Atheism is Not a Religion!

On Friday 2 December I went to London to attend two meetings held at the University College London (UCL) Institute of Archaeology, 31-34 Gordon Square, on Unbelief and Atheism.

The meetings were sponsored by the Templeton Foundation, which automatically makes me distrustful of the speakers, since its purpose is promote supposed scientific study of religion.

The first part was an "SSNB Roundtable: Who Cares about Unbelief?" SSNB stands for "Scientific Study of Nonreligious Belief". The most coherent of the speakers to my way of thinking was Dr Judith Everington from University of Warwick. In the Q&A session at the end I tried to point out that even people with Religious beliefs also have a background Nonreligious Worldview. It is the factual knowledge they have of the real world, that they rely upon to conduct their everyday life. It is what they are left with if  they lose their religion. So there is no great mystery about it.

The second part was the "NSRN Annual Lecture: Is Atheism a Religion?" A lecture, with three speakers. The third speaker, Prof Chris French from Goldsmiths College, London, gave the straight answer No! And was quite amusing, but the other two speakers I found illogical.

The first speaker Jonathan Lansman, from Queens University Belfast, thought the subject was absurd, but mainly because he could not find coherent definitions of Religion and Atheism. He maintained that they are like the concept of Weeds which has no scientific meaning in botany, despite being useful in Gardening. With this sort of vagueness I don't see how it is possible for him to think clearly about anything. He thought however that there were some "natural types" like Water that did have a definite meaning. This type of terminology made me wonder if he might be a Creationist, since they think of animal species in this way.

The second speaker Miguel Farias from Coventry University, seemed to favour the proposition, but his arguments I now only vaguely recall, and bore little relevance to my own experience.

I recognised and spoke to Norman Bacrac from Conway Hall and David Pollock from the Rationalist Association and BHA. Rupert Sheldrake was also pointed out to me in the audience but I didn't get into conversation with him.

Dramatic Cloudscape this Afternoon.

I went to the Post Office in London Road this afternoon to get envelopes and stamps, and post my entry for the Hastings Chess Congress. I've only entered the Christmas and New Year Morning tournaments this year. Hope I will be fit enough at the time.

Took this photo just after crossing the road to the promenade. I was struck by the unusual pastel shades in the clouds.

View From My Window

This was the view from one of my windows the day after the scaffolding was removed.

The fearsome looking spider has since gone. Previously all I could see were planks and poles.

Scaffolding Removed At Last

When I got back from my walk yesterday I was glad to see the scaffolders starting to remove the last layer of scaffolding from round the building. It had been there since March 2015, as reported here on 16 April 2015. Here is how the building looks now:

There remains some rubbish to be removed, but the contractor wants more money to remove it all, and passers by keep adding to the pile. At least I can now see out of the windows. I cleaned them yesterday afternoon.

Saturday Morning Walk

I noticed what looked like a large white tea-caddy on top of the structure on the pier yesterday evening as I walked along the prom. When I went to have a closer look it turned out to be a camera obscura. It was occupied by some giggling children so I didn't get to look inside behind the curtain.

My feet were feeling uncomfortable this morning. I've come to the conclusion it is due to the more flexible shoes I've been wearing, which may be giving my toes too much exercise. At least I hope that's what is the cause. It may also be that they retain too much heat. I had to cut short my visit to Leicester on 10th to 14th September because my feet had had enough of walking around.

This morning I got the urge to go for another walk, so put on an old pair of shoes with a hard sole, though they need a repair to the worn-down heels. I found a new path round the Hastings Museum which comes out at Cornwallis Gardens where the chess club is. The shoes proved satisfactory. I got as far as the top of West Hill, by the Castle, and came down the steep steps to the sea-front.

There weren't many people about at 8 am, but there were quite a lot of runners practicing circuits by the pier as I came back. I'm not tempted to join in. Must now repair the heels, as I had intended for at least a year, having bought the materials, but never got round to the task. A Saturday morning exercise may be a good idea on a regular basis.

Adventure of the Halogen Oven.

The halogen oven that I have had for a number of years broke down on the 4th of October, and there seemed no prospect of getting it repaired, since it is no longer in the Easy Life catalogue.

So I ordered a new one from Tesco Direct. They took the payment from my bank account and claimed the item had been dispatched on 12th of October, but it never arrived, though I stayed in all day waiting for it. According to their delivery system, which seems to be independent from Tesco, they attempted to deliver the goods but they were refused. I can only assume they tried to deliver it to the wrong address. No one contacted me by phone to say the goods were on their way, which is the usual procedure. They didn't offer to try to deliver it again to the right address. At any rate, after the exchange of a couple of emails they did refund the money to my bank account.

So yesterday I ordered a similar oven from the Argos catalogue and went along this morning to pay for and collect it myself. That all went OK. It has proved to be a bit larger than I thought, but I shall try it our this evening. I didn't take up the £9.99 offer of replacement if it breaks down within three years, since surely anything that does not last that long isn't worth replacing.

The Knight's Tour Work

It is time I gave an update on my work in putting my Knight's Tour Notes webpages into book form. This is a project I have been working at for years. The current proposal is to put all the material into a series of eight separate monographs, each of around 100 pages.

The subjects of the studies are roughly as follows. The numbering is provisional. 1. History of Tours. 2. Knight-move Geometry, 3.Small-Board Knight Tours. 4.Symmetry in Knight Tours. 5. Simple Linking of Pseudotours. 6.Shaped Board Tours. 7.Leaper Tours. 8. Magic Tours.

The first six titles are almost entirely about knight tours. The last two include tours using pieces with other moves. The magic tours end with magic squares that use up to four different types of move.

If my health holds out I aim to get this completed by the end of the year. I've given deadlines before and not met them, but this time I'm more confident.