This has been some while in coming but mostly because I have had quite a lot to do. I had a good day out on the Wsadale fells yesterday - a clear sky, very cold but excellent nonetheless. I had set a target of completing all of the Wainwright fells by December 2007 but with 29 to go this is going to take a lot longer. Golf has taken over as the number one outdoor pursuit! It just is not excellent golfing weather.
Books - Confusion going slowly but it is going... Derren Brown - Tricks of the mind - finished on Friday - a useful trip round the how the human mind works and can be manipulated. Stupendous rebuttal of "psychics" and "mediums" - worth the ocver price on this chapter alone. Unfortunately he feels the need to poke at the religious debate and I feel that this cheapens and weakens his work and his desire to massage the ego of that arch idiot Richard Dawkins, just serves to take the edge of what is otherwise a very good book.
On the subject of Dawkins, I am now readng Alistair McGraths book "The Dawkin Delusion" which is a splendid; if short, crack at the lack of logical reasoning in Dawkins book. I fear that Dawkins is merely another celebrity now and would not have sold quite as many copies of his dreadful diatribe had it not been for his "name" and the deliberately contentious nature of the book's title. I suspect that a good number of the purchasers have not actually read the book and even if they did would not have the intellectual capacity to see through the rather weak and poorly rehearsed arguments presented. I think Mr Dawkins book sells well precisely because people are looking for "something else" in their lives and if only they could "put it to bed", then they would feel better about not looking any more. This could work if they read it, but as I said, I wonder just how many "readers" he has.
The kind of God in which I believe is, I think, a good deal different to the commonly portrayed example. I have a strong scientific background and the whole raft of issues currently surrounding "reality" give us a glimpse into the real nature of God. As I read more I'll flesh this out further but I cant help but feel a twinge of excitement with the whole atheism / theology debate, that it is long overdue and has a great potential to advance the whole of human wellbeing.
Anyhow I have done a bit more toward the annual Christmas Card manufacture marathon o they should be out in time! I have also managed to cook a three course meal:
Celeriac soup with saffron and scallops
Crabcakes with lemon mayo and parsnip/sweet potato chips and Thai salad
Black Forest Gateau
The Gateau mentioned does nothing for the actual process of creation, requiring manufacture of a Kirsch cream, flourless sponge, chocolate ganache, madeleine biscuit and aerated milk chocolate. That Heston Blumethal has a lot to answer for...
Now to eat it as I am writing this between courses.
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