It was a simple question…

But then this happened:

(At least chickens have an excuse, eh?)

I learnt a lesson that day: ask a slightly sarcastic yet entirely reasonable question on a public forum, and you’re doomed to a…

"I once met a Texan who bragged that he had only ever read one book from cover to cover: the Bible" - Alom Shaha, The Young Atheist's Handbook.

I've read the Bible; and if I'm honest, the prospect of having it come along with me, by default, to a celebrity/music-filled island is, to say the least, a little disappointing.

Don't get the reference? I'll explain... Desert Island…

There were a lot to choose from:

1. God, the genocidal maniac, real estate developer who parceled out land to " Chosen Ones" and authorized the slaughter of the then present occupants of the land.

2. Rising from the dead and flying into the sky was right up there.

3. An Ark of insufficient capacity to hold 1/10th of the creatures known now to have been on earth (and, all of its other impossibilities).

But hands down for me, as a Catholic, and a teenager…

I might be a little paranoid but the Oblivion story sure did sound like something I've heard before.....with the same main character in it too.

Tet....how original....

"Despite not believing in God, and not believing in an afterlife where I might be rewarded or punished for my behaviour, I try to be a good person. That's the most any of us can do." - Alom Shaha, The Young Atheist's Handbook.

It's a favourite argument of the Theists: 'How can you be good without God?'

Even supposedly 'enlightened' Theologians (mean?) like William Lane…

For all practical purposes, I am an Atheist. I lack belief in a God (or gods).

It is that, and only that, with which I can confidently say that I share with other Atheists. We're a diverse group.

While there certainly are trends, we're all…

"Nothing that has happened in my life since [I learned of my mother's death], nothing I believe and nothing I know, can provide consolation. This is why I suspect that I am in some way predisposed not to believe in God, because God is the only thing that could have provided solace... If I had felt that there was an afterlife, believe me, I would have killed myself then and there to join her." - Alom Shaha, The Young Atheist's…

Disclaimer: I may not necessarily wholeheartedly stand by everything written below, but it's not like I'm not allowed to poke fun once in a while...

___

It doesn't take long on the internet, or in real life, to come across this old chestnut:

'Atheists are so full of themselves, thinking they're right all of the time... So much smug certainty, so much confident piss-taking, so much inconsiderate hate-speech I can't help but…

After 70+  years where do you derive your strength and consolation as you approach the abyss. The question is more immediate to me now, after a recent comment  by my wife that approaching 75 I have 10 years of functional being if I am lucky. My approach to date has involved heavy physical exercise, reading widely in the political and financial world. Much of my past reading activity explored much of the available literature in eastern…