This morning I walked with my wife and our dogs to look at my wife’s new allotment.  It will take a lot of hard work to get things growing there!  We will have to do all the digging, planting and watering (there is no nearby tap for dry spells so we will have to be creative or lug vast amounts water there.)  There will be sun and some rain but I am not relying on anything supernatural to help me.

I then sorted out a few things for my kids.  Having children was a lifestyle choice and I…

It is beyond my ken that anyone can seriously argue that there is a modern scientific basis to the bible or any of the other religious texts that are at least hundreds of years old.  I can appreciate those tomes as sources for social history, as guides to anthropological development or steps to a modern moral framework.

Although I have no faith I can grasp that the religious can cherry-pick stories for as virtuous examples or they can treat the texts as allegorical.  They can even try…

From me (the wisher) to you (hereinafter called the wishee). Please accept without obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, politically correct, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the  bogus religious persuasion of your choice, or preferably secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions…

Being British I am always stunned by the extent of religious influence among our immature cousins over the pond.  (I am also stunned when soccer is used to describe football but needs must.)

I am particularly shocked by the image given of the reach of the church in communities and of the fact that non-believers hide their atheism and have to encouraged to come out of the vestry.  Even in provincial England the churches have only a marginal influence on communities and certainly don’t…