How we laughed

OK... before I start this one, I want to apologies in advance to my boyfriend, Carlos. Carlos, I'm writing this not because what I said was true, but because it made us laugh.
Right, that's sorted that out. Now, last week Carlos and I had to get our blood pressure measured as part of our health insurance requirements. So we popped down to the doctor and to my horror we are told that, despite me having low blood pressure, Carlos' was better.
Well, this is not on. Carlos has got better blood pressure than me? I wanted to get a second opinion!
Carlos, as sweet as ever said "But baby, I promise you, this is the only thing I've got that's better than yours".
"That's not true" I said "you've got a boyfriend that is better than mine"
How we laughed.

Do your bit for the planet - burn more fossil fuel

I get really confused about all this global warming stuff. Everyone says we should do our bit to save the planet. But it isn't about that, is it? It's about saving the human race. The planet was here 3.5 billion years before humans were even thought of (or 6 days if you are a christian). Chances are, its going to be here for at least as long after we are gone.
The thing is, we humans only occupy a pin-prick of time in this planet's history. All this global warming stuff might be worrying for us, but to be honest, the Earth probably doesn't give a damn about it. As recently as 600 million years ago a catastrophic split occurred in what is now Siberia but was then part of a supercontinent down at the south of the globe. Along hundreds of miles a torrent of super-heated lava spat into the air...... changed the whole earth's atmosphere in days... killed off 90% of all life on earth. This makes our little CO2 issue look quiet a parochial problem.
It also seems that we are in a bit of a cool period at the moment. Over time (like 3.5 billion years), the earth is on average 10-15 degrees warmer than today. So maybe we should be warming it up a bit. The downside is that we all die off, but if we really want to save the planet maybe we should burn more fossil fuel to get it back to normal.

.........but the sky didn't fall in

I want to write a book called "....but the sky didn't fall in". I've been thinking about it for years. Every so often something happens or you read something and you think "that's another one for the book". It gets bigger every year.
Let me give you an example. In years gone by I actively campaigned for gay equality in the UK. Nothing special, just equality. Equal age of consent, eligibility to serve in the armed forces, that sort of thing. What always amazed me was the forcefulness of the opposition's arguments. Their main attack was always based on dire predictions of what was to come. The Chiefs of Staff said discipline would collapse if openly gay people were allowed to serve in the military. The Christian Institute said equalising the age of consent would lead to a growth of cases of young men being led astray by older men. And yet, years after Parliament made eminently sensible decisions to equalise the treatment of homosexuals, the sky hasn't fallen in.
And there are loads more. What about all those people predicting riots on the streets at night when 24 hour licensing was introduced in the UK. Um.....where was that then?..... I seem to have missed it.....ah, the sky didn't fall in (hey...update 2 months after posting this entry..... official report 1 year after 24 hr licencing introduced reports NO increase in criminal or anti-social behaviour - just people having a good time - what a suprise)
I'm sure that if you look back far enough there will be similar dire predictions being used to oppose the abolition of slavery and the sending of children down mines. But the sky didn't fall in
Now, they might have a point that all these little things add up to a bigger change in society, but then society is always changing.... and surely making the lives of individuals more comfortable is worth taking the risk. And at the end of the day the sky doesn't fall in and people just get on with their lives.
Actually, what you really want is a system where these people can be called back years later, shown the rational evidence and made to apologise for trying to frighten people by using arguments that are so clearly wrong.

I want a pagan box to tick

I'm starting to get excited by paganism. Not the dancing naked at midnight round a tree sort of thing (although it does sound more fun than communion). It's just the idea of god without religion. What I can understand is this. The universe is HUGE. It's amazing. We can't even begin to imagine how it got there. So there's a possibility that something or someone lit the match to set off that big bang. All that I get. What I don't get is this religious stuff. It just doesn't make sense (I know, I know, faith isn't supposed to make sense, but that's such an easy cop-out).

If a god figure had created this whole wonderful and hugely complex universe over 14 billion years ago, why would he wait til just 2,000 years ago, choose an obscure little backwater planet, appear to primitive nomadic tribes (surprise, surprise, all in the same region), and tell them stuff which even a 12 year old basic science student nowerdays would know is just so wrong? (world created in 6 days, earth going round the sun, that sort of basic thing). Why would he do that? It would be stupid. Surely he might have dropped a hint or two (like "hey, there's this really useful force I created called electricity ....check it out")

And what's more, all this stuff that's been put into these 2 books (I'm thinking Bible and Koran here) just happens to be exactly what the people running these primitive tribes believed about how the earth and stars and society works at the time - funny that. It just leaves an inkling of a thought that maybe these people just made it up themselves. I'm sure they thought it was divine at the time, but then we all have inspired thoughts but we don't all believe it's god given.

So, I get confused when I have to fill in official forms. I get the choice of boxes to tick - catholic, protestant, muslim, hindu, agnostic, atheist. But what if you believe that there's a possibility that there might be a god, but not one that the religions have us believe..... ? So I want to tick pagan.

The great thing about pagan gods is that they didn't tell you what to do. No sins, no "Thou must..." or "Thou shalt not...". They just lived somewhere nice, controlling the universe ("think we'll have a bit of thunder over London today") and you just had to keep them happy (the odd sacrifice every now and then). That seems to be a much more likely scenario if you believe there has to be a creator.

I want a "pagan" box on all official forms please.