1. Fox News Discussion on 'The Golden Compass'

Comment #85982 by mikehicks55 on November 7, 2007 at 4:56 pm

This kind of thing makes me realise how balanced our reporting is here in the UK. The level of pro-church bias from the Fox guy was unbelievable.

The Beeb may have had their "Heaven & Earth" shows (now cancelled) and "Songs of Praise", but their mainstream news would never be able to get away with such an interview.

The hypocrisy of the priest and interviewer was pretty typical. I especially liked the "Its teaching Atheism to 11 year olds" line.

As a born and bred Catholic, I can vouch for the effectiveness of 16 years of church and school indoctrination; I believed it so much that at one point a career in the priesthood seemed an attractive option. It was only when I stopped going to a Catholic school that I started thinking that things weren't as straightforward as I'd been taught.

In regards to the film, I always regarded the first book as the set up to the second and third acts, and it's not until the final part that the real god/church bashing gets underway.

If they think "The Golden Compass" is trouble, I wonder what god's earthly lobbyists will make of "The Amber Spyglass"?

I also found it odd that Nicole Kidman doesn't see the books as having an anti-Catholic bias; it's not exactly a subtle subtext, is it?

Anyhow, loved the books, loved the plays and hope the films at least get people thinking about the nature of their existence a little more.

2. Bible Belter

Comment #68216 by mikehicks55 on September 6, 2007 at 11:32 am

Interesting that Dawkins & Hitchens hadn't met before....a great meeting of minds that first meeting must have been...

Have to say that having read The God Delusion, Letter to A Christian Nation, and God is Not Great in the last few months, I actually enjoyed Hitchens work the most.

I found his literary style engaging, his arguments sound and his observations both compelling and amusing. His experience of religious opression and intolerance around the globe gave the book an additional dimension over and above TGD.

I'd sum the three books up as follows:

The God Delusion - a scientific guide to atheism

God is not Great - a literary guide to atheism

Letter to a Christian Nation - the Janet & John guide to atheism (accepting that it's intended audience requires it to be a serious "dumbing down"!)

3. The New Atheists loathe religion far too much to plausibly challenge it

Comment #38170 by mikehicks55 on May 7, 2007 at 7:02 am

Ms Bunting seems to believe that Atheists shouldn't be as passionate about their "disbelief" as the religious are about their faiths.

As a former Catholic, I have lost count of the number of times I have been seen ripe for conversion to another denomination, or now, back to Catholicism. I have friends at the moment, members of an evangelical group, who have taken me to their functions and attempted to brainwash me into the "happy clappy Jesus" mentality.

Atheists, by comparison, tend to have a live and let live attitude. I occassionally point out to religious friends apparent follies in their beliefs, but usually only as a rebuttal if I'm asked why I don't believe in God.

I can't believe that free thinkers will ever be as confrontational as many fundamental Christian groups; when was the last time atheists went door to door, or stopped anyone in a busy shopping centre in an attempt to convert any one to their way of thinking?

And as has been said many times, when did anyone carry out an act of terrorism in the name of atheism?

Whilst the "herding cats" metaphor is still as applicable as ever, if nothing else, the recent "publishing pheneomenon" has allowed more people to feel they can stand up and say "I am a cat!"