James Varda – Achingly beautiful new album! I hope James is well! It does not sound good.

Posted on by Opher

I’m playing the new album by James Varda – Chance and Time. It is beautiful but so incredibly poignant.

I hope James is taking an artistic stance but this sounds like his valedatory last offering.

Life may be just one thing after another but it is so full of wonder and awe. It means so much to me as well, James. That’s what hurts so much. It could be so wonderful. I live in England’s civilised Eden, complete with wild birds, blue and green, and I see the fanatics reducing it to brown dirt and red blood.

I want to pass the idyll on – not the disaster we are creating.

This album is so atmospheric and emotionally charged. It is surely Jame’s best album.

It’s not quite too late. That sun may still shine on us. I hope it shines on you James. You’re a source of light and warmth. We need your sensitivity to build a new zeitgeist!

What a talent. What a delight.
What a wonderful album that takes you on that life journey.

Public Services – We need quality!

Posted on by Opher

While some small minority is in a financial position to no longer require public services the majority of us would appreciate quality.
When I am on an operating table I would like to be in the hands of a superb surgeon.
I would like to be quickly diagnosed by an expert GP treated and cared for by a motivated nurse.
When I am threatened or have suffered a burglary I would like enthusiastic and skilled police to protect me and investigate with some hope of bringing the felons to justice.
I would like my grandchildren being taught in happy schools to really high standards by expert teachers.
I want fires put out by highly trained firemen, bins emptied, roads maintained and the council run effectively.

Why is it that some people think that these jobs are not vital? That these professions are not highly skilled? That these public servants are not worthy of our appreciation?

Why is it that the damage created by the politicians and bankers is being paid for by the public services?

Why is it that the public services are being subject to redundancy, pay freezes, puny 1% pay rises, worsened conditions of service and drastically reduced pensions?

Supposedly we are all in this together. So why tax cuts for the top end? Why inheritance hand-outs? Bonuses and pay rises in double figures for politicians and bankers?

Where is the justice? Fairness? Equality??

Clearly we are not all in this together!

If you create misery among our public servants it will be no surprise when it all goes pear-shaped!

Anthropocene Apocalypse – World population now heads for 11 billion!!

Posted on by Opher

The average size family in the Yemen is 7 children. This is a pattern mirrored in most of the third world and many parts of Africa.

It is unsustainable.

We are destroying our planet, using all the resources, ravaging the wilderness, chopping down the forest and eating anything that moves.

The world is being devastated.

Seemingly this is God’s will and destiny. That is what is so appalling about religion!!

We need some sanity. Help build a better zeitgeist!

Read all about it. What are the solutions?

Al-Shabab beheads quarry workers for not being Muslim. Where are the moderate voices?

Posted on by Opher

Al-Shabab and IS are both targeting non-muslims. The penalty for not being a Muslim is death.
If you cannot recite tracts from the Koran without a flaw you are shot or beheaded.

Seems a little bit extreme to me but I still haven’t heard all those moderate Muslims speaking out against this bigoted intolerance and extreme savagery.

What would the response be if British thugs decided to butcher all Muslims in Britain? Would that provoke a response?

It is time that reasonable, civilised Muslims speak out against all violence.

Help build a new positive zeitgeist!! Two wrongs never make a right!! Violence breeds violence!!

Islamophobia

Posted on by Opher

I was accused of being Islamophobic. I wanted to make it quite clear that I am not. I am an extremely tolerant antitheist. I do not care what belief system any person adheres to. I believe that all beliefs are equally daft but that everybody is entitled to their own views. I would stand up to support the right of anybody having whatever faith they want. I would love to see the demised of all organised religions. I think they are responsible for a lot of the world’s wrongs but I would want to bring this about through discussion, logic and sanity and not through violence.
I happen to believe that Islam is the biggest offender against human rights in the present day. It is intolerant, violent, dogmatic, bigoted and extremely primitive in its ideology.
But I am not Islamophobic.
However, I am completely opposed to:

a. Indoctrination (particularly of young children)
b. Enforcement of rituals, dress-codes and practices associated with religion
c. Female circumcision
d. Misogyny and misogynistic practice (such as disenfranchising women, preventing women being educated, making women wear veils, burqas and shapeless clothing, making women walk paces behind men, preventing women driving cars, keeping women locked indoors, stoning women to death for having been raped etc.)
e. Barbaric stoning to death
f. Barbaric beheadings
g. Flying airplanes full of innocent people into buildings full of innocent people
h. Punishments and death sentences for apostasy

I believe in tolerance, equality and freedom. I believe it is essential that all civilised people should speak out against abuse to human rights.
I wish moderate Muslims would speak out against the atrocities being carried out in their name. The fact that they are largely silent says it all!
I believe people should have the right to chose a faith or no faith and the right to change their minds.
I believe that the murderers who are orchestrating out suicide bombings, stonings, beheadings, torture and gang-rapes under the guise of religious doctrine are guilty of crimes against all humanity and should be locked away for life.
No sane god would sanction such cruel, savage behaviour. They are fanatic fundamentalists who are deluding themselves and others.

Sharing this planet with the fanatics of any religious persuasion is a frustrating, infuriating, bewildering and demoralising experience. They are all the low point of human civilisation. It is incredible to me that these savages really believe they are carrying out the wishes of any god or religious doctrine.

Surely it is time for all reasonable people to speak out!!

Read what I think of religion in my three books:

Sex!!! Part 7 – Relationships and babies.

Posted on by Opher

Because of our big brains babies take a long time to grow. They need a lot of nurturing and looking after. They take forever to become independent (around sixty years!)
Because of this they need two parents to provide the care, love and stimulation.
It’s bloody hard work.
Hence evolution has created a mechanism to ensure babies are brought up and cared for. It is pair-bonding. We call it love.
We fall in love and stay together. It’s all to do with hormones, pheromones and chemistry.
Being in love is a biological phenomenon evolved to keep two animals together long enough to bring their children up to an age when they are relatively independent (round about the age of sixty five!)
Being in love causes changes in brain chemistry resulting in euphoria, obsession with the partner and intense sexual stimulation. This great sex results in babies.
The intensity reduces but the relationship is fostered by this chemistry. It usually lasts for about seven years – long enough for a child to become relatively self-sufficient.
We need both partners to bring up a child.
In Africa they say that it takes a whole village to bring up a baby!

Sex!!! Part 6 – the female orgasm

Posted on by Opher

Males have a puny orgasm. The female orgasm is thirty times greater.

There are good evolutionary reasons for this.

Firstly it is a good idea to exhaust the female so that she lies on her back for a period of time. This allows the sperm to be activated and swim out of the vagina into the relative safety of the uterus. If females got up and started walking about straight after sex then the sperm would end up on the floor.
Secondly the contractions of the uterus actively suck the sperm up into the uterus.

Hence it is a good idea for the male to come first and deposit the sperm prior to the female reaching an orgasm!

Evolution is a wondrous thing!!

The problem is that it has become too effective. Humans are no longer subjected to enough selection pressure. We have killed our predators, prevented disease and ensured lots of food and water. Hence we are producing more babies than we need and the population is spiralling out of control.

We need to put this right with intelligence.

Read about the effects of overpopulation in my book Anthropocene Apocalypse.

Sex!!! Part 5 – Religion and babies!!

Posted on by Opher

We have big brains.

In order to develop big brains we have to have a lot of nurturing. This brain development begins inside the uterus. We have to nurture babies in the uterus for 9 months while their brains grow.

By the time they are ready to be born they have big brains and big heads. This makes birth a problem. If women had been designed they would have big openings to deliver babies through. Unfortunately they have evolved and not been created. They have to try to squeeze the baby out of the vagina. The baby’s head is so big it can hardly fit through. Birth is consequently dangerous for mother and child. There are lots of deaths, injuries, pain and brain damage.

If a god had designed this then he is incompetent or vindictive. It is not however designed by any god; it has evolved through mutation and is hence not as good as it could be.

Having babies and menstruating are two ways in which misogynous societies (coming from the patriarchal Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions) put down women. They make out that menstruation is dirty, sex is dirty, childbirth pain is just reward for having had sex and that women are to blame!

Religion does not like sex. It tries to blame women and thus justifies making them second-class citizens.

There’s nothing wrong with sex. It’s a good biological mechanism for reproducing. There’s nothing dirty or unclean about it.

Religion just likes to control and suppress people.

The problem with sex is that it produces too many children. We are overpopulated and destroying the world. We need to limit our numbers and use contraception. We need to use our intelligence before we destroy the world.

Read all about the folly of religion in my novel The Book of Ginny.

or

or perhaps he more humorous

Or read about how overpopulation is destroying the environment

Sex!!! Part 4 – A woman’s choice.

Posted on by Opher

Women choose who to have sex with!

Women can only have a limited number of children.
Men can father thousands.

Women make themselves attractive to lure in as many males as possible and then select which is the highest status male available.

Men home in on females and choose the highest status available. They are not so choosey.

Women are selecting mates for their genes. They want a high status male with good genes to join with their own so that their children have better survival opportunities. Women look for quality.

Men look for quantity. The more women they can impregnate the most chance they have of getting children (genes) into the next gene pool.

Sex!! Part 3 – Sex on land

Posted on by Opher

When fish moved on land they had lots of problems. One was the common cloaca and the other was sex.

The common cloaca works in water but is not good on land. It is not good having faeces and urine in your vagina or urethra. It causes infections. Bacteria invade your tubing!
Evolution worked to separate the tubing so that there are still separate openings for faeces, urine and eggs but they are still closely bound together hence there is still contamination and infection. This is because we have evolved and not been created.

If there was a god who designed a system so poor as this then he was either incompetent, rather unpleasant or had a terrible sense of humour. Who else would put a sewer through the playground?

The first land fish (amphibians) had to go back to the water to breed.

The later land animals (Reptiles, Birds and Mammals) evolved to reproduce on land. They developed vaginas, penises and uteruses.
The male squirted the sperm into the females body so that they could swim to the eggs through her body fluids. Problem solved. The foetus could then either be laid in a protective egg or develop internally in the female.

It enabled the successful colonisation of land!

This is the result of human sex – loads of babies – overpopulation and destruction of the natural resources!

Or perhaps you like the religious inhibition of sex?

Perhaps you’d like a novel about the stupidity of religion?