Raising a Glass to The Hitch.

Today is the first anniversary of the death of the irreplaceable Christopher Hitchens. To mark this, I will later today be raising a glass to his memory and numerous accomplishments—but in the meantime I thought some of you might like to revisit the piece I wrote upon hearing of his death last year.

A Wager: Won or Lost?

 

 

Read the free sample of The Realm of the Hungry Ghosts here.

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© 2012 Gary William Murning

Bollocking Christmas Bollocks—I Love It. (Pour Me Another, Mother.)

Yes, I know. Atheist. Secularist. Humanist. Rationalist. Sceptic. Cynic. Tosser (who said that?) So how—I mean, just how—could I even contemplate participating in the whole Christmas charade in any way whatsoever? Well, over the next week or two you will be getting a little more of an insight into that—from the horse’s heretical mouth, so to speak—but in the meantime, a video that many of you will already be familiar with but which sums up my position quite perfectly.

The rather strange-looking, but quite endearing, Tim Minchin singing White Wine in the Sun.

Read the free sample of The Realm of the Hungry Ghosts here.

Buy your copy of The Realm of the Hungry Ghosts now!

© 2012 Gary William Murning

Richard Dawkins Interviewing the Novelist Ian McEwan.

A little short on time and inspiration again, today, but I have, thankfully, an interview that I really must share with you. An atheist and a novelist! How could I not?

All text © 2009 Gary William Murning

David Attenborough’s Going to Hell — Yippee, At Least We’ll Have Good TV!

I’m a little pushed for time (and energy) today, so in lieu of my usual, rambling observations on anything and everything, I thought I’d just share this article on David Attenborough with you.

I was especially interested to read his views on the teaching of creationism and evolution in schools as if they were equivalent, alternative perspectives:

“It’s like saying that two and two equals four, but if you wish to believe it, it could also be five… Evolution is not a theory; it is a fact, every bit as much as the historical fact that William the Conqueror landed in 1066.”

It really is that simple.

© 2009 Gary William Murning except for quotation.

Happy New Year!

My, doesn’t time fly when you’re enjoying yourself? It only seems the briefest of moments since we were all preparing to ring in 2008 and, now, here we are again, on the brink of a fresh, brand spanking new year.

So, here’s wishing you a healthy, fulfilled and safe 2009 — with heaps of good fortune and freedom from superstition!

Normal Gary William Murning Online service will resume in a day or two. Be good or, if not, at least be careful. 😉

© 2008 Gary William Murning

Pissing off the Pontiff.

Oh, dear, it seems that dear old Pope Benedict XVI has gone and done it again — spouting his bigoted, antiquated malevolence, insisting that we need to be saved from a destructive blurring of gender.

‘It was not “out-of-date metaphysics” to “speak of human nature as ‘man’ or woman'”, he said. It came from the “language of creation, despising which would mean self-destruction for humans”.’

Firstly, there are many reasons why it is out-of-date metaphysics to speak of human nature in binary terms. Gender — or sex, if, as I prefer, we’re talking in biological terms — is far more complex than that, and, secondly, to issue a statement which attempts to misrepresent it in this way, throwing in words such as “despising” willy-nilly, isn’t merely irresponsible and unacceptable, it’s evil.

I very much doubt it will be news to my regular readers, but this guy is once again at the top of my 2008 List of Vile Individuals. And as such, I think he deserves a record dedication…

… this one goes out to the ungrooviest dude to ever don a frock and jangle his jewellery, The Deluded of all Deludeds, Pope Benedict XVI. For you, Popey-babes, because I know it’s a personal favourite, I give you, all the way from Greenwich Village — that den of iniquity — The Village People with… wait for it… Macho Man.

All text, apart from quotes, © 2008 Gary William Murning

Richard Dawkins: An Interview with Derren Brown.

Many of you will already be familiar with Richard Dawkins’s series, Enemies of Reason. In this series, Dawkins examines the all-too-readily accepted charlatanism of psychics, astrology, homoeopathy and more.

During one section of Enemies of Reason concerning spiritual readings, Dawkins interviews the illusionist Derren Brown in order that he might be better prepared for the tricks (cold reading etc) that will inevitably be used during a visit he plans to make to a spiritualist church.  

Below, you will find the complete, uncut interview (not shown in the original series.) The interview is taken from “The Enemies of Reason: The Uncut Interviews“.

All text © 2008 Gary William Murning