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Last night I was sat listening to the Muslim prayers – the Salah on television, and it struck me how really quite poetic they are. It reminded me of a time I walked into the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool and heard a choir rehearsing parts of Mozart’s Requiem, which was extremely haunting especially with the choir out of site. I stood and listened for what felt an age.

I’m not religious, I am seriously not religious – I have loathed organised religion since I was capable of free thought. I can’t stand the notion of faith in a higher being, I can’t stand the way it is used to control people, and I really can’t stand that its followers actually believe that I’m the stupid one. But hell, I can give as good as I get on that score. However, I have to admit that the various religions have given the world some things of real beauty in terms of architecture, art, poetry and music. It’s a pity they couldn’t have done the same for society. Continue Reading »

A review of the bible on Amazon! Classic stuff…

Predictable plot, but surprise ending, November 18, 2007

This seems to be one of those books people seem to either love or hate. But first with the good points. Impatient readers will be happy to see that the plot gets off with a bang: within the first few pages the apple has been eaten and evil is let into the world. We watch as the two main characters Adam and Eve have children and struggle with domestic violence, commencing in the murder of their son Abel by their other son Cain. However, God, a character with the power of omniscience, quickly discerns the culprit, ruining what could have been a great detective story. The first portion of the book, called the Old Testament, relies heavily on constantly shifting alliances between God and the human characters and intense action sequences to hold the reader’s attention. We see two cities get wiped off the map and even a global flood, as well as some epic but quickly glossed over battle sequences. Continue Reading »

I. Laying Plans

1. Sun Tzu said: The art of war is of vital importance to the State.

2. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to
ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be
neglected.

3. The art of war, then, is governed by five constant factors, to
be taken into account in one’s deliberations, when seeking to determine
the conditions obtaining in the field. Continue Reading »

I’ve just finished reading this book. And very enjoyable it was too. Anyone who knows me will know I’ve always been an atheist so will not be surprised in my reading matter. The truth is that this book covers pretty much everything I’ve ever said about religion. It’s ‘my’ argument! Continue Reading »

If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?

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“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going directly to Heaven, we were all going the other way.”

About a Tale of Two Cities

“Every victim was a culprit, every culprit a victim, and somebody had to stand up sometime to break the busy chain of inherited habit that was imperiling them all.”

Joseph Heller – Catch 22

About Catch 22