Little Victories

The comments section of The Australian online edition is usually a lonely place for a left-leaning atheist to hang out. The paper is the home of some of the most extreme right wing commentators in the nation (cough cough, Albrechtsen), and recently the paper as a whole has been even more pro-God and pro-WorkChoices than usual.

So it was with great pleasure that I scanned the comments to this article earlier today as I strove valiantly to avoid doing any real work. The piece is a soft-news run down of the religious trends captured by the most recent census. It shows that the proportion of atheists is growing in Australia.

The author is careful not to say explicitly whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. But he does ascribe the increase to the fact that kids these days have it too easy. He suggests that because we’ve never lived through a depression or a war, we don’t think about abstract concepts like life and death. The implications are twofold:

- Back in the author’s day, young people were less shallow
- If you think about death, spirituality and religion long and hard enough, you will necessarily reach the conclusion that God (or a God alternative) exists. Atheism is caused by a lack of thought.

He concludes with the line:

‘Perhaps believing baby boomer parents should remove the plasma television from the family home; this would simulate hell-on-earth for stay-at-home [generation] Ys that might just prompt them to think about life’s bigger issues.’

Okay, good on you. Nothing really shocking about this tripe appearing in The Australian. What surprised me, though, were the comments. Usually these stories bring out people from all ends of the political spectrum to add their (poorly spelled) two cents. But in the comments for this article, the atheists [and here you have to imagine I am a large African-American woman] represented!

At the time of writing, the first page of comments was full of people saying that the growth in atheism was a good - or at least indifferent - thing. Usually you would expect there to be two ‘Jesus said atheyists wil burn in the fires of hell’ posts for every ‘God is suxor ps he doesnt exzist’. But not this time. This time, the atheists laid the smack down.

Our side gets so few victories these days, I think it’s important to savour them.

Laksa Time!

For the last three days I've been working at a law firm a stone's throw away from the central markets. On Monday, I had Suzuki Sushi for lunch. Mmmm, that's good sushi.

On Tuesday, I had Suzuki Sushi for lunch. Then I had Sushi King for tea.

By the time lunch came around today, I was (a) sick of sushi; and (b) hungry as all getup. There was only one solution: a Laksa House Large Laksa Noodle for $6.80!

I was a bit hesitant, because eating Laksa is generally a messy business, and I was wearing the suit that I'll be living in for (at least) the next five and a half weeks. Nevertheless, the call was too strong. I ordered from the friendly Laksa woman, and she looked at me like I was mad. She made a point of giving me extra serviettes. She said: 'I give you some extra serviettes'.

Suitably warned, I took my tray, and balancing a full bowl of steaming Laksa and a Peach Iced Tea, headed for a vacant seat. The food court was busy, and I sat down diagonally opposite a friendly looking man with no obvious signs of disease. I started to eat. VERY carefully.

I'm pleased to report that I managed to stay completely free of tricky laksa stains. I also got that amazing laksa high you get after a good laksa (try it, you'll see!). Tonight I went jogging, and the laksa helped overcome my lack of commitment to a regular training regime.

All in all, a good day.



In other news

Julian: Bottle Baby!

Jerry Falwell has died. I really try hard not to express happiness at the death of another human being, but perhaps there's an exception to every rule. Here's something funny related to this piece of news. Extract:

Buddha: I think he should go back for another few lifetimes. We could start him off as a tadpole.

Vishnu: That's your answer to everything, Buddha!

Buddha: Take it easy, third-eye.

Vishnu: Oh, go sit under a tree!

Jesus: Could we not talk about trees?

A Revelation

Brown Jesus is a Buddhist! My colleague came to this startling (and possibly heretical) conclusion at lunch and upon reflection I am forced to agree.


I wore our Lord to work today and over a pint said colleague asked if I could furnish everyone with a description of His nature. 'With gladness,' said I. 'Brown Jesus hails from San Francisco, and he advocates having a happy, chilled out time and not harshing anyone else's buzz. He is generally accepting of other people's viewpoints, and tends to sulk every time there is a holy war.'

'Aha!' cried my colleague, as if he had sprung from a Roald Dahl short story. 'Brown Jesus sounds like he is a Buddhist!'

At the time, all I could do was reluctantly concur. After more thought, I'd respond that tolerance was Brown Jesus' thing first, and the Buddhists infringed his patent.