Norman Ralph

I guess that the Almighty wopuld eventually punish me for my infidelity, heresy and down right disbelieving nature evntually. The last week has seen His vengeance in full and glorious Technicolour and Dolby Digital Surround Sound!! It’s almost enough to convert even the hardiest atheist to a religious fanatic. The timing was just too bad to be coincidental.

Now, in case you are worrying that I have gained my faith I can assure you this is just a temprary lapse. I can see why people are religious now, it is amazingly useful to have someone to blame…

It all started a week or so ago whilst I was watching the baseball blue riband event, the Major Leage Baseball World Series, a best-of-seven series of games between the winners of the two professional North American baseball leagues – the National and American Leagues – between the Boston Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies. Game one is a big event, so I was staying up to watch Five’s live coverage of it. During the seventh inning stretch I was popping downstairs to fetch a drink when I missed the bottom step and went over on my ankle After a prolonged trip to A&E I was diagnosed with torn ligaments in my left ankle. After a little wait I left equipped with crutches and a bag of pain killers. It has been a while since I last had to use crutches and the skill required to use them seems to have evaded me. I seem to spend more time on the floor with the crutches than without!

The worse thing about injuring my ankle was the fact that it prevented me from driving, which kind of messed up my weekend plans. Firstly, arrived on Thursday for a quick visit and I was supposed to be driving her home and then on the Sunday i was supposed to be attending a family Christening in Northwich, Cheshire and then on the following Tuesday I had planned to visit Liz in Lincoln! In the end then I had to call my mother and have her drive to Leeds, pick Liz and I up on the Friday and drop Liz off at the train station then take me home to Kirkham. After a rather lazy Saturday we attended the Christening of Isabel Emma, my cousin Helen’s baby. I probbaly wouldn’t have attended this Christening under normal circumstances – I am really not a bug fan of the Catholic way of indoctrinating babies and their families – but it was the first time that my entire family had got together for over a decade. By the end of the day we were only missing three members! This is remarkable as half my family live in New Zealand!

Tuesday saw my mum and I rise at 3.30am so we could drive the 150 miles from Kirkham to Potterhanworth so as to arrve in time to pick liz up and get her to Lincoln for 8.30. It is a long time since I have experienced a day that seemed to last so long. Due to a number of circumstances it was a really tough dayto start with, add to that the fact that I was awake for a good twenty-odd hours and that I had barely slept the night before and you can picture the scene. Anyway, the day went without too many hitches and we all made it home safely, which I guess is the main thing. Many thanks to my Mum for her help and dedication to the cause!

As an aside, Tuesday also saw the first meeting of Liz’s parents and my mother. I think it went ok, although not the ebst circumstances to be honest. Hopefully they got on ok and don’t want to kill each other just yet.

Anyway, as you have just read it has been an eventful week to say the least and an insightful one as well.

I’ve just finished reading a blog post on moderation and anti-fundamentalism and it got me thinking about a number of things. Firstly, is the age old question of fundamentalism. Is it wrong to believe something so strongly that you pursue it with all your might, literally in some cases? I still cannot make up my mind, my fellow A-Soc member Chris Worfolk says that moderation in religion is wrong, a cop out even in his article “The problem With Religious Moderates”. I am not entirely convinced by his arguments, I like to think that there is room even within the most deep set of principles for self censorship and the need to balance your convictions against the freedom of those around you. It is important as a religious commentator that balance is given to all arguments. It is fine blasting non-fundamentalists for failing at their religion as long as you continue that crusade against all non-fundamentalists in every walk of life. Every conviction out there can be followed fundamentally. If fundamentalism was to be applauded then shouldn’t we all be members of the BNP or the Communist Party? Extremism is not the same as fundamentalism, I think it is important that is clarified, but all fundamentalists are extremists in the modern sense.

I like the idea of fundamentalism, I think it allows an easy life. The rules and thought processes are simple. you just follow the guidelines set down by your conviction be it religion, racism, anti-semetism or just that all meals must be eaten at the dinner table! However, there is no flexibility in it, which is the crux of the issue for me. We need flexibility. We need to be able to say “wait a minute?”. There must be room for criticism, for question, for reason.

As an atheist I am often barraged with the question, “But, isn’t Atheism a religion?”. I am often forced to concede that certain aspects of the atheists beliefs can be construed as religious. Especially with idealogies such as Buddhism and Humanism. I, however, an neither of the above. I am an atheist. I have no reason to believe ina god or gods, so I don’t. Is it, therefore, possible for me to be a fundamentalist atheist? I am sure that there are many out there who would say that some of my actions within A-Soc and in public could be cinstrued as fundamental. I am not known for my lack of convictions. However, as a rational thinker I require flexibility. None of my convictions are set in stone. This would pique the author of the initial article as he suggests that weak convictions are a curse on society. it would also cause some concern for my esteemed colleague, Chris, as he maintains his convisitons as the bedrock of his motivation to pursue his goals for A-Soc World Domination!

Anyway, I hope some of you enjoyed this little discussion and I welcome your comments on the issue!

Why is it that sometimes we are the architects of our own downfall? Why is it that even when things are amazing and perfect we sabotage it? Why is it that we are never happy unless the world is collapsing around our ears?

I wish I knew the answer to those questions. I think it would make some things a lot clearer to me. Sometimes I wonder if there are answers out there, or whether there are things we will never know? I am a believer in knowledge. I bel;ieve that if we know enough about our universe and our history we have power over it, not in the metaphysical way, but in our own lives. If we can predict our actions, our responses to stimuli, based on past experience and a knowledge of our surroundings then we can control it. It is why I am a rationalist, I think that everything cann be explained away. That ever question has an answer and that answer is fully understandable and comprehendable by man. There is no need for someone to pull my strings.

However, if there are no answers then what is there? I say that every question has an answer, but does every answer have a question? Is that even relavent?

I guess these late night rants….

**We interrupt this programme to bring you the latest movements (literally) on my corridor**

Kara has just appeared at my door (note to self – shut door) to discuss random crap, giggled and then went to the toilet – which happens to be 2 feet from where I am sitting. She is remarkably quiet. Chris isn’t!

**End transmission**

…where was I? oh yeah, late night rants.

I’ve actually forgotten what I was going to say, so I think we will leave that there.

Night.

As I am sure many of you are aware my life has been in somewhat of a state of flux recently. New housemates, new girlfriend, new friends, new job, new starts, new found enjoyment of life etc etc all add up to something resembling upheaval in my life. I am not generally one for getting too flustered by most things, in fact it is often pointed out as a personality flaw that I tend to not to publicly experience highs or lows.

Well, I thought I would take a few moments and take some sort of stock of where I am at the moment and what I think of a few things.

I will start with my domestic situation. It has come to my attention that I tend to play quite a downer on my family, particularly my parents and that is something that does not accurately reflect my current relationships with both my mother and my father. My mother is a proverbial god send. I do not know where I would be without her. We do not agree on everything and we have been known to have some rather passionate disagreements over the years. I will say though, that we are probably as close now as we have ever been. She is my confidant and the one I seem to turn too when things are hard. I realise that she does tend to only see the worse side of me when we get together, but then I do seem to only turn to her when I am at a loss and cannot fathom any other solution. Anyway, thanks for everything you have done and probably will do over the next few years!

My father is a different matter altogether. He has been absent since I was very young and hence I have never really experienced a father-son relationship with him. To be honest, it was never something that I felt was necessary, not until I moved to Leeds and started to look at my life and try to make some head or tails of it. Since then it has been something of a rollercoaster, with a lot of downs along the way. At the moment though, there seems to be something amiss as we have barely spoken (through no lack of trying on my part) for a a few months now.

Now, onto the good news. Liz and I are flourishing. I think it is safe to say that the initial honey moon period is probably over and yet we are still as strong as ever. Which is always a good sign. I know I have a habit of jumping into these things with both feet, but I feel that if something is worth doing and caring about then its worth doing properly and with all of your heart. It brings to mind one of my favoured quotations, although the name of the quoter escapes me temporarily….”Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.” It always manages to instill me with a sense of duty and inspiration to go out and achieve whatever it is I am aiming for. In summary then, I am in love.

The current friends situation is also quite rosy with no great fallings out going on or any on the horizon. I am probably not paying enough attention to all my friends across the country, but I think I am doing OK. As mentioned previously, I have found a new level of relationship with many of the people I know. Namely, Si and George. Mine and Sarann’s relationship also seems to be going from strength to strength at the moment. I am really loving living with her. I think the closeness of our working relationship over the Summer has really helped and done a massive favour for our personal relationship. I now consider her one of my very closest friends. Otherwise a lot of my friendships are as steady as they ever were and I am still loving my new housemates! It’s turning out to be a lot of fun!

I have been reading a lot this Summer, mainly around atheism and related topics. I am hoping to really get my teeth into running A-Soc this year as Secretary. I’m looking forward to taking a more active role within union politics too. I have a lot to say about a lot of things, not just religion based, although that is my area of knowledge at the moment, and I definitely feel I have a future in politics. I realise that my relatively right wing attitude can often be construed as unhelpful and unproductive in a student environment, but I feel that a lot of my ideas are fairly central and often liberal in nature. I am very much a centre-right thinking person. With traditionally conservative views on crime, punishment, immigration and capitalism. Although my views on families, homosexuality and religion are particularly liberal in stance.

In other news, I am looking forward to Solfest in August, going to prague with Liz for my birthday and the start of the new term. I can’t wait to see how my rediscovered zest for life will be transferred to my work and study environment.

Roll on the rest of Summer!

Lizzie’s train was at 10.40am. I woke up at 10.30. Liz had to be back in Lincoln for 2pm and had missed the last train to get her there in time. This meant a 150 mile round trip to Lincoln and back whilst a little hungover. Not that I minded, seeing Liz was well worth the effort. in fact I am missing her already.

On my return I met up with B and went to an RNA Tumour Virus lecture, which was remarkably interesting seeing as I understood very little of what was being said. You have to respect a lecturer that opens their lecture with “How can I get my wife to agree to let me watch the Man Utd game tonight?”

I had an A-Soc meeting at 6pm, so seeing as it was just before 5 when B and I got out of lecture we decided on pub. I’m glad we went, there have been some undercurrents of tension building up recently of which I was totally unaware. Speaking to b got a lot of that sorted out I think.

Todays A-Soc meeting was our EGM to elect soem new committee members and fiddle with the constitution a little. I am now officially the secretary of A-Soc, an executive committee position (ie a position of power). The constitutional changes were also to the benefit of the society, watering down some of the president’s dictatorial powers and giving the exec committee and normal committee a lot more say and decision making powers.

Due to a booking mess-up, we only could meet for an hour so we ended up in the Old Bar to finish off. B and I stayed to watch the football – Man Utd vs AC Milan.

It was a cracking game, 3-2 to Man U, Rooney in the 93rd minute! Now if Man Utd don’t lose at the San Siro next week then we will be guarenteed an English Winner of the Champions League. the other semi-final is Chelsea vs Liverpool.

While at Sarann’s this week, I got involved in a long conversation about religion and rationalism with Kat, Sarann and Joanna.

I am a Rationalist, I belive in what I can prove. I do not believe in a god because I can define no experiment that can prove their existence independently. This means that I cannot consider myself Christian and live according to the Bible. At this stage Sarann pipes up with “Am I a girl?”, an interesting question as how can I belive Sarann is a girl without any evidence? After some debate on definition, I decided the only way to prove Sarann was a girl was by testing her chromosones. However, I act as if she were a girl without this evidence, so – as Joanna asked – why can I not believe in God existing and live my life according to the Bible without the proof? An interesting point.

I decided that, ultimately, the answer lies in the methodology of the proof process. I can define an experiment that can prove that Sarann is a female, this experiment would have repeatable outcomes that could be verified by any number of witnesses. I cannot say the same for proving the existence of a god. I think, in the end that rationalism is determined by the definitions one applies to a situation. I am rationalist and define my rationalism by saying I choose to belive that a god does not exist because there is no evidence to the contrary and that Sarann is a girl becasue there is no evidence to the contrary. Would it be wrong for the opposite to be true? I.e. could it be rational to believe that a god exists until their is proof to the contrary and that Sarann is a boy until there is proof to the contrary? I think not.

This conclusion has led me to the belief that you can be rational and religious.

Today has been fun, I say fun, I mean wierd.

Started off with a telephone call from my Mum, who has agreed to finance me until my next student loan comes in, which is always a good thing. Then had the thrill of a meeting with someone from the NHS who decided that I was relatively fit to look after myself, which is also always good!

Ended up in the Terrace with George, Kara, B, Maths Chris, Kat, Matt, Si, Izzy, Chris and Michelle over the evening – there was much coming and going! I hadn’t been out drinking in ages, so decided to quaff a few pints of Guinness as it is still £2 a pint after St. Paddy’s day. As I got tipsier and tipsier I started to chill out quite a lot, which I have really needed after all the stress of the last few weeks and months. Michelle, Chris and I ended up back at Chris’s as usual, with guest appearances from a drunken B and a seriously pissed off Maths Chris.

The topic got onto freewill, something I feel very strongly about, especially as I do not believe that it is possible to have an omnipotent “creator” and free will. Hence my atheism! After a long debate and various metaphors ranging from breakfast cereals to video players we eventually agreed to disagree. Me and Chris still maintain that free will cannot exist within a theistic belief system and Michelle still thinks it is compatable – although I think we raised some very interesting points for her to think about.

As it got to 3am (having been in the Terrace since 5pm) I called it a night. Just got to grab some sleep ready for my adventures tomorrow – me and Kat are off to Sarann’s for a bit of a holiday.

Night all.