Vivat Libertas

As an atheist, I often get theists telling me to respect their religion (in all fairness, I was singing "there is no God" under my breath before a service I was forced to attend - try singing that in a house of the Lord, it's fun). How dare I openly say that I'm doing just fine without a God?! Leaving aside the question of whether any beliefs are inherently deserving of respect (I don't think so - respect is earned based on their logic - but I'm already in enough trouble as it is), I'd just like to ask some theists this. You force your beliefs on others. You force me to attend your services and sit through things I don't believe in, as well as pouring your vitriol on me for being a young atheist feminist bisexual woman, while claiming that all this is justified because "Britain is a Christian country", then order me to respect your religion if I sing "Glory Hallelujah" under my breath (OK song on an excellent album). Right, s...

First of all - Sorry I haven't posted. I have a bit more material, honest, but I've also been flooded with things to do and I'll be posting on and off until the summer because of exams, revision and all sorts of less-than-fun stuff. I came to a bit of a realisation today - a realisation that came 16 years too late, but at least it dawned on me. I have never been a lover of make-up. I wear dresses (I have a particular weakness for summer dresses), but that's about it in terms of my femininity. High-heeled shoes look good, but I like not falling over. For a while, when I was younger, I had this bound up with notions of purity and virtue - I was also hellishly insecure about not having sex, about my looks, about my worth as a person...pretty much everything. It's not something that I particularly like about myself - not something I could easily or ever forgive myself for - but it's probably more worth my while to change for the better and focus on fixing things...

It surely can't have escaped most people that Europe is becoming increasingly xenophobic, what with claims that multiculturalism has failed and/or encourages segregation; the demonisation of Islam; the "argument" (I hesitate to glorify it) that immigrants and/or Muslims are taking over the world (Christianity got there first and the colonialism of the whites was and is an utterly brutal thing, to put that into a little perspective); justifying xenophobia because of the perceived bad manners of immigrants; immigrants taking jobs that should theoretically belong to natives (blame capitalism); yeah, I think you get the point already. It's all bullshit. It is nothing but polite and widely-accepted bigotry to claim that not being white or Christian or being born on the other side of an imaginary line somehow makes you inferior (then again, the people I argue this point to tend to have problems understanding that human beings aren't equal...). Logic, though, isn't...

So, in the interests of posting something when I haven't done for almost a week, I decided to do my own take on something people who more often than not are childless do: try to pass down their distilled wisdom, or lack of it, to an imaginary child. For various reasons I'd probably be a very, very shitty parent, but I'll try my best anyway. 1. Think for yourself. Always. 2. Everyone is your equal and just as capable of suffering as you are, so treat them well. 3. Don't be scared of an idea until you've properly researched it. 4. Some things may seem like your fault because you were involved in them, but if you weren't the aggressor, they probably weren't. It's difficult sometimes not to blame yourself for them, but remember that they weren't your fault and it'll save you a lot of heartbreak. 5. Things don't get better of their own accord, so work for them now. 6. Somewhere out there are people who love you and support you and woul...

Those who know me will know that, to keep myself in order and to let off steam, I frequently poke fun at, mock, and yell at the Right depending on my mood and how eloquent I feel. I don't really have much respect for it. Why not? Shouldn't I respect tradition? Didn't they come up with some good ideas? Nope. I cannot and will not respect an ideology, or loose collection of ideologies (names like Left and Right are hugely misleading and downright wrong, but easy to use and I generally take pot-shots at everything anyway), that is bigoted (witness the misogyny, racism, homophobia and xenophobia of, say, the Republicans) and appears to have no idea of what logic is (denying global warming and failing economics). I cannot respect an ideology that wants its presence in my uterus and presumes to tell me what to think and feel, then says it's providing me with greater liberty and shows this by privatising the fuck out of everything and removing my safety net. Ideologies sho...

I love the internet. I really do. This draws quite a lot of opprobrium from the "popular" (who have always looked down on nerds and introverts) and from the fine, upstanding and rather technophobic pillars of society (who, like most people, fear what they don't understand, and I guess this newfangled internet thing is a bit much for them). Strangely for righteously angry little me, I don't really care. The fact that most of the people who look down on me for liking the internet couldn't live without their phones doesn't hurt either. I love the internet because it connects me to the people I wish I knew. It expands my knowledge and lets me reflect deeply on what I think I understand. I am far more honest with myself and others there, far more reflective; it brings out the best in me, which isn't what you'd expect but, for me at least, it's still true. I'm also a hell of a lot more sociable; part of that's because I get more of a choice ...

I think I've already mentioned that I really hate pseudoscience  and that I'm a bit of a sceptic. I don't think I've talked much about why I identify, even if only slightly, as a sceptic, and I wanted to talk about that a little. First of all, here are reasons that some people might think I'm a sceptic but actually they're not. I'm not a sceptic because I like ruining people's dreams. I'm not a sceptic because I enjoy attacking cancer patients. I'm not a sceptic because I'm a Big Pharma shill or because I want to infect our children with autism (I am aware of the science fail in that last one, but someone will probably accuse me of it at some point). I'm not a sceptic because I want to take away your freedom to believe in woo. I'm not a sceptic because I'm secretly furthering the agenda of the New World Order to reduce your fertility. Right, now that that bullshit's over, I'd quite like to get onto the actual reasons w...