asquith's Comments

Heresy Corner : Obama and the Catholics

Thu, 9 Feb 2012 20:19:17 +0000

Undoubtedly, there's pretty hardcore rage on the issue. They are taking it far more seriously than most of the issues they've had with Obama. If they have to choose between their jobs and their conscience, doesn't that mean they'll be unemployed? Will they then have to claim benefits in order to subsist? Then, presumably, they'd have to vilify themselves, being as conservatives hate people on benefits! Sounds flippant, but I honestly have thought it when I've seen Catholics and evangelicals make this claim, as they frequently do. As for some practising Catholics ignoring their church's teachings, it is just another case of people being culturally Catholic without having much in the way of religious beliefs, a bit like many Jewish Americans... and indeed Catholicism often is linked to ethnicity if you're Irish, Polish, Italian, Mexican, etc.

Heresy Corner : The Age of Atheism, or Alain de Botton's Generation Games

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 19:22:35 +0000

Tha's definitely the impression I got too, and the first few pages of "The Greatest Show on Earth" would certainly bear this out. He gives the impression of having initially tried to share his love of science with the world, and gradually built up a rage as he came across the inexpllicable "history-deniers". I also wish to state that I liked his latest book, it certainly isn't just for children, but also for humanities-eduated adults like me whose scientific understanding barely exists!

Heresy Corner : The Age of Atheism, or Alain de Botton's Generation Games

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:45:33 +0000

Magnificent post. And I think your question can be answered quite easily, Alain de Botton doesn't know half as much about leading atheists as the average commentor here, and Hitchens and Dawkins were the only two he'd heard of. I'd recommend him Greta Christina, Maryam Namazie and Ophelia Benson to be getting on with, and I like Miranda Celeste Hale as well. But then, I suppose he won't be reading this!

Heresy Corner : The Age of Atheism, or Alain de Botton's Generation Games

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:15:27 +0000

Thank you, that was exactly what I meant! As you can see my recollection is less than perfect, but it was such a striking passage that it's stayed in my mind for years.

Heresy Corner : The Age of Atheism, or Alain de Botton's Generation Games

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:11:55 +0000

And I think the US Congress is full of people who don't have any religion, but are afraid to say so, as well as those who (especially the Jewish and Catholic politicians) are more tribal than religious in their allegiances. It was actually Dawkins who gave me this idea, oddly enough. When religion is obligatory or almost so, you get the situation I've noted amongst American conservatives, where they will profess a faith they privately don't believe in. And I've said to real believers that surely this doesn't help their own cause that people pretend to believe in it. Wouldn't an avowed atheist be better for them than someone who pretends to be one of them?

Heresy Corner : The Age of Atheism, or Alain de Botton's Generation Games

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:05:31 +0000

Besant does come off very badly in this account, though I can't claim to know much about her, and I suppose having had such a lengthly career there's certainly a case to be made for her. I hope you understand the relevance of what I was saying, in case it wasn't clear. I'm saying that the role played by people like John Morley, who were "discreet" atheists in the Victorian age, is akin to that of Alain de Botton and his many friends today. Yet they achieved far less than someone who was prepared to upset apple carts. Many such people are in fact quite unpleasant, though there's no reason to think this about Dawkins, and I think his detractors generally don't know much about him or his work. This study of the past has just convinced me further that we need people who are going to be provocative to the indifferent majority and make John and Jane Average wonder what they're so angry about.

Heresy Corner : The Age of Atheism, or Alain de Botton's Generation Games

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:05:18 +0000

Anyone who can find the exact quote along these lines (it could well have been in War and Peace) will have my eternal gratitude!

Heresy Corner : The Age of Atheism, or Alain de Botton's Generation Games

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:58:58 +0000

For that matter, has the church itself changed now that it's no longer the default option? I note with interest the rising sense of victimhood amongst right-wing Christians in America that I can't imagine having existed in the 1850s. Sensing the tide turning against them, they've reacted in all kinds of ways, one of the most interesting being an alliance between Catholics and Protestants that would have enraged/mystified anyone living when you inevitably belonged to a religion that was taken seriously, it was just a question of which religion.

Heresy Corner : The Age of Atheism, or Alain de Botton's Generation Games

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:58:49 +0000

I'm fairly sure it was a Tolstoy charachter who said something very relevant here, though I can't recall since it was in a library book I read some time ago (this is one of the good things, btw, about buying books, or about being properly able to use the internet- I'm just about old enough not to 100% understand it!). Well, this person rued that the quality of atheist thought had declined because now that religion was no longer taken for granted, people were being brought up in godless homes, and they were no longer kicking against the pricks in the way that, for example, Maryam Namazie would. This goes for me, I've actually never held any religious belief because I wasn't brought up with one and never acquired one. I didn't become a New Atheist out of abstract thought, not quite, because it was seeing the growing self-confidence of Islam and considering what it might lead to in years to come. Then, when I discovered books and blogs on the subject, I devoured them. But it was certainly not a case of, say, being molested by a priest or have an imam advocate that I be beaten vigorously in order to keep me in line.

Heresy Corner : The Age of Atheism, or Alain de Botton's Generation Games

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:57:58 +0000

Personally I found Elevatorgate one of the most depressing and unedifying quarrels I've ever seen. I hated the way people I like and whose work I admire turned on each other so viciously, and just wish the whole thing had never happened. Wouldn't it have been funny if this bloke actually wasn't propositioning Rebecca Watson at all, he just had some really great coffee that he wanted to tell the world about, and it wwas so good he went round at 4am looking for people to innocently and chastely share it with?

Heresy Corner : The Age of Atheism, or Alain de Botton's Generation Games

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:53:09 +0000

It seems to me we have barely moved on since Bradlaugh's day. I've been moved by this book I read about him, are you familiar with it? http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/b... Three things struck me. Firstly, I was impressed that he started his activism so young, a bit like this Jessica Ahlquist today. Secondly, there were already atheists in Parliament and other high places, but none of them were vocal. I suppose some of them wondered why a working-class oik had to be so "aggressive", "fundamentalist" etc. in his unbelief, but it was just honesty of the kind we sorely need. I know I'm not so brave myself when I encounter faithheads. Third, the fact that like you, and myself, he was unimpressed by socialism (which had just got started in a serious way during his time) and was an economic liberal for the same reason that he was a secularist, because he believed in the dignity and integrity of an individual man or woman. A bit depressing really, I don't want to live in the Victorian age and most Victorians hoped for a better future as their own lives were so shite. It seems to me that Alain de Botton is just one in a long line of bellends who think that we should just shut up and "respect" people by letting their ideas go without a serious challenge. Well, as I say, I believe in a vigorous exchange of views. If I'm factually wrong then I would want someone to correct me, and if someone thinks my analysis is wrong then I want them to explain their position to me, without being a cunt but also without holding back from saying what they think. A thoroughly depressing tale, in conclusion.

Heresy Corner : Presidential election: bored already

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 19:52:31 +0000

Well, you could always try speculating on which of the Republicans are gay... Apart from this I agree. I want Republicans to lose, which by default means "wanting" Obama to win, even though I don't particularly like him. What I've said is that I would prefer Ron Paul to be the nominee (this was even more the case for Gary Johnson) because, although I'd want him to lose, his campaign would raise issues such as civil liberties, imperialism, and the war on drugs, on all of which Obama has a less than perfect record. I object to most of his policy positions, so I want him to lose, but it would be good to have him as the nominee, shaming Obama on the above-named issues. An interesting sideline is that Romney is being attacked for his record as a management consultant. I think a lot of us, left or right, have encountered the likes of Bain before, and if we're getting attacks on him of a populist nature from people who are generally very pro-business, is it more than just the usual slagging each other off? Still boring in general though. Santorum is less interesting than Huckabee and Paul is less interesting than he used to be, and in all fairness the very strong probability of Obama's re-election renders it boring.

Heresy Corner : Divide and Rule

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 21:19:29 +0000

Well, if that were the case then Abbott herself is an albino!

Heresy Corner : Divide and Rule

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 21:06:59 +0000

Plus, I still have some hint of respect for Abbott based on the way she opposed the worst excesses of NuLab, particularly in her defence of civil liberties, such as her speech on the"Counter-Terorism" Bill in 2008 which won acclaim from all sorts of people, including the Speectator. I remember you had a soft spot for her at one stage, and said this during her bid for the leadership, is that still the case? I'm sure she would make a completely shite Health Secretary though.

Heresy Corner : Divide and Rule

Sat, 7 Jan 2012 20:53:41 +0000

If building a career on the basis of appealing to ****wits' resentments and sense of entitlement were a sacking offence, Miliband would have to dismiss the entire shadow cabinet and then resign. I don't care specifically about Abbott because I'm used to behaviour like hers from the opposition, the whites choose different words and targets but the same mentality is at work of getting benefits and other goodies for their voters from THEM, who are to be demonised if they object. The funny thing is, the most hysterical outrage I've seen has been from white racist Labour voters. So it looks like the coalition has divided and ruled pretty well. And it seems to me, wha these people object to is that Abott's axe-grinding is done in the wrong way and aimed at the wrong targets, not to the fact of axe-grinding, which they'll hapily engage in themselves.

Heresy Corner : World Leader Porn*

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 20:23:09 +0000

www.queerty.com/vladimir-putin-dmitry-medvedev-ar... (etc)

Heresy Corner : Bullingdon: the truth

Fri, 2 Sep 2011 19:31:17 +0000

Admittedly he used to hang round with people like Delingpole and Toby Young, which should be unacceptable in polite society, but (to give one example) he went to bed early one particularly rough night that ended up with a pot plant being thrown through a restaurant window, in Boris Johnson's presence.

Heresy Corner : Bullingdon: the truth

Fri, 2 Sep 2011 19:27:29 +0000

Am I not right in thinking (going by Elliott and Hanning's biography as I normally do- willing to be corrected) that Camoron was more restrained than his fellow Bullingdon members, and usually slipped away if things ever kicked off? Apparently, even in those days he was a pretty focused careerist, and didn't want to earn any notoriety, knowing that the usuals would use it against him if he did. He seems to have had a reasonably good time, albeit a fairly hard-working one, but not to have been truly wild or to have caused any trouble to anyone. I've not seen his name linked to the worst of Bullingdon actions.

Heresy Corner : Twitter safe after all

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 14:50:18 +0000

"Liberal Democrat members of the government must have been fully aware that giving the police power to turn off Twitter would be chillingly authoritarian, pointless, counterproductive and send out all the wrong messages" Indeed!

Heresy Corner : What caused the riots?

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 15:54:38 +0000

Gays