Ah the days of being a student. 2 for 1 meals at the pub for lunch every day.
The Deer Park running such an offer during January we decided to head down yesterday to grab some dinner as you can’t beat Deer Park food for as cheap as it used to be at the student pubs. Good times.
Sunday evening having rolled round again I headed out for dinner with the gang from work (even though Craig now works at a different store, Zoe doesn’t work there at all any more I only have two shifts next month!) to grab some food. The destination of choice this week was Pizza Express which I haven’t eaten at since we were down in London.
I started with the Salsiccia al Forno. I had no idea what it was when I ordered it and I have no idea what it is now. But it was very nice so I’m counting it as a victory. My Pollo ad Astra was very nice too despite them having run out of onions.
The one issue I do have though is that I always feel like we’re fat bastards when everyone sits round with an entire pizza to ourselves. I’m sure it’s actually no more food then when you order a big steak or whatever other dinner but it just seems a lot, perhaps because it is thin and stretched over the entire plate.
To be fair if I had felt that bad I probably would have said no to dessert but then who honestly can? Turns out I really should have because I was insanely full afterwards. Never the less though it was a fine meal and ended at the traditional way with more food at Colton Mill (for those who could fit any more in, I couldn’t lol).
Having enjoyed the usual Saturday night at work I hauled myself out of bed at noon on Sunday for a bit of Sunday lunch at the Deer Park with Si. Not that I actually had any kind of traditional Sunday lunch but I did heartily enjoy the steak.
Liz was in a rather talkative mood, even for Liz, but never the less we managed to get a few words in edgeways, enough to briefly summarise our weeks anyway.
Despite Si having headed off to the cinema with Ant and Tilly, it being the last Friday before Perspective kicks off, a night at the Deer Park was much in need. And so myself, Kate, Michelle and Greg headed down for some good old fashioned fun. The Ember Skewered Chicken comes highly recommended.
Moz having bailed on us last night (to which I though there was then a real lack of Moz jokes made in the show) we settled in for another evening of podcast. This time with a number of celebrity guests including the long awaited return of Fonze. It’s a shame he isn’t on the show as much anymore as there are so many great jokes to be made 😉 .
The discussion topics of the night were “The AHS” and “Be nice to Muslims Day” though by the time we had got through the regular segments at the start of the show, most of the show was gone lol.
Yesterday I headed over to York to attend the local Brights meetup. Nick having pointed out that you can drive as fast as you can get the train over, I decided to brave the roads and eventually found myself in York city centre parked up by the river.
The parking machine not taking credit cards or notes I ended up registering with York’s phone parking service which of course is needlessly unuser friendly but eventually I managed to get it sorted and headed out to find Stonegate.
This was an interesting challenge and one I missed by quite a long way but luckily the very helpful Nick Nav service managed to guide me into the road and I had soon located the pub.
The turn out was good, there was about fifteen people in total which is enough to make sure the conversation kept flowing. There was quite a mix of interesting characters including one guy who essentially rejected Einstein’s relativity in exchange for his own acceleration relativity.
All in all though it was nice to be around another group of like minded individuals. York is a beautiful city and quite an active one it would seem as well with this group, North Yorkshire Humanists being based there as well and a Humanist Society at the university, even if they don’t answer anyone’s emails.
The ASA have ruled on the atheist bus ad issue and decided there is nothing wrong with the adverts. In their statement they said…
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has concluded that the “There’s probably no God†bus ad campaign by the British Humanist Association is not in breach of the advertising code. The ASA will therefore not launch an investigation and the case is now closed.
The ASA carefully assessed the 326 complaints it received. Some complained that the ad was offensive and denigratory to people of faith. Others challenged whether the ad was misleading because the advertiser would not be able to substantiate its claim that God “probably†does not exist.
The ASA Council concluded that the ad was an expression of the advertiser’s opinion and that the claims in it were not capable of objective substantiation. Although the ASA acknowledges that the content of the ad would be at odds with the beliefs of many, it concluded that it was unlikely to mislead or to cause serious or widespread offence.
This was to be expected given the consequences of making a different ruling but never the less a welcome decision.
Continuing our exam time film screenings, yesterday’s Atheist Society meeting saw us show the documentary film Baby Bible Bashers, charting the activities of three young preachers as they attempt to spread the word of the Bible despite their small stature.
Afterwards we headed down to The Terrace for some much needed refreshments especially given the union still have a sale on which means pints of coke are currently going for £0.60! May the good times roll.
The nature of writing for the media these days means you need to be sensational and controversial. This is true whether you’re writing for the Daily Star or the Telegraph. And so I suspect when Gerald Warner wrote “Atheists will need martyrs if they are to compete with Christians” he doesn’t actually believe most of what we writes, or at least not with the conviction to which he writes it.
Never the less I feel it is important to address the issues raised in his blog entry.
Most of what he writes is (or at least should be) laughable. Comments such as “it is good to see a Christian making difficulties for aggressive secularists” hold no real standing. I have yet to hear of a case of an atheist bus driving refusing to drive a bus with an Alpha advert on it nor has Ariane Sherine filed an official complaint with the ASA against them.
In reality of course the secular community is constantly under attack from the religious community. If they aren’t trying to indoctrinate our children with religious ideas at faith schools they’re trying to prevent our freedom of expression.
Quite frankly some of his writing his embarassing and would be far better placed within the pages of The Sun and The Daily Mail. Unrelevant comments with obvious connotations such as “Mr Heather, who served in the Royal Navy for 25 years”, “congratulations to this British sea dog for fighting back” are of the cheap tacky ilk you would expect to find on American news reporting.
From here the comments move to simple ignorance. “Is this not, in fact, an agnostic, rather an atheist, advertisement?” It is interesting that he later lists Dawkins in his post and yet seems to show no knowledge of Dawkins writings surrounding the subject. If Mr Warner had read The God Delusion he would in fact understand that these terms are essentially interchangable and it’s perfectly possible to be an atheist and accept there is a chance there is a god (indeed I don’t know a single atheist who completely rules out the idea).
This is followed by a good deal of very Christian thinking such as “since when was the message that there is no one in charge, nobody to protect us or lend succour, thought reassuring?” Not withstanding the fact that such a statement shows why many religious people would allow themselves to believe such an obvious falsehood, I find it hard to believe why some people can’t understand why some of us would actually be more comforted by the fact that we have free will as opposed to our destiny being controlled by a being with a rather genocidal past record.
Further more I almost laughed out loud when I read the claim that “many of the people who most zestfully enjoy life are Christians.” Mr Warner is clearly working on a very different sample set than I am.
To answer the underlying point though, atheist martyrs are already here. Not withstanding the treats we have received at A-Soc (and according to Alex at the BHA, they receive their fair share too), Salman Rushdie is only alive today because they couldn’t find him and Theo van Gogh has already died for his convictions.
Another Sunday night having rolled around we headed down to Birstall for a meal at Chiquito which the sign outside reliably informs me is the “original Mexican grill & bar.”
While I was a little disappointed by the food, that was mainly due to the size of the portions which as much as I complain is probably a good thing for me in the end. I feel it’s important my meal comes with as much vegetables as possible though as it’s like my one source of vegetables during the week lol.
Afterwards we headed back home via Hunslet to pick up dessert as Craig was on the close. I can highly recommend buying a McFlurry and a brownie and mixing them together, it’s a winning combination.
