Religiosity and Fertility

A fascinating article about the relationship between religiosity and fertility can be found here http://moreintelligentlife.com/story/faith-equals-fertility

Basically it seems that religious communities (of whatever religion) produce more offspring than agnostics and atheists. If this is so, it should help Richard Dawkins' arguments for evolution but not his position as an atheist. Atheists will gradually evolve out of existence as the more religious communities increase in number.

The jury is still out on the reasons for this phenomenon. It may be that believers have larger families because of what they believe, or it could be that having a larger family predisposes you to be more open to religious belief. If the latter is the case then Dawkins and his motley crew of atheists are stuffed again ..... if they try and increase the population of atheists by having larger families they are more likely to "get religion" and their children will follow suite, so the population of atheists will actually go down. Perhaps Dr Dawkins ought to carve a niche for himself and become a specialist in "religious evolution" rather than just general evolution.

Traumatic Week

Rather a traumatic week this week. Last weekend Mrs Journeyman and I took advantage of the fact that Journeyman Junior had gone on a school trip to Germany, and went for a Christmas shopping weekend in Norwich. It was bitterly cold, but apart from that things went fine until about 2.00pm on Saturday. Standing in the middle of John Lewis' Mrs Journeyman's mobile phone goes off. Even on a weekend away she feels obliged to answer ..... so, answer she did. It was the girls at home to report that the cat had had a freak accident and was now at the emergency vets with a mangled leg, the like of which the vet had never seen before. The only practical option was to have her put down. So there we were in the middle of John Lewis' having to make life or death decisions with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth at both ends of the phone.
"Can I help you, madam," asked the manager in the furniture department. "I don't think so," said I, "we're in the middle of a major family crisis!" "Oh, I'm sorry," he replied, "I'm afraid that is something we can't help with" and he wandered off to accost someone else, leaving us to our trauma.
The girls had calmed down a bit by the time we got home the following afternoon, but Journeyman Junior wasn't due back from Germany until later that evening when we had to break the news to him, accompanied, as you might imagine, by more weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.
Exactly one week later we now have a new kitten. Grey tabby with a white tummy. 5 months old. The rescue centre said her name was Lola and there seems to be general agreement to keep that name, although she doesn't actually seem to respond to it. Seems to have settled in well ......... watch this space for further developments.

The Strange World of Economics

I'm no expert on economics and have long struggled with the strange notion that when house prices fall they say it is a bad thing. Common sense would dictate that when house prices fall more people will be able to afford to buy a house, therefore it must be a good thing. I appreciate that when people have borrowed a high percentage of the price of a house and then the value drops, and then they want to sell, they are rather stuffed, but surely a house is something you buy to live in, not to make money on?

But this week's goings on seem even stranger. We are facing a severe "credit crunch". The main reason for this seems to be that for a long time people have been spending too much. And to fund that spending they have been borrowing more than they can afford to pay back. Now pay-back time has finally been called, things go pear-shaped. So what does the Government do to try and help? It reduces VAT with the declared intention of encouraging people to spend more! Are they mad? Are they really so short sighted that they have forgotten the fact that we are only in this mess because people spent too much in the first place? They should be encouraging people to only spend the money they have got, not encouraging the financial institutions to lend them even more.

Stuff is really nothing

Interesting find of the week - according to New Scientist, physicists have now proved mathematically that material stuff (i.e. everything around us) is really no more than "fluctuations in the quantum vacuum". In other words, stuff is really nothing. So if scientists can take what everybody knows to be true and prove the complete opposite, how much easier should it be for them to "prove" the existence of God - something that the majority of the world's people believe to be true anyway? And if they did, would Professor Dawkins and his cronies then change their attitude? Hmmm ..... interesting concept. Professor Dawkins bases his atheism on the lack of scientific evidence for the existence of God. But if his fellow scientists provided a scientific proof (which, it appears, they are now quite capable of doing), would he then believe it?

Christian v "Green"

I am an avid follower of Sam Norton's blog "Elizaphanian" but a recent posting annoyed me somewhat .......
"the criteria for decision making between the Christian and the Green eventually diverge. The Christian is finally concerned with human flourishing; the Green is finally concerned with the health of the planet."

Does he think that being "Green" is a religion in its own right that poses some kind of threat to Christianity? Or does he just think that life is to be led in little boxes or cubicles from which we should be shielded from the thoughts and activities of the people in different boxes?

"Green" is used as a term to indicate someone's interests and concerns. It doesn't mean they are not interested in anything else. You can have a "Green Christian" just as easily as you can have a "Conservative Christian" or a "Socialist Christian". Not only is this a possibility but, I would say, it is essential for Christians to be "green", given the mandate in Genesis to be stewards of the Earth.

Sam goes on "I don't believe that a Christian perspective can see the environment as an end in itself." ...... " The Christian seeks the elimination of the sin, with a glad consequence of restoring environmental health."
This sounds very much like a "sitting on the fence" position to me........ a blame culture. His stereotypical Green, on the other hand, would say "Never mind why it happened or who is responsible .... what are we going to do about it?"
If you ever read this, Sam, which do you think is the most Christ-like approach?

What is the Church?

Good quote from Bishop Gene Robinson while being hassled about his homosexuality :-

“None of us is on the selection committee. God is on a committee of one, and he is the selection committee. We are all brothers and sisters in Christ. The most likeable and the most unlikeable, the most loving and the most hateful are all God’s children. It’s time for us to stop worrying so much about the Church. The Church is not ours to win or lose. The Church is God’s.”

It must be true - I read it in the paper!

It never ceases to amaze me how the local press can take simple facts and draw completely the wrong conclusions from them. The latest example is in the Evening Gazette (7.11.08). The headline declares "Official: we're second most relaxing town". The article goes on to explain that Colchester has been ranked the second least stressful place to live in the country. The reason for this ranking is, apparently, the fact that we have the second highest ratio of stress relieving businesses and organizations to population in the country. These include massage therapists, yoga classes, anger management groups and leisure centres. Colchester boasts one of these to every 4,600 population. But what sustains these businesses? Surely the fact that they are all still in business points to the fact that Colchester is one of the most stressed areas of the country ...... otherwise they would have no customers. I appreciate the local rag trying to put a positive spin on things but the evidence does not really support the headline.