Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too? ~ Douglas Adams
‘Nine Lessons and Carols for Godless People’ is the UK Rationalist Association Christmas show. Incongruous one might have thought, for a bunch of god-denying, sciencey folk to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus. But no, Yuletide has been reclaimed by atheists as the time of year to rejoice in the sheer wonder of the universe. It was awesome. The Times referred to the event as ‘Nerdstock’, and I would be lying if I didn’t admit that we felt completely at home. These are our people: scientists, intellectuals, middle-class liberals: curiously interesting as much as they are curious and interested. I had no idea that particle physicists could be so funny. Robin Ince opened to the 3,500 strong crowd with ‘if a bomb goes off in here tonight, that’s London’s IT fucked’.
Richard Dawkins (who’s books I find just as fundamentalist as the crazy Catholics he sets out to debunk) was surprisingly engaging in person. He read a couple of quite fascinating essays comparing the claims made for crystal therapy with the majesty of crystal structures as revealed by science. And he managed to make spiders sexy. Dawkins was followed by Simon Singh, who revealed how Moby Dick contains as much hidden meaning as the Bible, according to the methodology of The Bible Code.
For me the highlight was the (quite hot, actually) Dr Brian Cox who’s first statement was anyone who thinks the LHC is going to cause the end of the world is a twat (oops). And he would probably know, given he works at CERN. He made quarks and other fundamental particles a little bit more accessible. And he tried to explain just how big the universe is (FYI: fucking big). I could have listened to him all day.
Oh and as a (sort of related) aside, I heard on the radio last night that the number of Britons identifying as Pagans has risen more in the last few years than at any time since the arrival of Christianity. There is something very attractive about 500 year old Paganism: the idea that we can experience the divine through our relationship with the Earth (also, in my opinion, they have the awesomest costumes). Sadly our plans to indulge in naked pagan dancing to celebrate Monday night’s Winter Solstice were scuppered by the snow and some very stupid drivers where I work in Basingstoke, (yes go on, abandon your car in the middle of the freakin’ road, that’s the BEST idea you’ve had all day) which resulted in the complete and utter buggering of the motorway entrance. I spent almost NINE HOURS getting home. I had to have a wee on the side of the road. I had to eat lukewarm KFC from a Road Services. I could’ve died in my car and been eaten by Alsations. Post-war reportage states that almost 2000 people were left stranded as Blazing Smokes was at the eye of the storm.
I am expecting Downing Street to contact me at any moment with news of my purple heart.
Image: Adoration of the Shepherds (Adorazione dei pastori) by Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo. Awesome thought bubble enhancement: all my own work.
Comments
It sounds like a world away sas. I’m lounging on my patio gorging on fresh cherries and sipping a pomegranate cocktail (yes I realise it’s just gone midday but it is Christmas Eve) while squinting at the screen of my laptop because of the glare. I’m glad you made it home safely without any bits of you chewed by Alsatians. Haappy Christmas to you and science guy.
Nice summary there, sas. I was wondering about the picture, so I appreciate your explanation at the end. When the weather in the UK is bad enough that we hear about it here in the US, it’s really bad. Glad you did finally make it home safe.
I have deduced that for every super-smart person I meet, I will meet the equal and opposite number of dumb-ass morons. The kind that abandon their car in the middle of the road. I guess that is nature’s way of evening things out and keeping balance.