Not dead, just resting

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but...

...ohmygod, I totally love Kathy Griffin. Chillax, Christ-lovers. We have to listen to you people sucking up to Jesus all the fucking time. We just want Jesus to suck back, yo.

Blasphemy

Ba's post about Christopher Hitchen's new book God is Not Great reminded me of the Blasphemy Debate at the Hay on Wye Festival 2005. Chaired by Joan Bakewell and inspired by the Incitement to Religious Hatred Bill, which had been announced in the Queen's Speech the previous month.

Click for MP3 (78mins)

It's called a debate but to be more accurate it's a discussion. Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens cover issues of freedom of speech, religious tolerance, multiculturalism and orthodoxy. Fascinating, though-provoking and as you'd expect from two such consummate orators extremely entertaining.

Listening to two secular thinkers discussing blasphemy and issues of religion may be preaching to the choir somewhat, but it's lovely to hear my thoughts on a subject being expressed so much better than I could manage. If you can't manage to listen to it let me leave you with Stephen Fry's rather more economical assessment from an episode of QI

"Religion, I shit it."

He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy

He may not be familiar to our cousins abroad but disgraced former UK spy David Shayler has revealed that he is the Messiah. Previously best known as a former MI5 (British Security Service) officer who was prosecuted under the Official Secrets Act after passing documents to the Mail on Sunday newspaper in August 1997.

Shayler called a news conference to reveal more details.

Mr Shayler said: "I am the last incarnation of the Holy Ghost. As the Holy Spirit is God incarnate as essence, I am God incarnated as spirit and man."

Obviously supplying copy to Mail on Sunday means it's characteristic strident tone rubs off on you Richard Littlejohn Shayler said: "It is absolutely clear to me that the world is going to hell in a handcart.
"Few would dispute that humanity needs a Messiah to get it through these difficult times."

Realising his announcement would lead to questions over his sanity, he conceded: "This is all rather embarrassing for someone who was an atheist technocrat three years ago."

Far be it from me to dwell on the stress and paranoia associated with being a member and subsequent enemy of a covert security service, but I'd imagine it's enough to give the most robust psyche a little twinge.

Having spent time first-hand witnessing a range of mental health issues I've always thought that one of the most ironic things about certain nervous breakdowns is that whilst the subject's perception is that the most singular, amazing one-off thing is happening... the list of people who've been there already is most galling - "Oh you're the messiah? Take a seat, you're number 7 tonight"

Richard Dawkins Reviews GOD IS NOT GREAT by Christopher Hitchens

The next chapter, “Religion Kills”, benefits from Hitchens’s experience as a war correspondent. (Others have likened him to Evelyn Waugh or Graham Greene, but my own comparison is with Waugh’s intrepid rogue Basil Seal, who couldn’t keep out of trouble or away from the world’s trouble spots.) Publicly challenged by an American preacher to admit that, if approached by a gang of men in a dark alley, he would be reassured to learn that they had emerged from a prayer meeting, Hitchens’s return volley was unplayable:


Just to stay within the letter “B”, I have actually had that experience in Belfast, Beirut, Bombay, Belgrade, Bethlehem and Baghdad. In each case I can say absolutely, and can give my reasons, why I would feel immediately threatened if I thought that the group of men approaching me in the dusk were coming from a religious observance.

Goats Die, Hindus Fly

I think Hindus have gotten off too easy on this blog. After all, they don't settle for believing in one god, they believe in lots of gods — and apparently at least one of them likes goats.

Here's what I believe: if I ever go to Kathmandu, I'll be taking the goddamn train.

Jesus Is An Attention Whore

Miracle in Lodi!

When asked what she thinks Jesus symbolizes on the fence, Garcia said she wasn't sure, except that he wants to be seen more.

"He might want peace," she said.

Maybe he just wants someone to get him the fuck out of Lodi.