Christian fundamentalists want to remove an exhibition on early man from a Kenyan museum to avoid parishoners realising that there are other ideas in the world.

The battle between evolution and creation raises it ugly head regularly in any intelligent society, and as the US have been able to prove recently, even in an unintelligent ones (See my trackback to an entry by Oz).

Africa, the cradle of humanity and evolution is a pretty religious region. Most of the notable world faiths originated on the continent of Africa mainly in the Middle East. To make sure they are ALL “God Fearing”, white colonists continue to import and impose their own Anglicised brands of Christianity in exchange for monetary aid for famine and other catastrophes.

Think of the paradox. Humans evolved on the continent of Africa and spread across the planet. Humans invented the comforting fiction of religion on the very same continent and it spread out across the planet too. As a couple of particularly nature & science -phobic religions emerged as front runners and evolved into essentially a series of metaphors on how to live your life, the ability of many followers and purveyors of these religions to think freely disappeared. (more…)

You’ve probably noticed I haven’t been around much in the last couple of weeks. Holidays were great and a fantastic recharge. Got back to work and there seemed to be a couple of dramas, but nothing that wasn’t easily resolved. And then came the second day of being back at work - Black Tuesday.

For the last four years, I have had the privelige of driving a 1988 BMW 320i. Manual for the record, because I believe in driving my car. I had a little trouble with it on my holidays and promptly dropped it into my mechanic’s for a little check-up. I had a sneaking suspicion that something major was wrong but kinda laughed it off. And then came the call from my mechanic. 5:08pm. He called me at work and asked if I was sitting down. I wasn’t.

It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my beloved car due to a blown head gasket with a probable cracked cylinder head. I don’t think it gets any more heavy than that. My mechanic (Ray is his name) seemed genuinely upset, or maybe he felt bad after having stitched me for a princely sum to replace my exhaust a couple of weeks prior. A couple of friends have remarked I could easily fix this myself but when offered the opportunity to buy my car as a weekend project, both declined. A little too quickly for my liking. It probably isn’t too hard to fix myself and I do enjoy sticking my head in the engine bay from time to time, sadly it just doesn’t make financial sense and the emotions are too raw right now.

I loved that car. I’m not quite over it yet, especially considering I am temporarily renting a yellow 1987 Ferrari with purple decals along the doors. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Yeah, shame my Ferrari has a Toyota Corolla body kit. And it has a slushbox transmission - the ultimate slap in the face. So my search for a new baby has begun. Hopefully it will be resolved quickly and my hurt will have time to heal. But in the interim, if you live in Melbourne and need a good BMW mechanic, I wholeheartedly recommend the boys over at BM Central in Brunswick. They may not have been able to save my car (at a bargain price that is) but they’ve stayed in touch and given me plenty of assistance in finding a new car. And they shoot straight, a quality I appreciate in a mechanic.

So the official line is that the Pope is “deeply sorry” about the fury his recent words have caused across the globe. I must say that this sort of non-apology apology (by no means acceptable) is expected from a politician, but for the figurehead of Christendom to employ this same tatic is almost as distasteful as the speech itself.

The Goat went to a catholic college during his formative years and although I’m no specialist in this field or practice the faith, I am pretty sure that one of the bread and butter lessons is repentence, without this essential ingredient, there can be no forgiveness. I could’ve been practicing truancy when the this topic was being discussed in religon class but I’m not sure that saying “I’m sorry you feel that way” amounts to an apology or “sincere dialogue”
Concern around the Muslim world is mixed and protests continue. Lets hope they remain just that - protests!