Category: Religion

Kaizen

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Things seem bad sometimes. Manufactured wars. Constant, seemingly unresolvable violence in the middle east. Discrimination by religion, race, gender, sexual orientation and so on. Disingenuous, corrupt politicians. Disease. Neighbourhood crime. Rob Schneider. The list goes on; these things, and the way they’re reported, tend to make us feel as if the world is crumbling around our ears. These things certainly frustrate me, but I often think about something I heard Noam Chomsky say once.

A student attending one of Chomsky’s speeches asked him what we could do to turn things around, as the world was just getting worse and worse all the time. Normally you’d expect quite a pessimistic answer from Chomsky, but he replied that the student was way off, that life over, say, the last century has gotten — on the whole — much better.

I agree with him. There are still wars, still empires, still injustices, but there is progress. Most countries now reject aristocracy and elect candidates to positions of power. In most countries people can, to varying degrees, publicly decry unfair treatment or criticize the sitting government with little fear of reprisal. Personal freedoms are, more or less, at an all time high; it wasn’t long ago that women couldn’t vote and black people were forced to drink from separate water fountains. While too many people still live in impoverished conditions, it’s fewer now (on a percentage basis) than 200 years ago. Life expectancy has skyrocketed as diseases are cured and treatments discovered. And so on.

I’m even confident that issues like global warming, which — to my generation — seems like a circus of head-burying and political machinations, will eventually be solved. Just as it has done with every other seemingly insurmountable obstacle, mankind will slowly, irrevocably do the right thing, in spite of the conservative naysayers and authoritarian oppressors. Just
gotta keep on keepin’ on.

But first, I gotta get some sleep.

[tags]noam chomsky, kaizen[/tags]

Ben Hur race: ass lightning or spiked chariot wheels?

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Sorry about the lack of blogging over the past couple of days. I’ve been kind of heads-down with work, errands and this stats assignment. The assignment’s mostly done though, so I can relax for a few days.

Today we ran around town doing a bunch of things:

  • We went to see the World Press photo exhibit at BCE Place, which was pretty compelling. Some of the images were disturbing, none more so (to me, anyway) than the little girl crying after seeing American troops shoot her parents at some checkpoint in northern Iraq. She was covered in blood and looked terrified. You get the sense that the girl is completely, utterly lost to the world. There’s no saving her. It was awful. If the American public thinks it’s getting the real story about Iraq, they haven’t seen that picture.
  • We shook that off (pictures of animals and sports on the way out dulled the ache) and walked over to our condo’s new sales centre. They have two furnished model suites ready for viewing, one of which is ours. It was good to get in there and finally see & feel what our unit will be like. There are some minor differences — our ceilings will be 9 feet, not 8 feet like in the model, we have a huge balcony, and our unit will be much higher — but it was still a thousand times better than trying to imagine things based on a floor plan. Nellie blogged about it yesterday, and included a picture.
  • We picked up some scrumptious breads and a pie (whose scrumptiousness I can’t vouch for as yet) at All The Best, got nostalgic for lunch at the Quail & Firkin (I had a C.O.B. and many fries, after which I felt awful) and picked up a new bed for the cats at Canadian Tire. After that, and some grocery shopping, I was ready to come home and have a half-nap. Getting my ass up for the stats assignment…Herculean.

.:.

We also watched a movie called Stardom (imdb | rotten tomatoes), directed by Denys Arcand and starring (rowr) Jessica Pare. It wasn’t great, but I laughed at the parts where they skewered celebrity culture. My favourite: the “Annual Slalom for Bosnia” charity event.

.:.

The religious right is whipping the TV industry like a rented mule. Beating it like a red-headed stepchild. Smacking it like it stole something. NBC has agreed not to show Madonna singing a song from atop a cross during her TV special, airing next month.

.:.

From tederick we find this story about a woman who experienced the feeling of lightning shooting out her ass. Zowie! Is there anything Croatians can’t do?

By the way, kudos to tederick for the use of a post-carbonite-Han quote. Don’t try that at home, kids.

[tags]world press photo, condo, quail and firkin, all the best, stardom, nbc, madonna, tederick, ass lightning, han, carbonite[/tags]

Hugh sets a trap

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

gapingvoid.com

This cartoon from Hugh MacLeod over at gapingvoid.com has generated lots of commentary. It was a nicely executed little bit of wit from Hugh; I suspect his point was less about the existence of god(s) and more about how some people — atheists or theists — will wig out when their beliefs are challenged. Some of the comments are quite insightful, some are specious, but it’s an interesting conversation no matter which side of the fence you’re on.

I like that fucking Black Darjeeling

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Ah, Deadwood. If it doesn’t have the best one-liners ever, I don’t know what does. Another favourite: “He likes to berate the gimp mornings.”

.:.

Scarlett Johansson, avec Dita Von Teese (Marilyn Manson’s wife) poses for some S&M photos. You’re welcome. [via Buddha Canvas]

.:.

Speaking of Scarlett, she’s recording a Tom Waits cover album. That should…wait, what?

.:.

Shoot. The Catholic bishops have wandered into the lawmaking again. Where’s my broom?

.:.

Lunenberg might be getting a strip club. Question: would it be part of the UNESCO site?

.:.

What a coincidence that a 10,000-year-old meteorite should be dug out of the ground in Kansas. No doubt they’ll have trouble convincing some of the locals who think the earth is younger than that.

.:.

Still on the topic of idiots, a garbage disposal manufacturer is suing NBC because of a scene in last week’s Heroes depicting an indestructible girl’s hand getting mangled (and then healing, natch) when she sticks her hand in one of their products. Of course, you couldn’t really read the brand name. And even the simplest of the simple would know that sticking your hand in an operating garbage disposal would cause it harm. But yeah, sue those fuckers. Twice.

.:.

More idiots: George W. Bush and the Congress he rode in on. The bill he’s just signed into law means that anyone suspected of terrorism isn’t guilty until proven innocent, they’re in purgatory. You know it’s gotta be a peach when the executive director of the ACLU calls it “one of the worst civil-liberties measures ever enacted in American history.”

.:.

The recording industry has launched 8,000 more file-sharing lawsuits. Now where’s my buggy whip?

.:.

OK, back to the Catholic bishops: some of the quotes from Winnipeg Archbishop James Weisgerber are just knee-slappers. Gob-smackers, even. Check it:

“As leaders, we are guardians of long traditions of wisdom”

Really? ‘Cause I was 17 when your church admitted you were wrong about the whole “We condemned Galileo ’cause he said the earth revolves around the sun” thing. Also, as I pointed out to someone recently, you still officially have it on the books that communion wafers become the body of Christ somewhere between the beak and the gizzard. You may not really admit it in public anymore, but…yeah. No need to go on, but you’ll pardon me if your promised knowledge of “long traditions of wisdom” don’t set me all a-twitter.

“People don’t really have a sense of personal sin or reflection. We are becoming a more selfish and hedonistic society.”

Catholicism (or any other religion) does not equal morality. In some cases it’s quite the opposite. Anyway, that’s the same tune that church officials have been whistling for centuries and we’ve somehow managed to avoid Armageddon.

[On the issue of gay marriage] “We really need in Canada to support families.”

Now you’re pissing me off, padre. Once again, let me help you with the math: marriage != straight-and-child-bearing-only club. Besides, if you let gay people get married, wouldn’t that just create more family units? Or would you just like Canada to support a certain type of family?

.:.

I find this whole religion thing difficult. About 80% of Canadians practice some kind of religion, including many of my family and friends and other people I respect. I couldn’t care less if they’re religious, or about the particulars of what they believe. But when religious people try to impose their beliefs on the public, and especially on the law, I get annoyed. I hope some of them do as well.

.:.

By the way, sorry for the brain dump; I was sick yesterday and this stuff just built up. OK, off to eat and watch some Friday Night Lights.
[tags]deadwood, scarlett johansson, tom waits, catholic bishops, gay marriage, lunenberg, garbage disposal, heroes, nbc, dubya, file-sharing, buggy whip[/tags]

"What's wrong with being elitist, if you are trying to encourage people to join the elite rather than being exclusive?"

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Today has been a slotttthhhhhhhful day. It was nice to sleep in this morning after a late night out with CBGB, and we’ve barely gotten off our asses all day. No trips to plan, no festivals to attend, no pictures to sort & upload, no textbook to read, etc. Good thing, too, ’cause it’s friggin’ freezing outside.

.:.

Yesterday’s Salon featured an interview with Richard Dawkins, who I wrote about here.

It’s interesting that you link those two words — intelligent and atheistic. Are you saying the more intelligent you are, the more likely you are to be an atheist?

There’s a fair bit of evidence in favor of that equation, yes.

Word.

[tags]richard dawkins, atheism[/tags]

A non-Rockies post

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Let’s see, what happened while we were gone and ignoring the news (apart from the obvious like the whole Foley-page thing and the continuing deaths of Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan)?

  • Nova Scotia seems to have quietly taken the Sunday shopping ban out behind the barn and shot it. Good for them; they can sit at the grown-up table with the rest of us now. Seriously, though, I’m glad; one day we’d like to move back there and we couldn’t do it while that ridiculous ban was in place. I couldn’t abide the idea of a selectively-applied religious Christian tradition telling me when and how I could spend money. When I lost some luggage before a friend’s wedding I couldn’t buy a replacement shirt and tie, but I could’ve gone to the casino or bought some tacky tourist kitsch on the waterfront. Foolish. Anyway, congratulations to NS for embracing change. Love the windmills, kids. Don’t throw your shoes at them.
  • If you need further proof that the Bush administration is batshit insane, look no further than the fact that Stephen Baldwin is a cultural advisor to the president.
  • The sting of the Canadiens blowing a 2-goal lead to the Sabres on Friday night, including allowing the tying goal with 15 seconds left, was soothed with a shootout win over the Leafs on Saturday.
  • Vinnie Vincent, brief guitarist for Kiss (just at the end of the makeup era) has been denied royalties to the one album he (officially) played on: Lick It Up. You know you’re in bad shape when you’re asking for royalties from a 25-year-old album that’s considered poor even by Kiss’ standards…

[tags]sunday shopping, stephen baldwin, canadiens, sabres, leafs, vinnie vincent, kiss[/tags]

Jesus is magic and the root of all evil

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I watched two very different things this weekend. The most recent was Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic (imdb | rotten tomatoes), which I was a little disappointed by. Sarah Silverman is obviously very talented and funny and (at times) hot, but there were precious few times that I laughed. Some bits were so profane that she managed to get that slightly uneasy chuckle out of me, but that was about it. The best part of the DVD was the five-minute clip of her in The Aristocrats; everything else just seemed a little too contrived in its fearlessness.

.:.

The other film I watched was a documentary on CBC Newsworld’s new series The Big Picture, where Avi Lewis watches a documentary with a bunch of people and then they all discuss it. Sounds boring, I know, but the topic this past week was Richard Dawkins’ documentary The Root Of All Evil: The God Delusion. A lot of the crowd — made up of regular folks but also “experts” like ministers, imams, professors, etc. — didn’t like the way Dawkins went about making his point, but most of the people either agreed in the end or made arguments so illogical that one could barely argue with them. One example from a minister and politician: “I think God is love; would you deny that love exists?” Well, I could declare that god is buttered popcorn; that doesn’t really prove much. But the real low point of the evening was surely Charles McVety, president of the Canada Christian College. Even the clergy were turning on him by the end. The whole thing plays again this evening on Newsworld if you’re interested, or you can view the debate online and witness the migrainish hilarity firsthand.

This coming Wednesday the topic is a Sir David Attenborough documentary about global warming. Should be a good one.

.:.

Actually, I guess I watched a third thing this weekend: Jericho, the new CBS show about a small Colorado town that’s plunged into darkness, fear and uncertainty when a mushroom cloud appears on the horizon, roundabouts where Denver should be. By the end of the first episode they also learn that [spoiler alert] a bomb’s gone off in Atlanta, and that a small child can make a remarkably neat trach tube from a handful of pens and a rubber band in a matter of seconds. Anyway, it’s an interesting enough premise, but the show was prone to hammy acting, predictable scenarios (prodigal sons, lost loves, overturned prison buses, etc.) and speech-making that just bogged it down. I’ll probably give it another week or two, but it’s on a short leash.

[tags]sarah silverman, jesus is magic, cbc newsworld, the big picture, richard dawkins, religion, root of all evil, god delusion, charles mcvety, david attenborough, global warming, jericho[/tags]

The round mound of expound

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

I really, really, really hope we get to see this one. It’s premiering at the film festival.

.:.

I liked Charles Barkley as a player, but I don’t like him all that much as an analyst. I do, however, like him as a political commentator.

Charles Barkley was his usual outspoken self during a recent television interview in which he said, among other things, that he advocates gay marriage, believes Republicans have screwed up the country and is “struggling with my idea of what religion is.”

[tags]death of a president, d.o.a.p., charles barkley, tiff, toronto international film festival[/tags]

A biiiiiiiiiiiig cut

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

Politicians often say stupid things. This is news to precisely no one. Some politicians occasionally say very stupid things, the sort late-night talk show hosts make fun of for a few days. Once in a while a politician will say something stupid and offensive, in which case they often resign.

Once in a while, though, a politician will say not one, but several things so profoundly stupid that you skip right over mockery and go straight to pity and bewilderment. Witness the latest: Katherine Harris, who can’t even get Florida Republicans to back her (even after she helped pilfer the 2000 election). She had this to say:

  • Separation of church and state is “a lie we have been told”;
  • Separation of church and state [is] “wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers.”;
  • “If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin”;

Zowie! Well…it’s obvious she’s trying to a) generate some publicity through controversy, and b) guarantee herself at least the wingnut vote which, in Florida, is not inconsequential. It can’t go anywhere, though; even Florida conservatives won’t go down those roads. She’s down 16-0 in the bottom of the ninth, and she just wants to put one run on the board so she doesn’t get shut out. This is what’s known as “swinging for the fences.”

What might bug me the most is that the immediate reaction was one of “that’s not fair to Jews.” And it wasn’t, certainly, but it’s a little bigger than that, don’t you think? I mean, had she said, “If you’re not electing Christians or Jews, then in essence you are going to legislate sin,” would that have been ok?

All quotes from CNN.

.:.

It looks like the Chuck Palahniuk novel Choke is coming to the big screen after all. I’ll be curious to see how much they tone it down.

[tags]katherine harris, wingnut, chuck palahniuk, choke adapted for big screen[/tags]

Deepak Chopra: even goofier than the Christians.

Dan DickinsonLeave a comment

There was a very good interview with Michael Shermer yesterday in Salon called The Joys Of Life Without God. He has a very reasonable approach to his atheism (by which I mean he’s not a “militant” atheist who’s as intent on bending religious followers to his will as they are his). His arguments are nothing we haven’t heard before, but he has a great way of putting them:

“When you study world religions, it’s obvious that, throughout time, all of these different people are making up their own stories about God. If you lived 1,000 years ago, hardly anybody would be a Christian. If you were born in India, you’d likely be a Hindu. What does that tell you? From a Christian perspective, it means we need to get more missionaries over there to tell them the truth! From an anthropological perspective, it’s another case. Christians today might say, I don’t believe in Zeus, that was a silly superstition. Yet for many people that was a real god. So it turns out there are 10,000 gods and yet only one right one. That means we’re all atheists on 9,999 gods. The only difference between me and the believers is I’m an atheist on one more god.”

He also touches on an issue that’s always kind of bugged me. Typically I hear people describe agnosticism as the belief in some sort of higher power, but you’re not sure what it is. I never bought that; to me — and I think to Shermer — it’s the idea that, if you think scientifically, whether or not there’s a God is completely irrelevant.

.:.

This is how occupied I am with this damned paper: I haven’t even watched the videos Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant did for Microsoft. I at least managed to get a quick walk in after work today, dashing over to Whole Foods to pick up some lunch for tomorrow.

OK, off to do four hours of writing.

[tags]religion, atheism, michael shermer, ricky gervais, microsoft training video[/tags]