Skip to content

Tag: god

Rise of the New Barbarians

Jonathan Franzen says he doesn’t like Twitter. Neither does he like the tide of self-published dross that’s threatening to destroy literature forever. The reasons he gives for this dislike are understandable. As an author accorded almost god-like status by the critics and hailed as the last great American novelist, he can afford to be sceptical. But do his views have…

The God factor

So now they’ve discovered the particle that makes the Universe tic. Does this mean we’re one step closer to proving the existence of God? Probably not. While the scientists can go back to their decades-long research into dark matter and other worthy challenges, the rest of us can wonder what all the fuss was about. The World’s longest running debate…

Blinkered

Shekhar Kapur’s film Elizabeth, starring the hugely talented Cate Blanchett, opens with the burning of three heretics at the stake. As the woodpile is lit beneath them, a religious dignitary expresses his token wish that they burn in hell forever, a sentiment shared by many in the gloating crowd. Scenes such as this were commonplace in 16th century England and much of Europe, as…

Life on Mars

The scientists have declared that God is dead. And after decades of painstaking investigation, they’ve concluded that the only thing out there worthy of note is … dark matter. Now, most of us lesser mortals don’t have a clue what this obscure phenomenon is and, provided the National Grid keeps running, don’t much care either. But to the fertile, enquiring mind, dark matter is – if…

The Big One

Ever tried to turn off the noise in your head? Try it for five minutes. Sit on a chair in a room with no external distraction and wait … The first thing you’ll experience is a thought, then another and another after that. That’s the problem with us human beings. Try as we might, we can’t turn off the machine. BBC2’s…