Remebrance Day

Thursday was Remembrance Day, or Armistice Day. The day when we remember the sacrifices of those who served our country in the armed forces. Particularly the vast numbers who died in the first and second world war.

In the second world war between 62 million and 79 million people died. To put that in perspective, there are about 61 million people in the UK at the moment. Just like us, most of these were normal people like you are me, just average people with normal jobs, whisked into hardship out of their country's desperation. The ones who didn't die had seen those around them die, become injured, suffer etc. And then at the end of the war, they went home.

Not only did these conflicts destroy families through death and injury, but through absence and separation.

When the soldiers came home from these conflicts, they often had tremendous difficulty readjusting to life. They'd lived an entirely different life. Their children didn't know them. Members of their families had died. They hadn't seen their wives or parents for years. The idea of post-traumatic stress and it's treatment was not recognised on much of a scale, and even if it were, the prospect of dealing with it in such huge numbers, in a post-war country would be impossible.

There is a book recently published called "A Stranger in the House: Women's Stories of Men Returning from the Second World War", about a generation of fatherless families, whose fathers suddenly returned after the war, and found themselves placeless, jobless, anchorless and unable to deal with the traumas they had just endured. There are many stories of children who'd one day encountered a stranger in their home, said to be their father, but had no emotional connection with them at all and often never regained it.

These conflicts destroyed or distressed every life of these generations, and on Remembrance Day, we are meant to remember, appreciate, respect, greive and ensure that this doesn't even happen again.

Many of those who served or died, or the families of those who served or died still live and remember. I just realised on Thursday that my grandfather was one of those. I never really appreciated what he did when I was young because he survived the war, so I failed to understand the scale of his upheaval, going from everyday electrician in Plymouth, to driving a tank in a war zone where he saw so much death.

Similarly I always knew my grandmother was a Wren, but I never really understood what this meant until a few years ago, and that it was a voluntary action for a woman to be involved with the war, to feel helpful, productive, involved, and that she was keeping those on the front line safer.

My Grandmother (2nd from the right) and some of her friends.

My other Grandmother is of Jewish derivation, and won't talk about the war, or her family during it. It is clearly painful for her. She is still afraid of discussing her ancestry. She would have been younger, just a child, but she saw the difficulties in her family and it clearly effected her greatly.

Obviously the sacrifices are contiunuing to today, and we are coming to think of Remembrance day as a day to celebrate the contribution of all those who serve in armed forces, and although the casualties are no longer on such a huge huge scale, but we must still respect them.

So I was saddened that on Thursday, at 11 o'clock, people continued to chat, shout, walk around, play music etc without caring at all. To be fair, I was in a shopping centre, so it is easy for people to forget, and you do need a certain amount of orchestration to have 2 minutes silence. People probably won't do it independently, they need encouragement.

There was a bit or a rubbish anouncement in Next, which a) sounded like an advert so everyone ignored it, b) was quiet, and c) said, we hope you will join us for 2 minutes silence at 11. It didn't actually say, now, or it *is* 11 o'clock. It sounded like it was coming up. So everyone ignored it. So I went into sainsburys, and was imagining there'd be an announcement soon. But no. Apparently there was one, it was just very quiet and like Next, not very clear.

The thing is, respect for people in the armed forces seems to have become the new nationalist patriotic standard. People have split opinions on the monarchy, and are only too quick to rip it out of politicians. Sport is normally only able to unite about 48% of the population. But respect for british soldiers seems to be the new standard in patriotism. Which is great, so it makes it even more surprising to me that people weren't observing it.

As a nation we are not encouraged to think enough. We are encouraged to watch tv, to earn money, to get married and pay taxes, but not to comtemplate, philosophise, rationalise, understand and remember.

Next year I hope you'll help me encourage others to observe, think, grieve and remember, so that the sacrifices made are not forgotten, and that we as a nation remember the effects of such a war in order to pacify the future.

This poem is used so much it is getting really cliched, but it does say what seems necessary, in an effecting way, from the pen of someone who was there...

For The Fallen - L Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;
They sit no more at familiar tables of home;
They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;
They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,
Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,
To the innermost heart of their own land they are known
As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,
Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;
As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,
To the end, to the end, they remain.

Delirious Viral Ramblings

Hello everyone.

So this week I have been mostly ill. As I am currently 90% unemployed, this is not good, as I have no work to be relaxing from. So I have spent the last four days basically watching TV. I am now completely and utterly sick of ANYTHING than can been shown on a screen. All the things I *DO* want to watch, I have seen toooo many times. Come on Mighty Boosh! Make more episodes! Come ON! GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER!! Bah.

So I am so bored of things! And yes, I suppose there are lots of things I *could* do. Such as tidy my room, vaccuum, rewrite my CV. But all of these things are boring, involve energy, brain power, or muscles. And I am unwilling to involve myself with such effort. Also I *have* no brain anymore, I have a pressure cooking in stead. Sometimes when I blow my nose, a little of the pressure cooker vented into my ears or tear ducts with a popping cracking noise and the world turns upside down. That is in fact why I am doing this now. I am too dizzy to stand up so I have to occupy myself with my computer.

However fortunately I feel a little better now. I can tell I'm getting better, because all the stuff that was packed into my massive throbbing pressurey brain, has been coming out of my face. WOooop for a disgusting yet winning result!

So within the last few hours I have resolutely said "NO!" to continuing to sit down, and watching more of whatever is on Dave (our TV stand broke so now we use Dave the vagrant we found at a bus-stop) and I decided to make cake. Pumpkin cake to be exact. I am currently trying to balance boiling pumpkin into puree with not standing up for too long. It's going ok!

Here are some fun delirious noises:
Waaaaaaaaaahhhhhayyyyaaaaaaaaaa the world is up and down and fish and have you seen my spanner-dog? it looks like a spanner and barks like a dog! I need it to fix my -N YEEEEERRRRRR- medicinal potatoe dispenser! Maahahahaaa I's well frenked arf in fezzy McDingo I HAVE LOST --zzzzzz- MY FEET!! Red. Isn't it though. HISS.

That was very enjoyable. I shall have to do more of that later.

So I'm actually pretty disappointed with this illness. It's been rubbish. Not mild enough to enjoy dossing around; no-one around (like family members or a boyfriend) to fuss over and look after me; no vomiting or loss of apetite therefore there will be no weight loss and I'm not even reading any particularly good books which i can pour over all day in the absense of other things to do. So none of accidental benefits have occured at all.

Also, my neck is very big- glands and tonsils and things. I think, width wise, it prob now looks like i'm wearing a very smooth skin-coloured scarf. Massive neck fail. Unless I'm developing gills, which may be useful in the oncoming climatic apocalypse, I am extremely unimpressed.

WEEEEeeaaaaaaarrrnnnn-nya-nya-nya naaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr BRRAP in my soup Graham....Oh... :( Freeeeeeeee my gorilla printer to Granada in jam. Zaaaaaaarrrmmmmmm

Actually one interesting thing has come out of this illness. It is amazing how automatic the body is. I am intermittantly pretty dizzy at the moment (which as a bit of a surprise, my Aunt told me a few days ago that inner ear problems run in my family on both sides. Woop! I have a lifetime of this to come!). But even though I am dizzy and feel really disorientated and not in control of my body, my legs still walk me forwards, sit me down, take me upstairs etc. Woop! Auto-body for the win!! As a first aider I have walked technically unconcious people  from place to place, when stretchers/carry chairs etc were lacking, and even when unconcious, unresponsive, eyes shut etc, people can still put one foot in front of the other and carry their own weight....kind of. With encouragement and directional help on each side anyway.

So I won't continue to moan. Except that's all I have to say, as being ill and lying down is ALL I have done for the last few days.

Also- I'm going to go assess the failure of my pumpkin cake!

Love love xx

Driving me insane!

Driving - this post shall be interspersed with angry noises. Do not be alarmed.

GRAAAAAAARRRHHH!!

I am generally a calm and reasonably tolerant person. At least to your face :D. But one thing that does make me angry is bad driving. And there are a lot of stimuli for this in Leeds. In the area I live, it is all students and taxis. This means that indicators are basically unheard of, people do not stop at the end of the road when they join a major road, and that they do not look into a road before they swoop into it quickly. All of these are major problems when you also know that there are cars parked along almost all streets, and therefore very little room in road for more than one car.

GRRRRrrrr!!!

I am frankly pretty surprised more people don't have horrific accidents. My housemate was driven into by someone from a junction, who just drove right into her as she went along a main road. It wrote off her car. It was basically a young driver who didn't know what she was doing. But I actually see surprisingly few accidents. Perhaps it's because others, like me, now expect other drivers to do the most stupid thing possible at all times. E.g. it is AMAZING how many people do not understand the right of way rules at roundabouts.

People have been speaking a lot about driving tests recently. Many of them have been complaining that they are changing, and that now they're a bit harder because it involves some independant driving- i.e. not being told where to go for a while. Not to test your navigation, but to test your ability to think in advance, pay attention to road signs etc, without your instructor giving you helpful instructions in good time.

People are worried this will make it harder to pass!

This is ridiculous. There are so many SHOCKING drivers in the world, and there is so much essential material that the UK driving test completely fails to cover! For example, motorway driving is *completely* omitted. This is completely inexplicable, as motorway driving is very dangerous and intimidating, due to the speeds and the confusion of having multiple lanes.

If we taught our new drivers the proper way to use lanes, we might have much smoother flowing traffic, as so many minor delays are caused by some idiot driving in the middle lane, or even the outside lane, with no cause. We may also avoid a lot more accidents.

I just want to say this to the world: BE IN THE LEFT LANE!! ALWAYS IN THE LEFT LANE *UNLESS* YOU ARE OVER-TAKING SOMEHTING. THEN GET BACK IN THE LEFT LANE. I HATE YOU!

People have also been discussing a ban on new drivers driving in the dark. How is this going to solve anything? At what point will they suddenly decide they *can* drive in the dark. And at the moment it get's dark at about 5pm! Most people aren't home from work by that time of day!

Don't *stop* them driving in the dark, or on motorways. TEACH them to do these things safely.

The problem with driving tuition is that it's primary purpose is to give you what you need to drive the test. Not to teach you to drive well and safely any more than the test minimally requires. And because people are encouraged to take the test so quickly, if they *do* pass first time, then someone who has only ever had 10 lessons, is unleashed on the roads with something as horribly dangerous as a car and no limitations.

My 17 year old sister is currently learning to drive, and has had something like 14 lessons, and her friends are already saying things like "Shouldn't you have done your test by now?" They expext her to learn to pass, not to learn to drive well for her own sake, and they are putting pressure on her to take her test.

I passed 3rd time round, which I think made me a much better driver. It gave me time to work on things, ideas to take away and improve. Being failed makes you realise there's lots of work still to be done, and helps you prevent dangerous confidence on the road.

Some late night philososoficalising upon the nature of human kind

 So a few posts back I discussed the brilliance and beauty of astronomical photographs. 

The idea that all this magnificence is above our heads every day and every second but we never make the effort to look up and think. Neither do we really look around, never wondering e.g. at the fact that every tree we see grew out of a tiny nut or seed, or consider the breeze that brushes your skin as part of a giant global weather system, pushing and gusting, sinking and rising, coating the earth. The breeze on your back has been passed, grown, shrunk and diverted from a gale, storm or hot afternoon anywhere in the world.

When I started really thinking and appreciating these things we take for granted, it felt like an epiphany, and I am very much in the long-haired, sandal-wearing, lentil-eating minority.

We do not live in sync with the natural light and dark, so right now for example, I am awake at 11.39, it’s been dark for about 4 hours, but I’m awake just because I haven’t gone to bed yet. We inhabit the night, through our own light, probably more than any other generation. But most people before wide-spread artificial lighting would live in a blue-skied world. When it was dark, and the stars were out, most people would go to sleep.

It is quite obvious that the world around us shapes the way we have evolved, shapes the way we live, the way our senses work, even the way we speak and understand each other. Our minds, our thinking, our philosophies and senses, have all evolved under a comfortably close, blue sky curtain.

Living in the day, only seeing as far as our own atmosphere, shelters our minds from the giant universe beyond. I almost said “unfathomably giant.” Perhaps we are small-minded earthy creatures, with delusions of grandeur, because we are fish caught in a rock pool unable to see the sea. And we think small as a result.

Clearly if we look out at night we can see the stars and the planets, and a fascinations with heavenly bodies is present in all cultures, but it does not confront us on a constant or daily basis prompting to consider our insignificance, or the nature of the universe.

 

Perhaps if we had evolved under open infinities, our mental capacities would be grander and perhaps more developed for big ideas, big numbers, big spaces, big questions. Without the blue-sky curtain, we’d develop as a small part of the eternal ocean, rather than kings of our little rock pool, panicking and refusing to worry about things outside. Even denying that the sea exists.

Blue-sky thinking should actually be considered a closed, limited, geocentric way of brain-storming. Your thoughts can grow and soar unconfined by blue at night, when the universe is your shellfish of choice, and the tide meets the rock-pool allowing you to float across.

My Top 5 Ways to Improve the UK

Prompted by this http://www.bbc.co.uk/genius/ - I just *have* to throw my oar in. Sorry world.

My top five ways to improve the UK.

1) Mobile phones which play music outloud should be instantly confiscated and destroyed, and all unsold ones returned to factories, to have this remarkably anti-social function instantly removed.
Think of all the thousands of people on buses, trains, in the street, or just in daily life who are aggravated by being forced to listen to someone elses tinny distorted cruddy music? It's not the STYLE of music, it's the lack of free will not to listen. And the people playing it, who are so often doing it intentionally to show how cool and edgey their disrepect for other people is...

If users of said mobile phones are in school, meetings, libraries, "Quiet Coaches" etc, a socially cohesive community punishment may be served- which would bring others together for the postive purpose of removing this anti-social pest. E.g. being chained to a treadmill to power the school's lighting, or being made into compost for local allotments, etc.
 

2) All learner-drivers should have a minimum number of hours motorway driving practise before attempting their test. This is a sensible suggestion.

This would mean that people who are using the motorway WOULD BLOODY WELL KEEP LEFT (in the UK)!! YOU SHOULD DRIVE ON THE *LEFT*!! Then you can *OVERTAKE* on the right. If you are not overtaking something right now, YOU SHOULD BE LEFT!! And if you are on the RIGHT I hope you DIE HORRIBLY IN A SLOW AND BURNY WAY!

Rage caused by others misusing motorway lanes.

Not driving on the left, and causing others to slow or to be unable to overtake each other, should result in compulsary lesson or two on motorway driving and some kinda compulsory community helping activity- e.g. land maintenace, assisting with prison literacy programs, disability caring etc. By allowing offenders to pick their helpful activity you'd be optimising the chance that they may actually enjoy it and continue the worthwhile activity after the compulsory time limit. Alternatively, they could be used in the foundation of new road surfaces.


3) It should become a normal and pleasant occurance that frequently a different member of every work place bakes some kind of enjoyable confectionary. Including the boss. Once a week, or on different days to make it less routine and more exciting!

People who already have cake-day at their work have something to look forwards to, because, mmmm nom cake, and the person making the cake will enjoy the gratitude and compliments given by the co-workers. The participation of the boss will serve to help break down some of the social tension caused by the work hierarchy.

The other important thing about "cake-day" is that it would encourage everyone to practise, and then to experiment with their baking skills, and so to encourage them to be less reliant on pre-processed shop bought things, and rediscover the world of making stuff for yourself, so that the knowledge of cake is not lost to the take-away eating populace, and our children will know how to break an egg.


4) Disney films should become part of the primary school syllabus, along with idealised moral lessons in the classroom. This would basically just make everyone a nicer person, as when human nature kicks in and people behave in a less ideal fashion, they have a better starting position and so perhaps a better level of decreased behaviour.

Look at the love, friendship, appreciation of nature, and environmental importance featured in this little picture. See the bees in this pic are ideally coming towards us, rather than vanishing forever into the ether....

5) All automatic doors in shops, public buildings, basically anywhere should be removed. The only places where automatic doors may be permitted would be at supermarkets or airports- places where the things you are likely to be carrying, make doors difficult.

Automatic doors in shops for example, are a very bad idea because they open for much longer than people need them to, letting out heating and increasing the energy used to heat that building; they open accidently when you walk near them, again, increasing the money and carbon wasted through heating, and through opening the door, and they also encourage us to be lazy, as our arms get fatter and weaker every day. Shops who leave their doors open all the time are also culpable. Keep the heat in in order to ward of the climate apolcalypse and keep our arms fit and toned!

Save money, and help reduce Britain's bingo wings!

Jamtastic Ideas

This autumn my family had a very very poor fruit season. We basically got 5 damsons, no apples, some hedgerow berries, and some very very furry and inedible looking pears. But because I’d been collecting jam jars all year, we went to pick plums at a local Pick Your Own farm, and bought about a cow’s weight in Victoria plums. Hurrah! So jam happened.

Sister posing pretty with plums. The rest of us were using Sainsbury's carrier bags...

 

Plum Jam

3lbs of plums

3 lbs of sugar

Approx 1 pint of water

Optional lemon juice.

(Obv, adjust proportions for the amount of plums.)

So basically you have a choice in your method. It depends which activity you find annoying.

The options are either to stone the plums first, and to use the juice of a lemon to help it set. Or to use the plums whole, and then sieve the stones out with a spoon, removing the stones by hand. You can even stew the fruit, let it cool, and then pull all the stones out with your fingers. In this case you do not necessarily need the lemon apparently, but it may still help.

The method I use:

Before you start you need to sterilise your jam jars and lids, so that your jam will last a long time in storage without going off. Wash them well, and then put them in the oven at a very high temperature for at least half an hour, and then let them cool. You can also sterilise by boiling jars and lids.

I first wash and stone the plums, and cut up the flesh.

Put the plums, water and lemon juice into a large saucepan and boil the fruit until completely soft (approx half an hour).

Dissolve the sugar in the stewed fruit, stirring constantly.

Boil the mixture until it reaches setting point- this is probably about 15 minutes. Skim some of the scum off the top of the mixture.

Test for the setting point by dripping jam onto a cool plate, letting it cool for a short while and looking at its texture. E.g. if you draw a line through some jam on the plate, does the jam close up again quickly? Or push into the side of a puddle and jam, and see if the surface wrinkles.

When you’ve reached setting point, pour it into the jars up to the very top, add a waxed paper cover if you like and put the lids on immediately. This means that there is minimal oxygen in the jar, and the jam will keep for longer. If the jar lids have depressing centres, they will be pulled down as the jam cools, and show that the jam has not been opened since you made it.

Warning. Horrific Sweeney-Tood-Esqe mess may occur. The above is the blood of innocent damsons.

Common problem: not setting? Either lemon juice or apple will help your jam to set so make sure you’ve included one of these ingredients. If you cannot get your jam to set with these ingredients, you can buy sugar with added pectin.

So if, like me, you have a lot of plums (or near equivalent) and want to play with different ideas, add different flavourings. The most popular one I’ve made so far has been Plum and Lemon Jam, or Lemon and Plum Marmalade, however you want to say it.

To make this I added the grated zest and the juice of 4 or 5 lemons with the plums. You can also taste it near the end to see if you need more sugar to balance the lemon, or more lemon if you want more of a marmalade taste.

I also made Mulled Plum Jam, which is great. Use about pint of wine, the juice of a large orange, and a little water instead of the water in the recipe above. Also add a few spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger, or other mulling spices. This recipe may have trouble setting, so you may need to add some apple, lemon, or pectin as well. I used a little lemon, and a little added pectin. I have heard of people adding raisons or some kind of dead grape to this recipe too. I would hate that, but you may not!

You can use plum recipes with any plum-like fruit too, e.g. peaches, nectarines, greengages, damsons. If using damsons it may be easier to pick the stones out later, as they’re small and difficult to get out with a knife. Other ideas are plum/peach and ginger and plum and brandy.

Happy jamming!!

Wanted: Social consience. Alive please.

In fact thought I'd do another tonight in stead, as it's a way of avoiding tidying my room :)

This is kinda a ranty antidote to all the serious proper concepts related above. Fingers crossed for increased fun! It begins, as all things should, with a story.

Gather round lovely children and I shall tell you a tale.

Once upon a time there was a little boy, and his mummy who lived in Leeds.

Now the little boy, let’s call him Timmy, as going to his friend John’s birthday party, where there would be cake, three different colours of jelly because they weren’t gelatine racists, pass the parcel and all sorts of fun!

John’s mummy and daddy had *even* booked out Enrique the Accordion-Playing Squirrel, especially for the party! So everyone was very excited! Especially Enrique, but less so his parole officer, who had to be present at all times, disguised as a fez.

The party was fancy dress so Timmy and Mummy went into Leeds city centre to find him a costume. Timmy wanted to dress as Cher, but mummy was not very liberal and concerned about what this meant for his developing sexuality so they agreed on him being a cowboy covered in guns.

Whilst they were shopping Timmy started to need the toilet. But there was no toilet for at *least* 15 meters on this busy shopping street in the middle of the day! What to do!

So Mummy took Timmy over to a door next to Wilkinsons, pulled down his trousers and encouraged Timmy to wee against the door of this business whilst everyone else walked past him.

The wee made a stream and crawled across the tarmac that everyone was walking on, and Timmy felt better. So Mummy pulled up his pants and they went to find a cowboy costume.

Wait.

WHAT? 

Previous discussion on tolerance aside, I am frequently *DISGUSTED* by people! (tbh the rant above was about religious tolerance, so tis not as much hypocritical as comically placed.)

On a busy shopping street, in the day, or *wherever* you are, do NOT teach your child that is OK to urinate on someone’s door because you need the toilet. If you need the toilet, you find a toilet! If you are that desperate, find somewhere quiet at least! There is no justification for this shameful excuse for a mother because there were several cafes and a station around that area she could have gone into, and a few alleys too if the situation were that dire.

A little more social conscience would make the world a thousand times nicer to live in. A little bit of treating your neighbour like you’d like to be treated etc etc. Looking after your community and so on. This does *not* mean you have to volunteer to prune the roses in your local park, or teach challenged children to make potato stamps, it just means things like clearing up after yourself, sometimes picking up rubbish that isn’t yours, not playing your music too loud and smiling at people in the street.

We all know how infectious a smile and “good morning!” are between strangers, and you can start these good feelings moving around *so* easily.

By infectious smile I mean, like making people happy, not giving them facial herpes.

Also- if you listen to headphones or something, which can be heard at *all* by other people, there will be hate and anger. I guarantee it. Because hypocritically it will be me grinding my teeth and glaring at you whilst your ears radiate even a quiet tish tish tish tish or bm bm bm bm bm, which to me feels like a cheese-grater on my recently flayed skull.

Seriously.

Anyway that aside. God I hate people. TAKE YOUR RUBBISH WITH YOU!! Or Enrique will hunt you down. He has a history of anti-socially prompted GBH. He hate’s iPods. And not even his parole officer will be able to help. Esp if you were listening to Basshunter, after which it'd be surpising if you could tell what any part of your flesh or bone used to be. At least without a lot of forensic pathology experience, and an iron clad stomach.

Love and hugs!! :D

PS I did actually find a picture of a squirrel in a fez, but it a was very disturbing and horrible example of taxidermy being basically a sad frozen animal, dressed up for sick amusement by people and sold for cash. Ick.

Religious Toler-rants

I am not a Catholic. I am not really an anything. I am an apathetic, liberal pragmatist- so much so that I don’t want to use a word as definite as atheist, or a word with as much potential as agnostic. I’m secular. Just, secular.

I love the ideas involved in modern Christianity, and I wish I found it believable, because I can see the support and comfort that it gives to people’s lives. But I certainly have far too scientific a mind, and have not had proof enough to believe in divinities. I love the sense of community it gives people. I love the historical values: churches as beautiful historical buildings, and the way religion has shaped our history.

(I should say at this point, that this discussion really uses Christianity as an example of religion because I am very familiar with it, as my background is white British, and my school was sort of relaxed academic Catholic. Not because other religions are less useful, I just know less about them.)

All peoples developed religion at some point in their culture’s development with similar themes- it seems to be an essential anthropomorphic development. Religion helped to understand and explain our world; it helps deal with trouble in our lives; it protects us from the bleak and depressing ideas of mortality, insignificance and helplessness. It performs vital social functions, creating a collective of believers, and adding cohesion to a community.

The immortal, allowed us to deal with being mortal. 

This is a phenomenon all cultures have in common, but it is seen as an insurmountable difference. It is in fact something that connects all human history in various different parallels and demonstrates the same mental function in all groups.

Many of us no longer believe in a divine character or pantheon. Technology has taken the place of many of these needs, in ways that are tangible, visible, provable. Science can also provide explanations or hope for many of our problems in life. And regarding social functions, there are many other things which add social cohesion to a nation, particularly in a literate nation, and after the invention of modern media. If I tell you to “Use The Force!” you will almost certainly understand this, because this is a modern shared reference for almost everyone.

 But that does not mean that religion is useless, antiquated, or should have scorn poured on it by those of us who do not believe.

Modern Christianity contains great ideas about the way we should live and the way we should act towards others. A social responsibility is fairly central to the lessons we are most familiar with. This is something I feel very strongly about, because many people have very strange (or absent) ideas about social responsibility. You do not have to believe in the deity being discussed to believe that the lessons taught in his name are positive ideas.

It also helps us with a function of religion that science cannot assist with.

No-one likes to contemplate their own mortality. This is something that science still cannot solve, and in the face of this people turn back to their Gods. It is hard for people to accept that all there is to life is these short years, and although we can see dying and and corpses, people *need* to believe that this is not the end. People turn to God when they have no choice, at the death of a loved one, when facing their own mortality; when medical science begins to let them down.

A religion can give them the comfort and hope to help people deal with these very emotionally traumatic times. And who would deny them this hope at their time of need, because you don’t believe in the power that is helping them cope?

On Sundays as I drive to work, on Radio Two, there is a programme with Aled Jones, of Walking in the Air fame. It has a lot more focus on religion than most BBC programming, and it normally features a speaker talking about recent events in their life, often mentioning the effect of their faith in this situation.

I do not share this faith, but I never fail to be touched to the point of tears, at the comfort and strength that these people have found with God.

I also very much enjoy Pause for Thought. I do not subscribe to the belief system that is delivering the thought, but they are brilliant things to ponder and hopefully improve your daily life, the way we think about ourselves and the way we treat others.

As the Pope is currently visiting the UK, we have all heard endless debates between people on all sides of this issue. Devout Catholics and very assured atheists verbally throttling each other, people getting very upset over the cost etc.

(Yes- we are paying a lot for his state visit, but the point is he is a head of state as well as a religious leader, and as a head of state this is something taxes pay towards.)

So basically. BE TOLERANT! Does it matter if you believe different things? Look for things you can appreciate in the beliefs of others, and respect that, whether it be a particular ideal that is taught, a character or friend of that religion whom you like, beautiful art done in its name... something. 

Rather uninspiring conclusion- no-one is forcing you to agree, but wouldn’t it be nice if everyone were nice?

If everything above looks like soppy idealism it’s because I am a soppy idealist. But I also think if no-one spreads soppy idealism, the ideal will never occur.

If you don’t like any of this. You’ll prob at least enjoy the “Benedictaphone.” 

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11278500 )

I shall write a fun post tomorrow so I don't lose my audience due to this MASSIVE rant.

Love and hugs!