A Christian’s critic’s critic writes:
For the most part, Richard Dawkin’s “The Greatest Show on Earth” is a beautifully written and well argued piece of work. In it he puts forward many convincing data and explanations which demonstrate categorically that the world is about 4.6 billion years old and that all species on earth can trace their origins back to the dawn of life itself. That is, the creationist view of the earth having existed for less than 10,000 years is dogma of the worst kind; deliberate ignorance and denial of fact to satisfy one’s own, in this case, religious agenda.
Admittedly, Dawkin’s well-documented arrogance surfaces regularly; here, for example, in the form of intellectual snobbery:
“…….reminds me of Peter Medawar’s wickedly astute observation that ‘the spread of secondary and latterly of tertiary (more…)
Archive for the ‘random’ Category
Richard Dawkins and the Cancer of Creationism
Monday, August 2nd, 2010The Wicket
Sunday, July 11th, 2010THE CONTRACT
Tuesday, July 6th, 20102010 Royal Air Force Waddington International Air Show
Commercial Participant – Conditions of Entry
The Ministry of Defence cannot accept any responsibility in respect of personal injury, loss or damage to vehicles of property including motor vehicles in the car parks except to the extent that such injury, loss or damage is proved to be caused by M.O.D. negligence.
RAF Waddington reserves the right to carry out such vehicle and personal security checks as it deems necessary, and (more…)
Geoffrey Smith and Copernicus
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010Geoff Smith has by now been forgotten
Not remembered by his peers
– they’re all dead
He was a single, simple man,
A gardener who liked his life
Although he died never really
Knowing what it was all about
But there again
Neither did Copernicus!
The Waggon and Horses (1984)
Monday, June 28th, 2010Yellow, smoke stained walls alive,
Breathless, coughing back an
Evening’s abuse of much abused bodies
Shoulders hunch over enlargened stomachs
And half filled glasses; half empty
Promises of better times, unkept, uncaring
Sallow, time engraved carvings on
Faceless faces, well known but anonymous,
A collection of portraits
Hung for a lifetime then
Stored in dark boxes, out of
Sight and soon not even memory.
Factory II – Duet
Monday, June 28th, 2010This is a duet with both parts to be read simultaneously.
The soul destroying factory – buzzum click
Eats away at the brain – buzzum buzz
Like a maggot let loose – buzzum click
Driving me wild – buzz buzz buzz
Day after day – buzzum click
The same monotony – buzzum buzz
The same pain – buzzum click
The same dullness of mind – buzz buzz buzz
The routine – buzzum click
Even the tea breaks – buzzum buzz
Are boring – buzzum click
How do they break free? – buzz buzz buzz
At night the pub – glug glug
The freedom, drink – glug glug
The same every night – glug glug
– gets boring.
Factory 1 – Personality never was!
Monday, June 28th, 2010The moderns factory
No whirling cogs
Or cranking shafts
Clanking through steam
And greasy bearings.
I look around
Even the bins
Are clean but I
Can hide behind
The noise that shrouds
This place in silence.
I scream a silent scream
Desperate amid the
Degeneracy of progress
Impersonal,
Practical,
I scream.
Lazy Days In Deepest Summer
Monday, June 28th, 2010Under clear blue cloudless bowl of sky
Lay I, with sweet smelling grasses and
Wing-fluttered butterfly, accompanying crickets
Chorus in the meadow hedge
And small boys search and stoop to
Scoop them into jam jar summer cells.
Into the cooler trees I wander, though not a murmur
Of breeze to mop the August brow
And how at height of silver sun
I fall inert into the arms of one
Who cares as much as I and worries not
Of things to come, and time goes by
the early bird – 3rd law of tinternet part 5
Sunday, June 27th, 2010click here for part 4
I wonder what the birds think at dawn when no man is around. Contempt I would imagine for why would anyone want to miss the best part of the day? The early worm will have gone!
I look out of the window and see the slightest of movement of leaves in the small plant pots on the doorstep. The air in the conservatory is still. The remains of yesterday lie scattered on the lawn. A table tennis bat, dismantled hammock frame, a blue plastic hoop and toys spilling out of a shed door that these days never closes. Can’t close.
That shed’s days are numbered. It is going to be a barbecue area with a grapevine growing round the side. I don’t do many diy jobs these days but (more…)
summertime on the tube
Saturday, June 26th, 2010hot and sweaty rush hour in June
lots of people wearing office clothes
clammy, oppressive, tiring heat
yearning for ice cold water in a pint glass
mind is at home in the back garden
with no shoes on
daytripper checklist
Friday, June 25th, 2010wallet check
tickets check
bag check
hat check
phone check
son check
let’s go
England Expects
Friday, June 18th, 2010dejected, sat on sofas
travelling ever so hopefully
they arrived disappointed
as usual
happens every time
memories of 1966 linger
even though they were largely unborn
England expects
Nursery Versus Poetry
Thursday, June 10th, 2010 Have you heard of Mary Mary,
the first of the gardening bimbos?
Charlie Dimmock in a frock,
she liked her flowers in rows.
She’d plant them all down the middle,
her borders exclusively grass,
well, you’d be a bit contrary
with your first name the same as your last.
morning after the storm
Sunday, June 6th, 2010morning after the storm
feels as if we are in the tropics
nature at it’s loudest now as then
birds all celebrating survival
The barbecue has 2 inches of rain in it this morning. Last night’s storm is one of the heaviest I have ever experienced.
wine and rhythm
Sunday, June 6th, 2010There was something very poetic about that glass of wine. He had one on the stage and I too had one sat at my table at the front. There was a bottle next to mine. We were both making a statement. We were both also enjoying ourselves hugely. He hardly touched this glass but I made steady inroads into mine. He had a job to do. Mine was to listen to him. Drinking the wine was part of it.
The wine was not top notch vintage but that wasn’t part of the fun factor so it didn’t matter. The music was incredible. Django Rheinhart meets New Orleans. Nobody spoke during the show. It would have been an insult and none of us wanted to miss a single note. We all clapped and cheered at the right moments and at the end of it all members of the band clearly appreciated the support. People play jazz for the kicks.
Afterwards we I stayed to talk to him. Joe bought a CD and got all four autographs. Reach out, reach up and go.
Django a la Creole, Lincoln Drill Hall, Friday 4th June.