Nico Mara-McKay » Spirituality

Happy Christmas, your arse

Nico — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 13:00:40 +0000

My favourite thing about Giftmas is the presents. I like giving them, and I love getting them. For me, it’s all about the loot. And sharing. Something in there about sharing, too.

To celebrate the holidays, I’ve decided to share…linkage! Delicious linkage filled with Giftmas, Christmas and atheistic capitalist rants of joy!

To open, I present you with my favourite Christmas song: “Fairytale of New York”, by the Pogues.

It has, hands down, the best lyrics of any Christmas ditty.

You’re a bum, you’re a punk

You’re an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead
On a drip in that bed

You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas, your arse
I pray God it’s our last

Beautiful.

Allie, of the Internet’s best non-comic, Hyperbole and a Half, tells us about “The Year Kenny Loggins Ruined Christmas“. I love her triangle of yellow hair, her boxy pink dress and the curly stick arms. You will too. You’re welcome.

In Ryan North’s Dinosaur Comics (a comic that really is a comic) Christmas is saved on Christmas Eve Eve, and now I kinda want a Batman train.⁽¹⁾

If you’re in Toronto you may want to check out these outlandish and awesome Christmas lights that Derek Flack rounded up for BlogTO. A good portion of these are in or very near my neighbourhood.

Though none of those really compares to the work that went into creating the Slayer Christmas Lights Lightorama that this fellow did in 2009. Now that’s dedication.

Finally, Zinnia Jones has a wonderful video titled “How to Kill Christmas” which encourages us give in to the Christians, and embrace the secularization of Christmas. It makes some kind of sense.

Merry Christmas, fellow atheists!

Happy Christmas, your arse

Footnotes:

I may even get one! Who knows what Capitalism will bring me this year?

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The 21st Annual Kensington Market Festival of Lights

Nico — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 01:52:01 +0000

Posted from my BlackBerry.

The 21st Annual Kensington Market Festival of Lights

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Happy Christmas, your arse

A poem from the Internet via an atheist

Nico — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 14:00:25 +0000

plutopsyche:
“Whoever best
describes
the problem
is the one most
likely
to solve it.”
–Dan Roam

jesus:
Ponies for everyone!

(You can tell it’s a poem by the line breaks.)

© 2008-2011 Nico Mara-McKay
For the original source of the content please see nicomaramckay.com.

A poem from the Internet via an atheist

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The Four Horsemen: Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens

Nico — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:20:43 +0000

Titled with a with a cute wink the apocalypse, The Four Horsemen features Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. On September 30th, 2007 they sat down together and filmed a two-hour unmoderated discussion. It’s a wonderful thing.

While I’m an atheist,⁽¹⁾ this isn’t a requirement to appreciate four brilliant men philosophizing brilliantly about religion, atheism and the state of the world.

I’ve read a couple of Dawkins’ books (namely The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker)⁽²⁾ and two by Hitchens (Why Orwell Matters and God Is Not Great), but this is the first time I’ve really heard any of them speak.⁽³⁾

The video, filmed by Josh Timonen, has been provided by the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science (what a name!) and has been available on YouTube for about a month in two, one-hour segments.

Naturally, with their genius so well publicized, they require no introduction, but for the uninitiated, from left to right they are Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. The Four Horsemen: Part I of II

I confess, seeing Dennett and Dawkins enjoying martinis did inspire me to fetch my own. Also, I can’t help but try to read the titles on the bookshelves. Is this Dawkins’ house? I occasionally catch a title or two, but I’m curious about which books they choose to display.

There’s something about Hichens I’ve never really liked in reading his work. His open disdain for anyone whose opinions disagree with his own I felt was uncouth, but here, in discussion with others of a similar mind, truly challenged by intelligent opponents, he opens up as being a more complex character than the books I’ve read of his seem to portray. Also, here he seems to get slightly sloshed, which is rather endearing.

The Four Horsemen: Part II of II

Ah, Hitchens! He goes back to being a bit of a depressing bastard, especially towards the last few minutes of the video. Yet, even so, he comes across as more reasonable in his universal hatred of all religions in comparison with Harris’ comments on Islam, which come across as more than a little bigoted.

Today I’ve placed orders for Dawkins’ The God Delusion, Consciousness Explained and Breaking the Spell by Dennett, and Harris’ The End of Faith. I’m really looking forward to reading all four.

Mission accomplished RDFRA!

© 2008-2011 Nico Mara-McKay
For the original source of the content please see nicomaramckay.com.

The Four Horsemen: Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hitchens

Footnotes:

Please don’t read this self-important essay I wrote five years ago.
My responses to reading The Selfish Gene and The Blind Watchmaker. Ah, early, earnest posts. Was it only a year or so ago?
I don’t have cable.
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The End of Faith, by Sam Harris