I did so for five years which was pretty good for me but for a number of reasons I couldn’t sustain it and never felt able to apply for membership.

“I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member". Groucho Marx

I think this is the problem I don’t really want to join a religious organisation but I want to partake in some of their practices and thinking. Perhaps there’s an online community that I could dip into?

Mumbo Jumbo

When faced with mumbo jumbo of any sort, (mumbo jumbo being the believing in angels, fairies, horoscopes, god, ufos and other assorted new age nonsense) it is always good to remind oneself of this excerpt from Monty Python and the Holy Grail:

Sir Bedevere: "...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped."

King Arthur: "This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. Explain again how sheep's bladders may be employed to prevent earthquakes."

Why is it that people would rather believe cranks with farfetched theories than science-based fact?