Atheism is something I’ve wanted to write about for a while but it’s difficult to know where to start.

I’ve been listening to 100’s of hours of podcasts on the subject and have read a few of the more popular books that have recently been published – “God Delusion”, “The End of Faith” etc. as well as several blogs and forums.

So I pretty much know where I stand, but articulating these thoughts is a different matter.

Some of my posts on this topic may not be particularly well structured or argued, but it’s more my intention to provide myself with a record of how I was thinking at this time in my life. Who knows, I might look back at this blog in 20 years time and cringe at my ignorance on the topic, but it is what it is – I never claimed to be a great thinker.


Dawkins has received quite a lot of criticism for being an Atheist Fundamentalist. He has also got a bit of flack from fellow atheists who question his understanding of the philosophy behind Atheism.

With regard to being a fundamentalist, I would have to disagree. He may be forthright and steadfast in his opinions, but on any occasion I have seen him involved in a debate he has been well mannered and courteous to his opponents. He considers each point carefully before answering and is more than willing to accept an alternate point of view as long as there is the evidence to back it up.

The God Delusion may not be the best introduction to atheism, but it introduced me to a lot of important ideas. Primarily the different types of theism.



"Lets's remind ourselves of the terminology. A theist believes in a supernatural intelligence who does some combination of the following: answers prayers; forgives (or punishes) sins; frets about right and wrong and knows when we do them (or even think them); and intervenes in the world by performing miracles. A deist is one who believes in a supernatural intelligence whose activities are confined to setting up the laws that govern the universe in the first place. The deist God never intervenes thereafter. Pantheists use the word God as a non supernatural synonym for Nature, for the Universe, or for the lawfulness that governs the workings of the universe.
Deists differ from theists in that their God does not answer prayers, is not interested in sins or confessions, does not read our thoughts, and above all does not intervene with capricious miracles. Deists differ from pantheists in that the deist God is some kind of cosmic intelligence who set up the laws of the universe rather than the pantheists's metaphoric or poetic synonym for the laws of the universe. Pantheism is sexed up atheism. Deism is watered down theism."



I’m sure many people would redefine their beliefs just from reading that description alone.

Personally, I think the argument that a super natural being created the universe is only of minor interest because even if you believe in a creator (I don’t) that only leads you as far as Deism, it’s the claims people make for this Deity that I have a problem with. And it’s a long way from Deism to Christianity and other faiths.

Believing in a deity is one thing, but believing that this deity can be appealed to in order to effect changes in your life is a completely different kettle of fish. The belief that god has a plan for our life is incompatible with our supposed free will, the belief in prayer, especially the belief that we can be healed through prayer has no basis in truth whatsoever. One of my favourite quotes that I have come across since taking an interest in free thought is from Carl Sagan. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof”

In all other areas of our life we wouldn’t accept anything anyone told us on faith. If I told you elephants could fly, you’d want the proof. Why are people so willing to accept anything they are told as long as it came from the bible.

“I know it’s true because the bible tells me so”

When a d

Festival of fools


Well the fesival of fools is over for another year - I'll post some pictures up shortly. It's the one time of the year that Belfast really does begin to feel like a proper cosmopolitan city.

I missed the first 2 days of the festival as Chris and I were doing our show in Castlecoole for the Women's Institute 75th Birthday - so mainly an audience of women age 60+ and their grandchildren, but once they came round to the style of the show they were a good audience.

So the kids and I went to pack as many acts in as we could over the last 2 days. As usual, the Belfast weather was fairly unpredictable so some of the shows were cut short and some had to be transferred to the circus school.

All the acts were of the high standard you'd expect from an international festival but the highlights for me were Mario - with 2 new bits in his show, Von Trolley Quartet - an acro uke type folk 4 piece with my friend Timmy on the Bass, Married Men ( who my daughter was impressed with because she'd seen one of them on kids tv programme "The Slammer") and Pedro Tochas - who would of thought you could get a compelling 30 minute show with balloon modelling? But it's the clowning and story telling skills that make it so watchable.

Street Shows don't always work so well indoors, you don't get the interaction with passers by and the unpredictability of a passing drunk or an oblivious old lady pushing her shopping trolley which can add a spark of magic to the street theatre experience. I think The Pammy and Spin show would of faired better outside and unfortunately their final show culminated with an accident. Their finale is usually Pammy standing on spins shoulders juggling sharp spikey things while Spin rides a unicycle. After 2 unsuccessfull attempts at mounting the unicycle they were going for the 3rd attempt when Pammy fell and was struck in the head by one of the sharp spikey things. I think Spin, not realising the seriousness of what had happened, wanted to give it another go. But when Pammy said "I think we'd better stop" they had to cut the show short and the last I heard she had been taken to hospital to get stitches in the gash in her head - an exciting climax but not the one we were expecting.

Our PA system was being used by some of the acts over the weekend, and the first time I saw it in use was for Shirlee Sunflower's show. Which was lucky because she hadn't worked out how to turn it on. The show was good but I was slightly distracted as early on in the show she made reference to the finale' of the show where she ends up head first in a bucket of water strapped to a volunteer's waste. This wouldn't usually concern me except for the fact that she was wearing my £200 worth of radio mike which I was sure wasn't waterproof. Not wanting to interrupt the show I let it go on, and luckily at the end - just as she got her head in the bucket, the bucket broke and hit the floor, so the mike never reached the water. But a close call any way.

All in all an enjoyable festival - and lets hope they get the funding for next year.

So I have a bebo, a facebook, Myspace and a blog www.onelesscar.blogspot.com. How is one meant to maintain all these on line identities? I wonder how you got to my page - possibly through my twin brothers site - Jeff Japers.

I have enough trouble keeping my blog up to date so i'd say the chances of regular entries here are pretty remote.

If you have a band or whatever i'm sure it's a good way of getting a few listeners - but the only thing I play is the tin whistle so i'll spare you my attempts on that.

But I do work as a juggler so I might stick a few videos up of me doing that, oh yes heres another link www.babcockandbobbins.co.uk - cheap home made web site but it does what it says on the tin.

On my blog I always feel that I have to blog about something - but here it feels more suited to stream of consciousness kind of stuff - so i'll not be using spell chekcer or watching my grammar. I think I might duplicate this entry on bebo and facebook - maintaining 4 blogs would really be taking the piss.