If evil exists then it is here

Almost daily there are reports of what the Taliban are doing to their own people. Some describe them as freedom fighters, others as terrorists, but the reality is probably that they are just vile thugs who love to inflict misery on their fellow human beings.

I read with horror the report of one of their victims having been accused to using tobacco. He was taken and his hand chopped off. The hand was then boiled for a while before being sewed back onto his bleeding stump.  This morning we read of Vaccination workers being executed, depriving children of the right not to die from infectious diseases like polio.

The list of atrocities is endless and yet this criminal and vile organisation continues to attract followers and benefactors. Somebody is supplying them with weapons and with supplies and maybe it is time that they too are named and shamed. Perhaps their fellow Muslims could make a start by condemning them without reservation, but to criticise another muslim is not the way of Islam is it?

It is a cold damp and grey day here. The sort of day that makes you want to shut the doors and curl up with a good book. Days such as this one can be depressing, but I look at these reports and am thankful that I do not live in an Islamic state - yet.

They walk among us.

I like to think that I am calm and even tempered. Very few things get me worked up these days, one of the functions of advancing years perhaps.  However, the other day, I found myself in an online debate with two fundamental creationists.  I know now the meaning of red rags and bulls.  Someone once said that if you could reason with a religious mind, then there would be no religious minds.  I found out for myself that it is so true.

My own position is that of an atheist, having rejected the very idea of a deity many many years ago. My    limited scientific education led me to a very different understanding of the world and our position in it. The scientific process relies on questions, hypotheses, experiment and evaluation of evidence. Usually experiments provide part answers and open up new questions. It is about open mindedness and an ability to adjust belief on the basis of fresh evidence.

The discussion, went on for much longer than it should have and the only argument that the creationists could offer  revolved around a complete misunderstanding of the process of evolution. As in their eyes, evolution does not provide all of the answers, the process is rejected and in its absence there is a need for a creator.  One of them even quoted the laws of thermodynamics, the second  of which states that matter cannot be created or destroyed, whilst stating that everything must have been created by god. She could not see the irony in that.

My repeated challenges to their viewpoint resulted in personal attacks on me, which I do not mind, but then to be accused of being aggressive, simply for restating unanswered questions was a step too far. Entering any sort of discussion with people who distort the truth to suit their ends is futile. These people live in a different world to me and have minds that are so blinkered by doctrine that they have lost the ability to debate effectively. I will try hard to steer clear in the future.

Music

I have been listening to Striggio's Mass in 40 parts and Thomas Tallis' Spem in Alium, and again my mind has turned to  people with big ideas.  Music, for me, is as near as can be to a "spiritual" experience and to have the imagination and creativity to produce work of this magnitude is simply amazing.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Cn7ZW8ts3Y

Both works were written in 40 parts and demonstrate an ability to hear a complexity of harmony that is extraordinary. As it happens both works are based on religious texts, which mean nothing to me, but the music is overwhelmingly beautiful.

I once heard the Tallis in an art gallery in Ottawa. A room had been transformed into a chapel and an "Artist" had arranged 40 loudspeakers on stands around the room. Each part had been recorded separately and to stand in the centre of the room gave an all round experience.

Beethoven was recorded as being totally deaf by the time that he completed his Ninth Symphony and so he must have been able to hear the complete work in his head. To listen to that piece is an amazing experience anyway, but to know that the creator was deaf adds a new dimension.

Music has amazing power and its influence on emotions and to some extent behaviour is not to be underestimated. Perhaps musicians should rule the world.