Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Radio Day

Yesterday, between bouts of vomiting, I spent dozing and half-listening to Radio 4, which was a largely painless and often rewarding experience, tho the endless churning of news and programme trailers was irksome. It seemed to be Atheism Day, with the dreaded Dennett on Start the Week, where he (the No 1 Bright) seemed pretty dull against our own Raymond Tallis (also an atheist, but of a humane, tolerant bent). But then came the Afternoon Play - an extraordinary affair, titled Grace and co-written by one Mick Gordon and, er, Prof A.C. 'the Hair' Grayling. The heroine (Grace!) was a ghastly, shrieking, bullying, castrating woman driven by fanatical atheism, whose party piece seemed to be a gleeful unpicking of William Paley (very cutting edge). She's driven into a Medea-like fury when her son decides to (hoho) become a priest. I must have nodded off (several times probably) because next thing it seems the son has been killed in some kind of Islamist atrocity (religion, you see - it kills people) and she is belatedly setting about a spot of self-questioning - apparently by having her brain electrically stimulated in the hope of having a 'religious experience'. All very strange. I suppose it might have worked if Grace hadn't been so loud and hysterical and entirely alienating. It certainly didn't do anything to further the atheist cause - or maybe, in the eyes of atheists, it did. Most things do.

7 comments:

  1. was you really vomiting? there's a lot of it about.

    the only thing I caught yesterday - on R4 - while driving back from the office was a bit of nonsense called As Told To Craig Brown. It was rather compelling, I thought, but I was in the car on the M5 at the time. Prezza seemed to be giving instructions on what to do in the event of a fire, and someone else, who could have been Charlotte Green, was being the audio version of my brand new car's manual. There was a funny bit from a philosopher whose name I forget (what do I know of philosophy?!) trying to get to the airport on time.
    if you're still poorly, here it is...
    as told to craig brown

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  2. Cheers Ian - yes I enjoyed that one, tho I missed the philosopher.

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  3. You may be interested in the distinction this thoughtful Anglican priest makes between humourless atheists (Dawkins, Dennett, et al.) and sophisticated, reasonable ones like Tallis:

    http://elizaphanian.blogspot.com/2008/02/reasonable-atheism-central-post.html

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  4. Thanks for that, Welsh - he's good isn't he - must explore that site further...

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  5. Hope you're feeling better today, Nige! I'm about to cast my vote for Obama (which will be nullified by my hub's casting his for Hillary) and then we are going on a long, long bike ride around a lake called Peace.

    Peace out, guys.

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  6. The first time I saw Darwin's Dangerous Idea in a bookshop I Thought the Jehovah's witnesses had published it. If you think Dennett ain't a bundle of laughs, study that lot (education is a distraction etc)
    Susan's comments on households voting style is interesting, Malty Towers always vote for the same candidate, the one Frau Malty tells me to vote for.
    Nige, must take you to task, you have missed the most important event of the year, no, not the BAFTAs, Ikea's 21st birthday, yes 21 years in Britain, what on earth did we do before they arrived ? lutefisk to them.

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  7. Thanks Malty - you've given me a subject...

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