Wednesday 17 December 2008

god is still missing
no one has phoned the police
i suspect foul play

I am sure that many of you are thinking, ‘This a radical atheist’s page! When is he going to talk about god or religion?’ and I’ve been thinking the same thing. ‘You’ve got to get a grip, Rod,’ I said to myself only this morning. ‘There are far more Godbotherers about than you, and they’re ranting twenty-four seven.’
Recently, however, there hasn’t been a whole lot to write about, although the evidence is around us every day that foolishness abounds.
Much has been made of Tom Cruise’s outspoken remarks about Scientology, regrettably in one case criticising a fellow actor for taking medication for post-natal depression. Although I am not in any sense defending Scientology, we have to get the matter into perspective, and if we are getting into a realm of attacking someone for making statements based on their religious beliefs, then you shouldn’t be able to pick and choose which religions can speak out and which can’t.
Just to be clear, Scientologists believe that 75 million years ago an evil galactic ruler, named Xenu, solved overpopulation by bringing trillions of people to Earth in DC-8 space planes, stacking them around volcanoes and nuking them. Then the souls of these dead space aliens were captured and boxed up and taken to cinemas where they were shown films of what life should be like, false ideas containing God, the devil and Christ and told to get ill.
After that they supposedly clustered together and now inhabit our bodies. Scientologists believe that if they rid themselves of these body thetans then they will be healthier and will gain special powers like mind-over-matter.
Absolutely ridiculous, of course. Everybody knows that there’s an immortal invisible entity who made us all out of dust and spare ribs watching over our every move twenty-four hours a day, and that he gave us free will, and therefore never intervenes in anything, no matter how badly people behave, although we still have to pray to him and ask for help, just so that we have a chance of getting to heaven.
Anyway, why is it OK for people to picket and harass abortion clinics and doctors but it’s not OK for Tom Cruise to criticise someone for taking medication?
I was dragged from this vexatious question by a phone-call from the Ugly One.
‘We’re having lobster for dinner!’ he said.
I was thinking that he’d bought fresh lobster and was preparing some gourmet feast, something by NIgella maybe.
It turned out to be ‘Tesco’s finest’ Lobster Thermidore, reduced to clear, but was nevertheless very nice.