All history is untrue and the more…

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...

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original sin

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...

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invisible badgers

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. ...

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Footnote to my blog on indulgences

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...

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Of course Dawkins is right, it’s horrifying that…

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...

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A little poem about Holland

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...

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Adding a bit more about ashes tests

Re previous entry about ashes tests.  Was Headingly 1981 the beginning of the new golden age?

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England and Australia have changed…

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...

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Dawkins’ assault on theology turns on…

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...

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Wrong about Broad but the last gent in England

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...

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