Atheists convention in Melbourne

Benches & bike racks, Southbank, Melbourne


Pedestrian bridge across the Yarra, Melbourne


Walking to the convention along the Yarra


Reflections of the Polly Woodside. (Just in front of the convention centre)

I went this last weekend to the Global Atheists Convention in Melbourne. I had thought it would be a case of preaching to the converted and that it would be boring, but it seemed a good excuse to see Melbourne again and to see my friend, Eve.

In the event, we found ourselves attending the entire shebang, and while much of the argument reiterated stuff I knew, much didn't, or it elaborated on themes in less well known (to me) areas. In any case, it was liberating to hear others say what I have now for a long time believed, that the Christian (Judaic/Muslim) God and the various attendant beliefs are incompatible with science....

The standout speaker for me was Dan Dennett (philosophy, Tufts University), but others were not far behind (Sam Harries, Richard Dawkins, Eugenie Scott,Dan Barker, A.C.Grayling... and the list is invidious).

It was an amazingly good venue, with morning/afternoon teas and lunches provided easily for 4000 people in the short time allowed for these things, and the degree of mingling forced by the numbers of people doing to these things was most enjoyable.


Us

If you have read this far, please check out this haiku,
hexapod haiku (winner under 13)

Preface

I thought my new self-published book should include these haiku efforts with photos, perhaps, and I thought I might try to write some atheistical arguments in a terse format. Nail my colours to the mast.

I have been thinking of late how altogether risible the (Christian) theist position is. And that it would be worth saying why, given that Australia has retreated from its post war secularism and seems to be wishing to imitate a theistic America ("one nation under god"). The laws which Christians wish to impose upon me so that I cannot exercise my conscience have oppressed me since I was a young woman,...

It bothers me somewhat to "come out" in this manner, because some of the nicest people I know are Christian and their niceness is a function of their belief and their desire to be good and to be good to others. Nonetheless, from a philosophical viewpoint, I do find Christianity ludicrous in the extreme. So I am just going to have to put those arguments.


Walked for almost the first time along Whale Beach Road to get to Palm Beach pool. The beautiful Melaleuca quinquinervias I photographed a few years back have been savagely lopped and look like they will have difficulty surviving. There is a lawn at their base and the person who mows the lawn is ringbarking the trees. I couldn't bear to photograph them..

But this lovely casuarina was flourishing. On the base of the cliff on the eastern side, getting the water soaks from the sandstone. A beautiful tree.

To go with a photo of the swimmers:

We are jellyfish
subject to wind and current
thinking we control our fate.
we think we control our fate.

God loves us
But only those born since the year dot.
Others go to hell.
All others hell bound.

Can't get these right but this is as good a place as any to work on them...

For a state which is both religious and democratic
the logic of genocide is inescapable.

Bliss of no longer becoming anxious
Post menopausal state or brain-cells dying?


View from the house towards the central coast at dusk.

Millions and millions

Millions and millions of species.
And the Christian god favours the one
whose eyesight is surpassed by the eagle
whose speed is bettered by the cheetah
and whose nose cannot compare with his dog's.

And those new viruses
evolving to survive our antibiotics?
Why does this god not love and favour
his latest creations?


It seems to me that it is time for atheists to get political. Clearly, the Tony Abbotts of this world find it impossible to believe that their god could render his favoured species, the only species with a soul, extinct. For them, the thesis of man-made climate change is not believable. Yet all these characters who refuse to accept the science of climate change are happy to accept the science which makes medical breakthroughs possible or allows them to turn on a light.


Angophora costata, Palm Beach, Sydney.

And what of trees? Why animals rather than plants? Surely 400 year-old living organisms are worth a thought.