Finished reading THE LUMINOUS LIFE OF LILLI APHRODITE and found it thoroughly engrossing. When one thinks of World War ll, the Nazi party, the atrocities, the holocaust, one seldom takes into account (or at least I haven’t before) how ordinary Germans suffered through World War l (It will all be over in six weeks) and the years that followed. Of course one knew about the reparations demanded but you dismissed that as only fair if the world at war was all down to the Kaiser and his generals, but the novel makes it so clear how it was the people who suffered for it and went on suffering when the Nazis came to power, how many were murdered – German Germans, not Jews, not Gypsies, nor homosexuals, not conquered people, but Germans who opposed or were suspected of opposing Hitler and were summarily executed just in case. The horrors that were inflicted makes the whole epoch too terrible and it is brought to notice with amazing clarity in the novel.
Well, having finished that one, took THE GOD DELUSION down from the bookshelf. Thought it might be fun to read it again. I notice in the preface Dawkins remarks on having put right a number of mistakes kind readers pointed out to him in the hardback edition so I am not the only one. There’s comfort. as the Welsh might say. I also discovered a newspaper article I had cut out from The Daily Mail dated March 9th, 2007. It is by A.N.Wilson giving Dawkins a right ticking off or as the headline puts it – “Why in God’s name do we take this silly, shallow scientist seriously?” Silly? Shallow? In the immortal words of a certain Mister McEnroe he cannot be serious! If Dawkins did indeed say of a certain girl that “she had one of the most stupid faces I have ever seen” then causes are not advanced or arguments won that way. That was cruel and uncalled for and Dawkins should be thoroughly ashamed of himself, but I am not rushing to his defence. I’m sure he is quite capable of defending himself if so inclined. However if A.N.Wilson feels Richard Dawkins’ arguments for the non-existence of god are spurious perhaps he had better see to the mote in his own eye as far as shallow silly argument is concerned. For example, “the fact that all the greatest philosophers, musicians, painters, and writers in the history of the globe have believed in God.” All? Surely not all. No sceptics, no disbelievers amongst the great minds? Now, although I am not one of the great writers I am a writer of sorts and I am of a philosophical bent you could say but, above all, I do have a certain intelligence. If I were therefore to say I believe in God does that necessarily bring him into existence? What rubbish. What is so special about some painters, musicians etc., that they supposedly have this mystical insight? “He went in search of religious grotesques in the Middle East and the Bible belt of America and had no difficulty in making them seem absurd.” I don’t think he had to try very hard. Religion had already done the job before he got there; note his own word ‘grotesque’. “our feelings of some transcendental force during the playing of Beethoven’s late string quartets, or when viewing a landscape of sublime beauty … remind us that we are spiritual beings.” There are countless people to whom Beethoven’s late string quartets mean diddlysquat and the same applies to landscapes of extreme beauty.’ That is too often the response and for those who do appreciate them it is not necessarily a religious experience and it proves nothing. A developer for example can look upon that landscape and see nothing but the building of houses and an enormous profit. So much for spirituality. “The Bible says that every man and woman (is god transsexual?) is made in His image, (tall, short, fat, thin., dark, fair, white, black, male, female, straight, deformed, what image?) and it is not “surprising that in innumerable ways, they sense His presence.” Wilson obviously has firsthand knowledge of what innumerable people sense. But his headline is the giveaway. It puts him firmly amongst the theists “Why in GOD’S NAME” he asks. Why not just “Why”?
As Dawkins does, I would like to quote Gore Vidal –“the great unmentionable evil at the centre of our culture is monotheism. From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament, three anti-human religions have evolved –Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These are sky-god religions. They are literally patriarchal – God is the omnipotent father – hence the loathing of women for 2000 years in those countries afflicted by the sky-god and his earthly male delegates.” As Ron in Australia once wrote to me, “If the Koran said that males had to wear the Burka so nothing could be seen of them but their eyes do you think they would have taken any notice?’ Fat chance.

I said there wouldn’t be any films worth watching and unfortunately I was right. Turned on one called ANGEL EYES and lasted all of fifteen minutes before switching off.