Jul
31
2013
All history is untrue and the more it tries to find out ’what actually happened’ the more untrue it is. Compare the account that you might have been given of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia in the history tripos at...
Jul
30
2013
A few ideas about original sin. Original sin is what it says it is, it’s to do with origins. What are those origins? Science can tell us. We evolved from what was probably a chimpanzee like ancestor and split off...
Jul
30
2013
I’m so bored with this tired old stuff about invisible badgers. Dawkins thinks that the God he rejects, not surprisingly, is a being outside being who constructed it. But according to Catholic theology there is no God outside being. ...
Jul
17
2013
A footnote to my blog on indulgences. The Church's doctrine is not like saying if I score a hundred runs my batting average goes up. It is that the merit we gain from every good deed we do goes...
Jul
17
2013
Of course Dawkins is right, it's horrifying that the Vatican is offering twitter indulgences. But perhaps the awfulness of it is softened by the ludicrousness (pity there's isn't a word ludicrosity, well there is now, the ludicrosity of it...
Jul
15
2013
Holland Holland land of bikes and tulipsNear naked harlots behind plate glassBut also Vermeer’s interior calmTree lined canalsTall beautiful womenThe wide toleranceAnd the wonderful light.Where two is always two and a half.The Dutch have made so muchOf their small low...
Jul
15
2013
Re previous entry about ashes tests. Was Headingly 1981 the beginning of the new golden age?
Jul
15
2013
England and Australia have changed places. Now it's England who are ruthless and professional and the Australians the heart-tugging romantics. How Neville Cardus would have loved the Trent Bridge Test. All the drama and heroism and high personal...
Jul
15
2013
Dawkins' assault on theology turns on his unfavourable comparison of theology with science. Theology is a fantasy subject because it lacks rigorous methodology. There is no unprejudiced gathering of data followed by careful examination, and then hypothesis validated by...
Jul
13
2013
In the short term Dawkins is wrong about Broad walking. Not walking is now the default behavour in cricket so Broad wasn't doing anything abnormal and the Australians would certinly have done just the same. No complaints from...