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Info: Mr Oz Atheist & Herd Mentality host Adam Reakes swing by the #GSPodcast to talk Aussie Chrstimas time, gifts, Psychics and a stuffed rabbit with a big appendage.
Guests: @MrOzAtheist & @AdamReakes. Also available in Stitcher and iTunes.
Donate at: https://www.gspellchecker.com
Info: I talk about Christmas in England with Religious T (UK), get an update regarding his religious tourism project and have a northern off! Katrine (Denmark) also drops in to the #GSPodcast to tell us how the Danes do Christmas. Glædelig jul!
Guests: @ReligiousT & @KatrinesSkrift. Also available on Stitcher and iTunes.
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Back in October I extended an invitation to fellow non-believers to be a guest on a ‘planned’ podcast which would focus (mostly!) on the Christmas experience. Thankfully, I received plenty of interest from people far and wide. Phew.
The idea was to create something which would allow people to hear what Christmas means to other non-believers with varying cultural backgrounds, traditions and opinions.
My only hope is to provide the opportunity to learn something, laugh a little and reinforce the knowledge that religion needn’t be the only reason for the season.
All Episodes will be released throughout December for free via iTunes and Youtube. Click below to listen now:
Although these will remain available for free, if you do enjoy them, please consider making a contributory donation below. Your contribution will be used to supplement ongoing hosting & production costs, new equipment for further shows and possibly Scotch. Yeah. Definitely Scotch.
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It’s been a huge pleasure and privilege to talk to so many different and interesting people. Finding the time to juggle full-time employment, unforgiving time differences and a laborious editing process has been a challenge, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It’s with regret that I haven’t been able to reach out to everyone that took the time to contact me, but I’m incredibly grateful to have heard from you all the same.
The BBC is not unaccustomed to criticism. Some of it is merited; some is simply due to their stature. People love to take a swing at a giant once in a while. I hold no agenda to single out the BBC as frequently as I have this year; it’s just that they seem to be going out of their way to mock the gods of reason.
From the censorship of satire in response to a chorus of bleating from a humourless Christian minority, to refusal to re-think the increasingly outdated and less than inclusive format of its ‘Thought For The Day‘.
There was also that nasty business whereby a ‘journalist’ was able to assert something as utterly irresponsible as “men are raised to hate women” on the flagship BBC news programme, without so much as a follow-up question. Poor editorial indeed.
Throw in the BBC’s unquestioning promotion of Atheism Plus’ odious Block bot and we have an organisation that has truly earned itself a spell on my naughty step.
Imagine then, the look of unrefined exasperation on my face, as I completed a “Practice exam” on their High School revision service, GCSE Bitesize. You could have driven a school bus into the gaping negative space created by the rapid expansion of my oral cavity. I still have jaw ache.
For the uninitiated, GCSE’s are qualifications awarded to high school students (age 14-16) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The BBC’s ‘bitesize’ service aims to provide revision tools and practice exercises relevant to the current school curriculum. In this instance, the subject in question is Religious Studies, with a focus on Islam.
Upon taking the two minutes required to answer the questions in question, it soon became clear that the BBC, or the relevant educational bodies do not give a flying horse about objectivity where the ‘Religion Of Peace’ is concerned.
As you can see from the below, two questions in particular, or more specifically, what the exercise deems to be the correct response, caught my eye:
If you’re unsure as to my gripe at this point, it may be best to return to your bubble.
Yes, like it or not, that time of year is almost upon us again. Fox News will soon be rallying a call to arms to fight an imagined war on an imagined deity. And Christians that are unfamiliar with the word ‘Paganism’ will take to social media to vent their displeasure at the fear that nonbelievers may be enjoying a holiday that isn’t ‘theirs’. Delicious irony. Ho ho ho.
Personally, I love Christmas. For me, it’s a time to catch up with family. Great company, mixed with laughter, too much food and drink, terrible sweaters and worse socks. What’s not to like? I’ll pass on the sprouts however, thanks.
This got me wondering (see Oprah? See?). I’d very much like to hear what Christmas means to other nonbelievers with similar or completely different cultural backgrounds to me.
What do you do at Christmas? Do you hate it? Do you love it? Do you refuse to celebrate it? Are you forced to endure the religious convictions of your family? Do you insist on calling it Xmas? Has a recent loss of faith spoiled what was once a meaningful time of year for you? And why the hell didn’t Santa bring you that Megadrive you asked for when you were 7? You were really good that year. And you wrote him a nice letter. A nice letter specifically asking for the console complete with two controllers and a copy Streets Of Rage so that you could play with your best friend, Paul. Yet nothing! Nothing!
I digress.
I want to hear as many varied viewpoints as possible, from as many countries as possible. So, throughout the coming weeks, I hope to reach out to a number of those who fill in the below form.
The intention is to take up two minutes of your time via Skype voice chat (free download/Also available on smartphones) to ask you to vocalise/expand on your answers given below.
Great piece.
