Started the day at 4.50 a.m. to get to Charlottesville airport. I am now in L.A.
Did quite a bit of writing until laptop battery ran out. Then read a good book “Rules of Ascension” by David B. Coe. Plane arrived half an hour early.
I finished both “The God Delusion” and “A Year of Living Biblically” while in Virginia, and I recommend those for any God-fearing person who would like to have their faith tested. I would dearly have loved to recommend them to the pleasant young man sitting next to me on the plane, who was far to polite to say anything about the nosy woman sitting next to him reading over his shoulder. He started off by reading “The Shack”*, then turned to a manual which had one section headlined “Homework: Maintaining a Biblical Marriage” and numerous other equally interesting exercises. Then he ended his reading with a book titled “Christian Trivia.”
Daughter No.2 met me and we had lunch in a shack – a Thai restaurant by the sea in Malibu. Now settled into Echo Park…
*which has an extraordinary 1,300 reviews on Amazon and an editorial blurb starts by saying: “Mac is a grief-stricken father in mid-life about to have an extraordinary experience with God. His great sadness began four years ago on a weekend camping trip, when his 6-year-old daughter, Missy, was murdered. What he couldn’t know then, but is about to learn, was God’s purpose for Missy’s death.” (Sounds really sick to me and an instant turn off.)
I’m giving “The God Delusion” as birthdays nowadays… 🙂
Lost any friends since, Alex?? Lol…
Haha! I loved this post, particularly the list of your neighbour’s reading selections. Dear, dear. I wish I could hand out Dawkins too but the problem is that we won’t convince anyone with logic, since their whole *point* is that their beliefs are exempt from the laws of logic. It’s impossible to have a logical argument with anyone who has already ruled out logic as a method of approaching the universe. In fact, I’ve even heard (and very recently) this lobbied as an accusation: “Who does he think he is, using his own logic, when it already says XYZ in [insert Holy Book of choice]? So disrespectful!”
— Preeta