Back from the Alps!!!

Yoopsies doodles, folksies and blokesies!!!!

Like a bear in winter, I've been hybernating or at least my blog has. In early September, I spent some time in the Alps. The views were stunning and everyone spoke German but the hotel I stayed in that had a lovely view of the mountains was very British. It's even got a very British name. It's called Victoria Jungfrau. I'm sure it's named after Queen Victoria. Here's a pic:

CRIME AGAINST THE BEAMISHBOY

PARADISE LOST

Last Thursday, the beamishboy went biking as usual. Nothing in the air whispered of a tragedy that was about to happen. The beamishboy felt a need for a drink for it was a hot afternoon. He stopped his bike by the roadside, locked his bike to a railing on the pavement and dashed into a supermarket to buy a bottle of Coke. Having fortified himself with a swig from the Coke bottle, he dashed back to his bike and what greeted him was any biker's nightmare. His bike was gone!!! And so was the lock.


PARADISE REGAINED

Yoopsies doodles, toads and poodles!!! Heaven really exists!!!!

Yesterday, the beamishboy bought a new bike. This is the coolest bike that's ever been made by any bike company. It's got all the lovely parts and a set of charming hydraulic disc brakes. My previous bike didn't have hydraulic disc brakes.

The beamishboy has vowed NEVER to leave his bike unattended even for a few seconds. If he has to go anywhere that he can't have the bike with him ALL THE TIME, he won't take the bike out and will just travel on the tube.

Belief in God

Do I believe in God?
Well yes, I suppose, in a sort of way;
It's really terribly hard to say.
I'm sure there must be, of course,
Some kind of vital, motive force,
Some power that holds the winning cards
Behind life's ambiguous facades,
But whether you think me odd or not
I can't decide if it's God or not.

I look at the changing sea and sky
And try to picture eternity;
I gaze at immensities of blue
And say to myself "It can't be true
That somewhere up in that abstract sphere
Are all the people that once were here,
Attired in white and shapeless gowns
Sitting on clouds like eiderdowns

Plucking on harps and twanging lutes
With cherubim in their birthday suits,
Set in an ageless, timeless dream
Part of a formulated scheme
Formulated before the Flood
Before the amoeba left the mud
And, stranded upon a rocky shelf
Proceeded to subdivide itself."

I look at the changing sea and sky
And try to picture infinity;
I gaze at a multitude of stars
Envisaging the men on Mars,
Wondering if they too are torn
Between their sunset and their dawn
By dreadful night-engendered fears
Of what may lie beyond their years
And if they too, through thick and thin,
Are dogged by consciousness of Sin.

Have they, to give them self-reliance,
A form of Martian Christian Science?
Or do they live in constant hope
Of dispensations from some Pope?
Are they pursued from womb to tomb
By hideous prophesies of doom?
Have they cathedral, church or chapel?
Are they concerned with Adam's Apple?
Have they immortal souls like us
Or are they - less presumptuous?

The Creed of Beamishboyism

The Story of God in a Nutshell

God exists outside of time and space. He is the originator of the universe. He originated the universe about 14 billion years ago. Many planets that could support life appeared but I will focus only on our planet because I'm anthropocentric (which sounds better than egocentric, hehe).

God is bound by the laws of physics and he is NOT almighty. He is limited by physics laws which are the laws of the universe.

In a sense, he created the earth because he probably originated the Big Bang. But once the Big Bang took place, everything became set in motion and everything that followed, took its course quite naturally. The earth soon cooled down after it was formed 4.5 billion years ago. As we know today, crystals can form naturally and on earth, there happened to be carbon and hydrogen in abundance. Just as crystals would bond to form the crystals we can see, so did the carbon molecules bond. With the aid of natural lightning, the first formation of what we later term "life" was nothing more than the affinity between molecules that is no different from the natural bonding of crystals. Unicellular organisms began to thrive. One organism ingests another in a most natural process of chemical reaction.

Thus began the "life" of our first ancestor. In a sense, because God originated the Big Bang, he "created" life on earth.

We moved along from unicellular organisms to worms to marine creatures to piakia (spelling uncertain but that is the ancestor of all vertebrates) which dwelt in the sea to the first animal that left the sea (a bit like mudskippers today) to reptiles to the mammalian reptiles that swarmed the earth just before (and possibly even after) the Permian-Triassic Extinction 250 million years ago, ultimately to primates. About 8 million years ago, we split from the gorillas and about 5 or 6 million years ago, so our genetic record tells us, we parted ways with the chimpanzees and we developed and evolved differently.

As it was the case with most evolutionary divergences, it could very well be that a river separated our common ancestors with the chimpanzee into two groups and over hundreds of thousands of years, we evolved into humans and they into modern-day chimps. About 500,000 years ago, we split again from the Neanderthals and they evolved in their own way. They probably became quite intelligent too because they had an even bigger brain than ours. They made the flute about 50,000 years ago whereas the earliest musical instrument (also a flute) found among us was about 30,000 years old in a Cro-Magnon settlement. But they became extinct about 30,000 years ago. It is possible that we viewed them as rivals and exterminated them. It's not the first time we exterminated a whole species.

Where does God come in? God saw that the hominids had grown intelligence and could communicate through language. There were times when he, out of compassion, tried to intervene in human affairs. But God had his limits and he couldn't do much. Our evolutionary paths continued unhindered. Sometimes, God did help us but at times he only served to create misunderstanding among the early hominids which created unnecessary trouble. God realised it was best that he didn't interfere too much, given the fact that he had very limited powers.

Did God communicated with the Neanderthals? Possibly. High concentrations of pollen were found in Neanderthal graves which suggest that they had some form of funeral rites that made use of flowers. We still sprinkle flowers in graves!!! It's likely that they also had some form of religious beliefs.

People ask why God didn't save the 6 million Jews from the evil Nazis or the hundreds of thousands of Chinese from the evil Japs. There is only one answer. He was powerless. He couldn't save the Neanderthals either, could he?

Christians have tried to have it both ways. They make God Almighty AND loving and compassionate. Sorry folksies, you can't have it both ways. If he were almighty, he'd be a nasty little bugger.

Because God communicated with hominids such as ourselves and the extinct Neanderthals, only we are capable of having this concept of God. But we all make God to be what he isn't. The Judeo-Christian religion makes him out to be Almighty, omnipresent, omniscient and omni-everything. But no siree, he isn't. We collected a stack of ancient books and we say it's his Word but sorry folksies, it's not. The ancient Jews, like all ancient people, were a violent lot. Like any nomadic tribe (think of Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan of the Monggols), they would attack cities and kill everyone including children. Naturally, the Jews would say in their holy books that God commanded them to kill. But poor God could do nothing to correct the slur on his name.

But all was not lost for God. He decided to make an appearance among men. He became incarnate and was born Jesus. Jesus taught the Jews how wrong their ancient books were. He'd say, your law says this but I say this. He didn't say "my law". While the OT tells us that God commanded the killing of a man for picking up sticks on the Sabbath, Jesus and his disciples WILFULLY did many things on the Sabbath and when confronted, did he repent? No siree!!! He said rather "The Sabbath was made for men and not men for the Sabbath". Would a God who says that sort of thing order the murder of a man for picking up sticks on the Sabbath??? Certainly NOT.

The law talks of killing a person caught in adultery. What did Jesus say when they were about to stone an adulteress? Did he say, "Obey the law"? Of course not. He effectively stopped them from murdering the woman and he set her free. Did Christ disobey God's law? Of course not. That wasn't God's law. Some people say Christ could forgive and not flout the law. RUBBISH!!!! Read the law. There was no proviso for forgiveness. There was no exception. An adulteress MUST be executed.

Anyway, God continues to be misunderstood today. Churches reinterpret everything and they bark up the wrong tree and try to read in the Bible some special message from God and they wrongly accept the Bible in its entirety as God's word.

The Christian's Fire Escape No. 1

The interesting thing about the internet is that people don't measure you according to your age. Right now, I have an email exchange with a very famous architect who's very old (he's about 55 or 56) who is extremely knowledgeable in religion. He's a devout Christian who actually does not accept evolution. He's really an old man and not a student pretending to be an old man - he's featured in top magazines on his field of work.

He does not agree with the beamishboy on religion and on God. I've examined his arguments and I've noticed a common thread that runs through the arguments of ALL Christians. One would have thought the beamishboy would be reluctant to debate with intelligent old men on religion but I think I've won not because I'm clever but because my beliefs are correct. I've got right on my side.

I have decided to group together what I call the Christian's Fire Escape. When a fundamentalist Christian is confronted with an argument that will shatter his beliefs, his usual response is "Yoopsies doodles, toads and poodles! I'm off to my Fire Escape!!!"

Fire Escape No. 1 is one which this highly intelligent architect uses. To be fair to him, he's only used it in one line of his email but I think it's quite common in Christian circles to use this. I feel obliged to show up its flaw.

FIRE ESCAPE NO. 1 - THE AUTOMATON ARGUMENT

There are a few charges that we can lay at God's door. One, if the Christian religion is so blooming true and all non-believers would perish, why doesn't God make it clear and in unequivocal terms that the triune God is the only true one? The charge can come in various forms. In my email communication with the architect, I explained that I've been studying the human genome and one appalling story I've read is that of Huntington's Disease that is caused by Chromosome No. 4. In the US, people with this horrible genetic disease descend from two brothers who emigrated to the US in the 1600s. Some of the descendants of these two brothers were burnt as witches in Salem.

I stated that these Christians at Salem were honest, sincere believers who wanted to do the will of God. They loved Jesus and studied the Bible and really wanted to do what was right in the eyes of God. The Old Testament says that witches are to be put to death. They killed sufferers of Huntington's Disease in the name of Jesus and out of obedience to what they sincerely believed was God's holy will.

If someone loves me and is going to kill a Huntington sufferer for my sake and out of a misunderstanding that I want that chap killed, there would be no expense that I would spare to ensure that his misunderstanding is corrected. And I'm not even almighty. God, by failing to do this and many other similar things that I'm sure you can think of, must be guilty of the most heinous crime that only the ultimate evil beast can possibly be guilty of.

My correspondent defends God in this manner. God is not responsible for the evil state of human nature. He can't go round eradicating our evil nature and turn us into "mindless robots happy to do His will".

This is the famous Automaton argument. It's a very common argument that every Christian from childhood onwards is taught to resort to when occasion demands it. As in all Christian arguments, this is applicable in a variety of ways. Christian arguments are usually not very precise. They are nebulous and hazy and this is important because just a few arguments are usually recycled and used for a huge variety of problems.

The biggest flaw in this argument is of course the fact that correcting the Salem Christians' misunderstanding is not turning them into automatons. Similarly, making it absolutely clear to people that only a particular religion is true is not turning them into mindless robots. Rather the converse is cruel and unfair especially if not making it absolutely clear to everyone will result in hell fire for unbelievers.

How can anyone love God?

The other day, my aunt who is a fundamentalist, asked me if I loved God. Wow!!! Love God??? Let's see, how does one begin to love God? Can one love something that one has never seen or heard or touched or felt or tasted or smelt? I love the taste of steak and kidney pie (especially if it's got a lot of gravy on it) and I love the smell of fried salmon but God is different. He's hidden himself so well that to demand love from anyone would be unjust and wrong.

Jesus compares God to our earthly fathers.  But our earthly fathers are infinitely more responsible and fatherly than God.  If there really is a God, it'd be very bold and shamelessly presumptuous of him to demand love.  He is worse than an absentee father who despite his almighty powers, have concealed himself from his "child" .  God gives his child 5 senses and ensures that he can't with these senses perceive God's existence at all.  The poor child gathers a motley collection of ancient books and takes it to be God's word only to find the collection of books filled with errors and violence expected of any ancient literature.  Yet the poor child soldiers on and bravely defends his pitiful collection of books as God's word, excusing God and defending him at every turn.  God is better off non-existent.

It's hypocritical of anyone to say he loves God. It's impossible to do so, if you really think about it. What I love is the CONCEPT of God. I like the IDEA of him. But I most certainly don't love him any more than I love a green unicorn. Perhaps I love a green unicorn more because I can at least imagine what it looks like.

Get thee behind me, God.

HOMILY FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY BEFORE HOLY ATHEISTS' DAY

MEDITATION FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY BEFORE HOLY ATHEISTS' DAY

I have again been invited by His Diabolical Grace, the Archbishop of the Holy Atheistic See of Babylon to give a further exhortation on the first Sunday before the Holy Atheists' Day of 1st April. I have written an short excerpt of my sermon which you, my gentle readers, are privileged to read:

"Your Diabolical Grace, prelates and priests of the Atheistic Church and to all atheists: I bring you greetings from God's Holy Church. We congratulate you on the celebrations of your holy day.

My Lord Jesus Christ when He was on earth did say that he would separate people into two groups - one on his right and one on his left. To the group on his right he will say to them that they have helped the poor, fed the hungry, visited the sick and imprisoned and He will say to them that what they have done to the least of human beings, they have done it to Him. And He welcomed them into His kingdom. You already know the rest of the story and what He obviously will say to the group on His left.

What is significant, my dear friends is that JESUS DID NOT MENTION A WORD ABOUT THEIR BELIEFS. He did not welcome the group on his right as people who BELIEVED in a particular dogma.

So, who are these people on his right who are welcomed by Jesus? They presumably would include people today who go to my church and other churches. They presumably should include people who go to other places of worship and presumably, they should include people who don't worship at all because they don't believe in the existence of God.

We may be separated here on earth. My holy days are Christmas and Easter and yours is celebrated on 1st April. But not all of us will be separated in the life to come even for those of you who do not believe in the afterlife.

Who are the people to the left of Jesus. They may be some of you and they may be some of my church folks too. All I know is my Lord separated them because of what they HAVE DONE and NOT WHAT THEY HAVE BELIEVED IN.

That is the crux of the matter and although on earth, we simply love divisions and we love to quarrel, the reality is we have divided people according to the WRONG CRITERIA that God Himself does not employ.

Your own Archbishop, His Diabolical Grace, is a man of great compassion and love. There is no doubt in my mind that he will be standing on that great day to the right of Jesus and he will be welcomed into the arms of Jesus together with many others of diverse faiths and no faith while multitudes of people of diverse faiths and no faith will be rejected by Christ.

I have enjoyed a tour of your lovely Hanging Garden of Babylon but I had to turn down your offer of carnal pleasures which are forbidden in my system of belief. I wish you great joy on your holy day.

Let us sing the atheistic Gloria Patri:

"Glory be to Emptiness and to Nothing and to the Holy Vacuum. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shalt be. World with an end, Amen, Amen."

HOMILY FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY BEFORE HOLY ATHEISTS' DAY

MEDITATION FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY BEFORE HOLY ATHEISTS' DAY

The Bible tells us that the fool says there is no God. The Bible is indisputably the greatest book on this planet. It is a bestseller like no other bestsellers. At any second of the day for the past 2000 years, no other book can come even close to its heels in sales.

Because of the supremacy of Scriptures, it has been said unfficially that 1st April is Holy Atheists' Day. It's a day for the telling of silly jokes, the playing of foolish pranks and a day to commemorate one's disbelief in God. It's a day for godlessness, un-Christian pranks and boundless folly - unchecked, unadulterated, undiluted FOLLY.

But do atheists deserve this description?

I have been invited by His Diabolical Grace, the Archbishop of the Holy Atheistic See of Babylon to give the homily tomorrow, the Second Sunday before the Holy Atheists' Day. I've prepared my exhortation and you, my dear folksies and blokesies, will get to read it in its entirety. Here goes:

"Thank you, Your Diabolical Grace, for the invitation to the Holy See of Babylon. I have been very much welcomed by Your Diabolical Grace and your flock of goats and although I was obliged to refuse your offer of carnal delights, I am touched by your hospitality.

I was recently very much annoyed by a horde of atheists in an atheistic forum which I have left. They admitted being very much wounded by my arguments and because they desperately needed succour, they sought the help of the moderators of the forum who decided to silence me. I was told that any mention of "God", "the Lord" or any mention of God's attributes would be deemed "preaching" and was a forum rules violation. Atheists are permitted to denigrate God but if a Christian so much as mentions God's name even in argument, he is guilty of "preaching". At the same time, I was told I was very much welcome to debate with atheists, as reason and logic were important to them!

Are all atheists cowards? Are all atheists so terrified of the name of God that they have to formulate rules to outlaw His name from being mentioned except in a way that is agreeable to atheistic ears? Are all atheists in trepidation every time a Christian seeks to debate with them? Do all atheists shake like a leaf when they engage a Christian in argument?

I am happy to say, my dear atheistic brothers that not all atheists are that yellow-bellied. His Diabolical Grace and I are the best of friends and although our two religions can never agree, he and I continue to argue and debate with fire and truth.

What are the faults of atheists? I will not say sin because that's the nomenclature of my religion. The faults of atheists are no different from the faults of Christians. Some atheists think they're brilliant (when they're not). Many people embrace atheism because they think it's the religion of most scientists and so that'd make them appear smart. But a fool does not become smart just because he adopts the religion of some scientists just as a chap does not become a grizzly bear because he eats salmon. I share the same religion with Francis Collins (the No. 1 genetics and genome scientist on this planet), Isaac Newton, Pascal, Alexander Bell, Fleming, Florence Nightingale, Albert Schweitzer and about a billion other scientists, philosophers and writers past and present but do I go round boasting that I believe in the GREATEST religion in the world? Do I tell the world that mine is the religion of the greatest artists, writers, musicians and dancers in the whole world? That the greatest music ever composed is all composed for my God and His Glory. No, I do not boast of these. If I were to boast, there would not be time enough for me to complete boasting if I started now and continued non-stop until I'm 100.

I see there is no singing and no music in this great Church of Atheism. I perfectly understand. Music and choral works are all in glory of God and you, naturally can have no part of it.

And now, let's rise for the benediction. May the blessings of Nought, the Emptiness, Nothing and Holy Vacuum be with you now and forever more. Amen."

YET IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GOD

I have been reading a great deal of Darwinism and evolution these few days and I'm quite entranced by our origin. Although there is no conflict between religion and evolution, I can't help thinking that God must be quite a bungling fool if everything seems to be done by trial and error. Genesis says God saw that whatever he created was good. But the more I understand evolution, the more I see the imperfections of all species. An intelligent Creator wouldn't have created humans the way we have evolved. Evolution makes do with the body that we have and builds on it. If there is a Creator and he employs such a means of "creation", he can't have given much thought to the whole thing. He is either not bothered about his creation or he is a bungling fool or he does not exist.

My mind tells me of course God does not exist. Tonight, I chanced on a shelf containing some of my old song books that I used to sing. The first few books were Bach's cantatas. Next to them, stood a thick volume of Handel's oratorios. It's amazing that I used to be able to sing all these and they're written for soprano voice. And it was not that long ago when I sang them - less than a year ago. I took out my clarinet and played one of Handel's pieces. It was in E major. Drat it! I'd have to mentally transpose it to F#. I played it once through and it was so beautiful I played it again, and again. I could remember every word as I played even though I looked only at the musical notation and not the words. Mozart said that the clarinet was the instrument that was closest to the human voice and he was spot on. It was amazing!!! I played my clarinet and it was really my voice (before it broke) - singing soprano. The words were loud and clear - it was quite surreal. I heard my old voice again and every word uttered distinctly.

Those of you who have sung oratorios will know that lines are often repeated many times. I used to think the repetitions of lines that were so common in Baroque and Classical singing were meant to fill up the space for the music.
When I played the line "And though worms destroy this body, Yet in my flesh shall I see God / Yet in my flesh shall I see God", I just knew I was in communion with God. The scales fell from my eyes when I sang it with my clarinet. The first "Yet in my flesh shall I see God" is intended to sound doubtful and tentative. When it is repeated, it becomes definite and emphatic. That's precisely it!!! We are always assailed and buffeted by doubts but Handel through his music is telling us in an emphatic voice "YET IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GOD".

I felt I had communed with God and all I had with me were my clarinet, the music stand and Handel's score. Those were all I needed to hear the voice of God and to chase away the clouds of doubt. I have lost my voice for good. I will never sing soprano again - and thank God for that!!! But my voice will always remain in my clarinet even when I'm 100 years old.

I always find Handel more meningful than Bach and the other composers, possibly because Handel wrote in English and it's easier to understand him. When I was in Dresden last December, I heard Handel sung in German. The Germans wanted to claim Handel as their own, but I think they're wrong. Handel loved England and he became English and wrote all his oratorios in English and wrote pieces for the English King. He lived, worked, died and was buried in England.

Whenever I feel God to be distant and unreal, I know what to do. Get my clarinet and Handel's music. Yet in my flesh shall I see God.

THE NATURE OF REALITIES

The beamishboy has thought long and hard about life and God. In my earlier blog entry, I spoke with some asperity about the total lack of evidence for God's existence. That is true and I can say nothing to correct that statement.

But does anybody expect evidence for God's existence?

I now have an answer for all this. To understand where God stands, we need to understand the nature of reality. No, I'm wrong; we have to understand the nature of realities. There are as many realities as there are different beliefs.

Most people, particularly atheists, can only think of one form of reality. We shall call this common reality. That Obama is the 44th President of the US is in the realm of common reality. No sane person would dispute that. The facts, as we know them, I mean those that are not disputed are a part of common reality. Whales are mammals, water is made up of hydrogen and oxygen molecules - these are all real.

Most of science falls within common reality. However, some aspects of science remain speculative. For example, the String Theory is not believed by all scientists. Neither is the multi-verse theory for the origin of the universe. All speculative aspects of science are not a part of common reality. They are speculative and once they have been proved to be correct, they enter the realm of common reality. Sometimes, science undergoes some changes. What was THOUGHT to be common reality may be found to be erroneous and it gets booted out. But that does not mean that science is inaccurate.

For most people, there are OTHER REALITIES. I'm not saying that everyone should force himself to believe in other realities. It's just that some people do. Those of us who believe in realities that are not a part of common reality should be honest about this. We should not pretend that it's real to everyone. It's only real to us because we CHOOSE to believe in it.

How many forms of realities are there? There are as many of these realities as there are beliefs in the world. Some beliefs have died but their realities are still there - locked mysteriously in the realm of the supernatural. What about religions that conflict with one another. There's no problem. The different realities are very different indeed. There are different realities within even the same religion.

Can any of these realities (which are not common reality) be proved in any way? Absolutely not. If they can be proved, they would immediately form a part of common reality.

Wouldn't that make religion extremely personal because its reality depends on what individuals believe in? Of course, religion is absolutely personal. Attempts to convert others are definitely wrong. People who try to convert others have mistakenly assumed that their religion comes under common reality and that's plainly wrong.

THE GOD ELUSION

The beamishboy has come to a crossroads. Should I continue to hold on to a belief in God?

The Facts

First, God is highly elusive. So elusive is he that there is absolutely no trace of God anywhere. Like the abominable snowman and the Loch Ness monster, God has left no footprint behind. He has left no evidence, answered no prayer, done no miracle, appeared to nobody and he has made no sound at all. Those who claim that God has answered prayers or has done any of the things I've stated are just not thinking right. We know God cannot heal people beyond what doctors with their current medical knowledge can or beyond what nature's healing powers are capable of doing. God will then muscle himself in and say "I healed you!!! Praise me!!!" but any objective guy can see that that's rubbish. It's the doctors who healed me, you may say. But God will insist that it's because he blessed the hands of the surgeons!!! Oh for crying out loud!!!

The same goes with miracles. They don't happen and those who claim they do are just, again, not thinking right. God closed the mouths of the lions in the Book of Daniel you may say. But we also know that when Christian martyrs together with whole families were thrown into the lions' cage, there was not a single case of God shutting the mouths of the lions. We know that the cruel Romans even went to the extent of throwing infants to the lions so that their mothers would put up a fight with the lions and that would give greater entertainment to the crowds who were watching the feeding of Christians in large amphitheatres. We know there was no record of any miracle either by the Roman historians or the early Church Fathers. If there had been even a hint of a single miracle, you can be sure the Church Fathers would have written volumes about the mercy of God and his wondrous miracles. There was none. The Book of Daniel is at best not independent reporting.

If God answers prayers, in the area of healing alone, there should be clear statistics that Christians generally heal better, live longer and fall sick less. Even if only 10% of prayers on healing are answered, there should be a significant and appreciable difference statistically. Not only is there no evidence for such a favourable position for Christians but the fact is most Christians don't even BELIEVE that they have any advantage however small a percentage over non-believers or people at whom no prayers are directed. And yet they believe in the efficacy of prayer. That's internally contradictory. Now, clearly, they are not thinking right.

Then there is the rubbish about the need for a creator. This idea is so demonstrably primitive. From the earliest childhood, everyone knows that building blocks do not arrange themselves into beautiful castles. There's got to be a designer or maker. It's natural for the human mind to extrapolate. So they say there must be a creator for the Earth, nay, for the whole universe. So they say, "Let there be God" and there was God and men saw that God was good and they blessed Him. After that, they decreed that you can't go behind God. He's after all been defined. He's the ultimate. To go behind him would be illogical and invalid. Yes, there are co-religionists of mine who DARE to use the word "logic" in their religion and I assure you they're so hardened they really don't blush as they say it.

So you start with a decree that God is the ultimate Creator behind whom you cannot go. And you decree that since a watch that I've found while walking on a road must have a creator, everything else must have a Creator except for the first rule ie God is the ultimate and only He has no Creator. God exists by human decree.

I'm only speaking of God in general; not the Christian God in particular. Let's say we now pick my God, the triune God of Christianity. We have to look at the Bible, the source book of my religion.

Anyone who thinks the Bible is inerrant and flawless is clearly not thinking right. For as long as I have been a Christian with consciousness (I'm talking about the time I was too young to consciously understand the faith), I have been cooking up excuses for the obvious errors of the Bible. There are books galore that supply excuses for the sometimes shocking errors of the Bible. They are called "apparent errors" because no devout Christian likes to say that the Bible is full of errors.

Recently, I decided to go into the origin of the Bible. I studied the Canon of Scriptures and my Vicar told me that I should have a good balance and since I was reading books written by liberal Christians, I should balance that with evangelical Christian writers. He knew I could not take fundie nonsense and I could not abide Josh McDowell's write-up on the Canon which is so frightfully inaccurate and skewed and so unscholastic. I can counter that guy any time and expose his errors. So he recommended me a REAL scholar (not an apologetist like McDowell who allows his primary function as an apologetist to cloud the evidence) and he suggested FF Bruce - his book The Canon of Scripture. I also read Bruce Metzger's The Canon of the New Testament.

All fundies should read those books. It's IMPOSSIBLE for anyone who fully understands the Canon of Scriptures to defend inerrancy. There is no magic in the Canon. It's as flawed as you would expect any collection of ancient literature to be.

I also read other books on paleography and serious textual criticism and I found that even if there are no problems with the Canon, there are huge problems with the transmission of the books as well as the origin of the books. Most of these books are anonymous and we don't know if our version is indeed the correct version. For example, Papias said in the 1st century that he HEARD that Matthew wrote a gospel in THE HEBREW TONGUE. He also heard that it'd been translated into Greek by different translators. In the ancient world, that's how copying was done. You read the text and you do your own translation. They didn't have official translators. Papias says Matthew was originally in Hebrew. Scholars have confirmed that - if my memory is right, even Leon Morris has confirmed that or at least he says that is one possibility. Who translated OUR Greek version? Was ours the best translation? What if a madman did it? Nobody knows. Oh but the Spirit of God is supposed to hover over the translation and ensure only truth is printed. But rubbish!! We know that some quotations of Jesus from Matthew could not have been said by Jesus because they were meant to be a pun that could only work in Koine Greek and not Aramaic which was what Jesus spoke. We also know that the many Old Testament prophecies mentioned by Matthew were only prophecies because of a mistranslation of the Hebrew OT into the Greek Septuagint.

The more we know, the less likely it is for the Bible to be accurate and I'm not even talking about it being divine.

What am I to do? The human brain is good at dichotomies which is why we are able to multi-task. I accept that religion is very much an integral part of humanity. It's a bequest to us by our genes which, after aeons of evolution, encoded God in us so that we are hardwired to be religious. There are some uses for God in the survival of the human species. For one thing, it takes away our terror for death. Every gene strives to survive. Every living thing strives for survival. But for the human being, there is a further problem. He understands futurity and he has self-consciousness. He KNOWS he's going to die. He's constantly in a fight-or-flight state and the adrenalin pump into his blood tells him he must act. But he IS going to die, whatever he does. Religion affords an outlet. It gives dignity to him even in death. He accepts that he will trust God with his death and afterlife.

I have decided that it's silly to pretend to have knowledge that God exists. Of course I don't know that God exists. In fact, all knowledge points to his non-existence. In other words, I KNOW God does not exist. But my heart tells me I can depend on God. Tennyson expresses this most beautifully in his poem - I can only remember a bit of it - he hopes that knowledge and heart may make one music. I will let knowledge and my heart make one music in my mind - I know there is no God and yet will I believe in Him and when someone I love dies, I will seek God for comfort. I will not spurn what my genes have bequeathed on me. I accept my humanity and I accept my God.

That's the best way I can express my religion. I will never again seek this elusive God for evidence of his existence because I know he doesn't exist. But my heart will cherish the faith I've inherited from my ancestors.

200th Anniversary of Charles Darwin

The beamishboy is celebrating Darwin's 200th Anniversary. I've borrowed some books from the library on evolution. In the Christian Teen forums that I go to, I notice that most American teenagers do not believe in the truth of evolution. What's become of Americans? What kind of education do they get there?

I just hope that all Christians will put a stop to Creationist lies. I discovered a couple of years ago that they actually circulate FALSE information as facts in order to prove their ridiculous beliefs. I can list some of the lies. But there are Christian websites that are doing this at the moment. They expose the lies of Creationists and they tell the world that you don't have to believe in Creationist lies in order to accept the Christian faith.

Creationists are such an embarrassment to us Christians. I daresay 99% of Creationists live just across the Atlantic. Just what did the Mayflower do to them?

The Hols!!!!!

Yoopsies doodles! Toads and poodles!!!

The hols begin tomorrow. It's the long leave for us but it's not really that long even though it's called "long". It's just a week.

Cheeeeeers!!!!

Accession Dinner

Last night was my first small concert for the year. This was at a dinner to celebrate the Queen's Accession. My House Master and I performed with our clarinets. We played Mendelssohn's Konzertstuck (Op 114) for piano and two clarinets. I had a large stocking placed over my exposed toes and cast so even though I used crutches to go on stage, I didn't look too weird. My Master called it a "noble injury" sustained while playing rugby for the school. I like that!!! We went through all three movements smoothly and without a hitch.

Another calamity befalls the beamishboy

When things go bad, they really do. Not only have I to go round on crutches, but I've caught a bad chill. It's all my fault. There was a lot of snow the other day and some of us decided to burrow through a mountain of snow. I may not walk but I sure can burrow. The House Master was furious with us but there's no rule that students are not permitted to burrow in snow.

But I've caught this horrid cold and it's affecting my rehearsal. It's very hard to practise on my clarinet for that solo performance. Particularly tough is Baermann's quintet, especially the 3rd movement which is allegro and has the tendency of making me breathless. My nose runs and it's pretty disgusting if I don't pause to blow my nose. How can one practise an allegro piece if one can't play an entire phrase without stopping?

My House Master told the Concertmaster that I was "totally and utterly irresponsible". But the Concertmaster was more intrigued that I could burrow through the snow with my right foot in a cast and he even asked me to show him where we did the burrowing but my House Master looked so angry that the Concertmaster was compelled to chide me a little. It was quite funny, I thought.

The worry is I CAN'T PLAY THE CLARINET WITH THIS DREADFUL COLD!!!

My injured foot

I now lie in bed nursing an injured foot. I can get around but on crutches. At the last rugby match against ____, I felt a sharp pain on my right foot during a scrum. I must have twisted my foot or some fat bloke must have stepped on it. Everyone felt that the other team must have sent older boys to the match but we are a sport and won't say anything. The pain made it impossible for me to walk normally and I had to be helped out of the pitch.

There was a clear swelling on my right foot and Coach said it was a broken metatarsal. Sure enough the x-ray pictures confirmed that it was a fractured metatarsal. My foot was wrapped up and immobilised in a cast and I've since been moving around on crutches. My Mum sent a nurse to look after me but I sent her away. I can manage on my own quite well; it's a minor injury that we knights are used to. It's not like I'm dying of cancer or something.

My only worry is I'll look a sight on stage. There's a concert and I'm the solo clarinettist. I'll be playing just a movement of a concerto but an ENTIRE quintet. Baermann's with 3 movements. Someone said I'd be the first person to perform on stage with the toes exposed. He meant performers who play classical music. I'm sure rock stars and dancers have exposed more than their toes!

The Knight of Truth Banished from Atheists' Lair

The beamishboy has been banished.

As some of you know, particularly my classmates to whom I've shown the various posts I have placed in an atheist forum, I went to an atheist site a couple of months ago and I posted in various places a defence of religion.

The tide of opposition against me was phenomenal.

1. Everyone dismissed my arguments rudely and without giving counter arguments.

2. Some went into obscenities when abusing me and my parents were targeted.

3. The moderators started out by telling me that I could not post anything with colours and different fonts. I complied with that.

4. Because I complied with (3) above, the moderators could not do anything against me. Nonetheless they conspired and pulled out all my posts and dumped them in an obscure part of the forum and placed a highly objectionable and obscene word in the title of the thread.

5. The moderators stopped me from posting anywhere or answering the points raised by atheists. Any post of mine would automatically be sent to that obscure part of the forum.

Why did the atheists in the forum do all this?

It should be noted from the start that they knew my arguments were sound and mature. Everyone thought I was a grown-up. They were SURE I was an adult from THE INCISIVENESS AND MATURITY of my posts. They said so themselves. But they didn't want to admit to themselves that atheism was wrong. Since they have already accepted that I was right and had to be silenced, it's either I'm silenced or they have to believe in God. They have to avoid God at all costs. That's the obstinacy of corporate atheism.

They wanted me out because I managed to go for the jugular in the usual theist v atheist argument. They wanted me to argue like a fundamentalist and because I didn't, they insisted I was not a Christian. This was despite having told them that I was an altar boy and a choir boy (until late last year when my voice broke) and recently made thurifer in the Church of England.

I've come to this inescapable conclusion - atheism is very much a religion and atheists need a great deal of faith to continue in their non-belief. They defend atheism fiercely and more violently than any Christian might however fundamentalist he might be. This is because an atheist has no real code of ethics. They are answerable to no higher order and they can be highly abusive and unscrupulous in their battle against Christians and other theists.

Atheists in America are always crying foul murder and always claiming that they are persecuted. I read somewhere that atheists are the least trusted people in America. I used to think that fundamentalists were nasty to atheists from what I've been reading in atheistic circles but I understand better now. Christians have every reason to fear atheists - they will do ANYTHING to get what they want and if they want to protect their flock of atheists from roaming into the dreaded realm of religion, they will do anything to stub out religion.

You see, it's so tough for an atheist to remain an atheist. Their humanity is crying out for a belief in God but they persistently refuse to pay heed to their biological needs. Couple that with the total absence of any code of ethics and morality and you have an android with no conscience and no sense of guilt.

I used to do battle against fundamentalists who don't accept evolution, etc. But as St Paul says, ours is not a battle against flesh and blood. We are up against powers and principalities and these are the bane of atheism.

I am not saying all atheists have an agenda against religion. No, there are many good atheists. A person who genuinely doesn't believe in God can be a good person too. But it's when they decide to follow a group (this can be in an organisation or any group) when they have a clear anti-Christ agenda. That's when they are quite fearsome because they aren't bound by any concept of fairplay or morality. Like an army of ants, they will demolish anything, be it tradition, culture, religion and morality. They are formidable because there is no conscience to restrain them.

May God turn the hearts of atheists so that they can live meaningful lives and be trustworthy and accepted in the community.

EDIT: They even encouraged one another to use my email address in dating sites and gay sites even though they knew I'm underage. But the beamishboy welcomes spam cos I can get rid of them so easily. It takes more time for them to register my email in dating and gay sites. It's hilarious. One of the sites asked me to confirm that the "94" in my email was not my year of birth. I wanted to ask him what he thought it was, my age? Hehe.

THE SCOURGE OF ATHEISTS

Howdy folksies and blokesies!!!!!

I recently went into an atheist forum and I argued so well that I upset a whole lot of atheists so much so that I have been officially branded "THE SCOURGE OF ATHEISTS" by the World Council of Atheists. The Atheistic Archbishop of Babylon has issued a ruling that all atheists should not engage the beamishboy in an argument. I have been declared ANATHEMA by the Atheistic Archbishop.