Painting Fakes

And now for something completely different - a book about atheism by someone who is not an atheist.  Alister McGrath is currently a Professor of Theology at Kings College, London and at the time of writing this book was Professor of Historical Theology at Oxford.  Prior to that he had a scientific carreer with a doctorate in molecular biophysics.  He is clearly no fool and just as clearly no atheist. I have to admit that  The Twilight of Atheism  was not the book I was expecting to read.  I picked it up expecting to read an educated refutation of atheism.  Instead, I got something equally fascinating - a historical analysis of the rise of atheism and of what McGrath sees as its subsequent decline.  In his reading, modern atheism gained strength and influence in the latter half of the 18th century, in the events leading up to and surrounding the French Revolution.  In this context, atheism was seen as a force for liberation, with the church clearly aligned with the oppressive regim

Queensland's media and politicians are currently in a tizz about what is being referred to as an outbreak of Hendra Virus.  For those outside Queensland who may not have been following this story, Hendra virus primarily occurs in populations of  flying foxes, giant fruit-eating bats of the genus pteropus.   However, from time to time it also spills over to infect horses and, via them, humans.  Its name comes from the suburb of Brisbane where our main racetracks are located, and where it was first detected in 1994, taking the life of horse trainer Vic Rail and a number of horses.  This is where it gets emotional. To some extent, the emotions are understandable.  Australians love their horses, and Hendra virus has been fatal to every one of the 50-odd horses known to have contracted it since 1994.  It's also very dangerous to humans, having led to the death of four out of the seven humans known to have contracted it.  This winter there have been more horses infected than ever

I'm loving Bruce Cockburn's new CD, Small Source of Comfort .   I don't think I've ever heard a Cockburn album that I didn't like.  For those unfortunate enough not to have heard of Cockburn, he is a Canadian singer-songwriter who first became famous in the 1970s with a brand of folk-tinged music and beautiful poetic lyrics dealing with spiritual and political themes.  Over the years he has branched out musically, taking on elements of electric rock-n-roll, jazz, soul and world music.  He is a passionate world citizen, travelling not in a superstar musician cocoon but with his eyes and heart open, and lots of his songs are inspired by visits to the world's trouble spots. It's five years since his last effort, Life Short, Call Now .   He comments in the sleeve notes to Small Source of Comfort , presumably with tongue firmly in cheek, that after that largely acoustic effort he had planned to do something "electric and noisy, with gongs and jackhammer

News Limited has been in the news itself, and some, over the past couple of weeks as a result of The News of the World's large-scale hacking of mobile phones.  As if there was previously any doubt that the ethics of News's tabloid empire were hopelessly flawed.  A set of newspapers that earns its revenue by hounding and exploiting celebrities is only just marginally less sad than a society that buys these newspapers in huge numbers. However, there is more to News's ethical problems than just invasions of privacy, and they extend beyond the realms of tabloid journalism.  The front page headline of today's Weekend Australian   is a good (or should I say awful?) example. Business turns up the heat on ALP And in smaller type above the bold heading: "Thought bubble" policies criticised. The body of the article reports comments by Ziggy Switkowski  (former Telstra CEO and soon to be Suncorp chairperson), Lindsay Maxsted (Transurban and Westpac chairperson)

I'm in the middle of reading Iain M Banks' latest Culture novel, Surface Detail.   As usual its a wonderful piece of space opera, with action that sprawls across planetary systems, species and real and virtual worlds.  There are wheels within wheels, nothing is necessarily as it seems, and the technology is incredible. Much of the action takes place in what is called the Tsungarial Disk, a ring of supposedly abandoned ancient machines surrounding a gas giant planet.  Two of the main characters approach the disk, intent on skullduggery. Veppers smiled thinly at the alien.... "Why did they build all these? Why so many? What was the point?" "Insurance, possibly," Bettlescroy said. "Defence. You build the means to build the fleets rather than build the fleets themselves, the means of production being inherently less threatening to one's neighbours than the means of destruction. It still makes people think twice about tangling with you." The l

In previous posts I've talked about Jesus' inaugural sermon in Nazareth , where he reinterprets the Kingdom of God to include Israel's enemies; and the story of the cleansing of the Temple , in which Jesus symbolically clears the Court of the Gentiles for their expected influx.  In Luke 10:25-37 we find a story that reinforces these themes in a different way. 25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” 27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” 29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to J

I used to think that Richard Dawkins , Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett all had a bit of a grudge against religion.  Then I read Michel Onfray's The Atheist Manifesto and changed my mind.  Dawkins and Harris are mere pussycats compared to Onfray. Michel Onfray is a French philosopher, and I have to admit he's a random pick on my journeys in atheism.  His book has been staring at me from my library shelf since it reopened in May, so finally I brought it home and read it.  I'm not sure how our better known Anglo-American atheists view him.  He shares with them a negative, jaundiced view of religion, especially the major monotheistic religions which are the focus of this book.  On the other hand, whereas the core of their critique is scientific, grounded in the works of Charles Darwin, his is almost wholly philosophical, grounded particularly in the works of Neitzsche and Freud. Onfray claims to have made a close study of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  If so, he has st