24. oktober 2003

Our friends the heathens Raven Banner blogger and heathen Dave Haxton often links to this blog, and some of his friends have apparently expressed puzzlement that he links to an evil atheist. He has posted an interesting response. It took me some thought to decipher the term "Asatru", btw, as I had not seen the English spelling earlier. The Norwegian term is "åsatru," from the aesir (Norse deities) and tru meaning belief or faith. I have two immediate comments. First, and vaguely tangential to this article: I think it would be sad if people only link to or read blogs and other material that agrees with their own position. I wasn't an atheist when I was younger, and I suspect Haxton hasn't always been a heathen. Just feeding from those who belongs to "our side", be it the same religious or the same political views, in my opinion hinders intellectual progress. Few things in life are very clear-cut black and white, especially when it comes to murky things like politics, ideology and ethics, and if you can't admit that the "opposition" sometimes makes good points, you are probably more secterian than you should be. Second, and more relevant to Haxton's argument: Yes, my beef is really more with monotheists than religiousity generally. True, I believe in the doctrines of no religion, but I think there are valuable insights in all of them (yes, including Christianity). Yet, it is my strong conviction that the basic teachings of the monotheistic religions are factually wrong. While I am often passionate about facts, I realise that these debates are mostly intellectual in nature. It is not difficult to appreciate the opinions of people I disagree strongly with. More seriously, I oppose the attempts of religionists to force others to abide with their rules. In this part of the world, even in rather secular Norway, Christians fight tooth and nail to force their particular beliefs and moral systems into the laws. Christianity has been a massive obstacle to human rights, it has pushed represseive sexual moralism, it has opposed women's rights, and it still is a serious problem for reproductive rights and gay rights. Many Christians oppose the teaching of evolutionary science, and want to replace it with the myths of an ancient tribal culture, which is just a part of the religionists' opposition to intellectual freedom and science. Islamists and Christian fundamentalists alike oppose secular, liberal democracies and the free exchange of ideas and views. This is idological warfare, unlike the polite debates we can have about metaphysics with the more moderate fractions of Christianity, Islam or most other religions and belief systems.  In the trenches of this hard ideological war, surely secular humanists (non-communist atheists) and heathens belong in the same camp. 9:49:16 PM    comment []  trackback []

Uncomfortable embrace I am not convinced that Kobe Bryant's defence team is all that happy about this support from convicted rapist Mike Tyson. 8:40:28 PM    comment []  trackback []

Norway breastfeeding Here's another of those "Wow! Little Norway mentioned in international press" moments. The New York Times ran a story about the success of breastfeeding campaigns in Norway. While many countries, including the United States and Britain, still struggle to convince ambivalent mothers, Norway and its neighbor Sweden have overwhelmingly succeeded in promoting the benefits of breast milk. Today, more than three decades after bottle feeding peaked in the late 1960's, 99 percent of mothers here nurse their newborns in the hospital. Six months later, 80 percent are still nursing, a rate that compares with 20 percent in Britain and 32 percent in the United States, which are viewed as bottle-feeding cultures. I guess it's an example of state-sponsored peer pressure being used for a good purpose. It really stems from the mentality in the Nordic countries to be very receptive to state propaganda information and, of course, economic incentives. But it's not often that the term "nanny state" is intended to be understood literally. 7:43:08 PM    comment []  trackback []

Sri Lankan president wants to sack head of independent monitors Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga, who has been opposed to the Norway- brokered peace process, recently sent a letter to the Norwegian prime minister asking for the head of the Sri Lanka Ceasefire Monitoring Mission (SLMM), Maj Gen Tryggve Tellefsen, to be removed. Now Sri Lanka's government, held by another party, expresses displeasure with the letter and points out it was written without their knowledge.  Many among Sri Lanka's Sinhalese majority has opposed the peace process with the Tamil minority, and vitrolic attacks on Norway's peace monitors have been part of the propaganda. One of the more amusing popular rumours among the Buddhist Sinhalese is that Norway is in the peace process to convert Sri Lankans to Catholicism (!) and Christianity. Buddhist monks visiting Norway were rather surprised to find Norwegians themselves can't even be bothered going to church, so hopefully that rumour can be shot down. 7:37:47 PM    comment []  trackback []

Google going public The hottest financial and tech news of the day: Google will go public. And the search engine provider is planning to bypass Wall Street altogether and auction stocks online, and it will happen early 2004. Really? Well, maybe. Google is not saying anything. If the rumour was a trial baloon, it looks like it is floating. 5:14:36 PM    comment []  trackback []

Iraqi official says they will not forget Germany, France Ayad Allawi, who is the acting head of the coalition-appointed governing coincil for Iraq, is disappointed that France and Germany will not contribute to rebuilding the country, and makes it known that it will not be forgotten. "As far as Germany and France are concerned, really, this was a regrettable position they had," Allawi said. "I don't think the Iraqis are going to forget easily that in the hour of need, those countries wanted to neglect Iraq." It doesn't help that these countries were Saddam's closest allies in the west, either. 3:40:31 PM    comment []  trackback []

Brrr! Winter coming, and coming fast. For the first time this season, it was -2C (~28F) here tonight. 5:25:42 AM    comment []  trackback []

Passionate lightning Actor Jim Caviezel has been struck by lightning during a shoot for Mel Gibson's controversial film The Passion of Christ (prevuously called Passion). Assistant director Jan Michelini was also hit by the lightning bolt, and it is indeed the second time he has been injured by lightning during the filming! If I was superstitious, I'd take that as a hint. Well, Mel Gibson is superstitious... 3:00:06 AM    comment []  trackback []

More about Mother Theresa Indian secularist Sanal Edamaruku argues that India has no reason to be grateful to Mother Theresa. Mother Teresa has collected many, many millions (some say: billions) of Dollars in the name of India's paupers (and many, many more in the name of paupers in the other "gutters" of the world). Where did all this money go? It is surely not used to improve the lot of those, for whom it was meant. The nuns would hand out some bowls of soup to them and offer shelter and care to some of the sick and suffering. The richest order in the world is not very generous, as it wants to teach them the charm of poverty. "The suffering of the poor is something very beautiful and the world is being very much helped by the nobility of this example of misery and suffering," said Mother Teresa. Do we have to be grateful for this lecture of an eccentric billionaire?   The legend of her Homes for the Dying has moved the world to tears. Reality, however, is scandalous: In the overcrowded and primitive little homes, many patients have to share a bed with others. Though there are many suffering from tuberculosis, AIDS and other highly infectious illnesses, hygiene is no concern. The patients are treated with good words and insufficient (sometimes outdated) medicines, applied with old needles, washed in lukewarm water. One can hear the screams of people having maggots tweezered from their open wounds without pain relief. On principle, strong painkillers are even in hard cases not given. According to Mother Teresa's bizarre philosophy, it is "the most beautiful gift for a person that he can participate in the sufferings of Christ". Once she tried to comfort a screaming sufferer: "You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you!" The man got furious and screamed back: "Then tell your Jesus to stop kissing."  There are understandable historical reasons for Christianity's fetish for suffering, but it's certainly not anything the world needs more of. 12:33:06 AM    comment []  trackback []

D'oh Wired reports about a poll asking what people think about spam. Yeah, you guessed it, people hate spam, and they in particular hate porn spam. Film at 11. 12:29:28 AM    comment []  trackback []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.11.2003; 03:20:53.