Atheist Faith, Hope and Prayers

 Many years ago, I took a long walk in the Pyrenees. Deep in a mountain forest, I came upon a small stone chapel that hadn’t seen a congregation or priest for a very long time. Hoping for rest, I pushed open the rusty metal doors. However, inside, I didn’t find anywhere to sit, what I  found was something stunningly  beautiful.  

Lacking any form of decoration, furniture or embellishment, the bare stone walls and plain wooden rafters made an ideal home for a roost of bats, who were clinging upside down over the earth floor of the dimly lit interior. At the far end, a solid rectangular stone alter sat below a single lancet window which was the only source of light. There was nothing of artistic note in this simple building, so, why am I bothering to tell you about it, you might well think.? Well, at precisely the moment I walked in, the sun shone a dazzling shaft of mote filled bright pure light onto a simple iron cross set centrally on the alter. It was as if my entry had switched a blinding laser beam directly onto the cross, at the precise moment I walked in.

It is my strongest memory from that 600 mile walk through the mountains.

I like English country churches, which may strike you as strange for an atheist. Many churches are locked up these days, especially urban ones, because bored or selfish people amuse themselves causing damage, but thankfully many village churches remain open and welcoming to all, even non believers like me. Most date back to medieval times and often there will be perpendicular windows, Norman doors ways and if you are lucky traces of Saxon walling in one unaltered corner.  Light floods in and the thick stone walls keep the noise of the daily grind outside, so a peacefully calm insulates you from the troubles of the world. The churches usually contain tombs to the rich and famous of the parish, such as crusader knights, past priests and local land owners. On the walls will be a Georgian heraldic board, telling everyone "Us Georgians are in charge now“, that no one has bothered to take down even after a couple of hundred years.. Frequently  stained glass will beautify the choir and the shimmering light shining through the coloured glass puts on an amazing technicolour light show.

They are timeless, unruffled, sentinels that have seen all the joys and troubles of parishioners over the centuries. Like sleeping old hounds, nothing can phase them.  You can sit in an old church and imagine generations of screaming babies baptised in the font, countless joyous weddings and too many sorrowful funerals. You can almost hear the priests thoughtful sermons to an enduring congregation, with fidgeting children, dozing old men and over dressed parents. Imagine a bit longer and you will also see the flirtive glances between a young man and woman that says in the universal language of love ’See you latter?’..

Today the trouble is that people aren’t coming any more. Congregations are small because, like me they don’t believe in a God or the afterlife or perhaps its just that modern life gives them the opportunity to do much more entertaining things on a Sunday. So now in this time of rapid change the English parish church is under threat. The roof starts leaking, but there's no one to make good the repair with local skills using local materials, and over zealous Health and Safety rules wouldn't allow them on the roof anyway.

Why should an old atheist cynic like me really  like English parish churches? Well I think it is their ageless simple honesty. Because, if you forget about the God bit, accept there is no afterlife, and ignore church politics, you are left with the constancy of humanity down through the ages getting on with life as best it can, coming together in one place and endeavouring to base their existence on a love of others, selflessness and compassion. It’s just a pity human nature usually gets in the way of such noble aims and makes life such hardwork.

There are a lot of people at the moment trying to work out what Putin is thinking. Well I don’t know what he is thinking, but what he is definitely not thinking about is Love, selflessness and compassion. I get the impression he is only thinking about himself and how he will be remembered in history. I wonder if he really wants to be remembered alongside Hitler, Stalin and Mao?  I would recommend that he goes and sits in a church on his own for a few hours and thinks about others, rather than himself.

                   
Recently, I concluded that because we have a brain, we can learn of different options and can chose how to act. The point of life, other than the biological need to survive and reproduce, is to make the world better not only for yourself but for all others, which includes future others and the other life forms with which we share this planet. So I started letter writing and emailing any one who I thought might have the power to make the world a better place. I’ve no idea what happens to my correspondence, I expect that most of it gets deleted unread, but the few responses to my atheists prayers, give me hope that the butterfly effect might kick in and my ideas might alter the chaotic system that is the world for the better. It is my act of faith that any good idea will be pinched by someone else and claimed for their own selfish benefit, so if I have a good idea and sent it to enough people, someone out there with more readers, skill, resources or power than I will promote or implement it.

I’ve frequently written to the Russian Ambassador asking for Russia to drop it’s 20th century militaristic mode of thinking.  In a BBC interview 18th May 2021, Sergi Naryshkin the head of Russian Foreign Intelligence service referred to certain respectful correspondence and spoke of his desire for future meetings with MI6. Coincidence? Did the Russian Secret service, in their mindset of espionage, think I was working for British intelligence probing for better relations? There is also a group of Norwegians spammers that, similar to an idea in one of my essays, are currently randomly bombarding Russian email addresses with the truth of the Ukrainian war and advising how Russians can verify it. Did they read my essay? It’s unlikely, they most probably thought up the idea themselves, but it could be possible they read my blog and they used their computer skills in order to help Ukraine and Russia.

So, are my atheist prayers changing the world? I correspond with love of humanity, hope and brutal honesty, so I have faith that they will do no harm and may even change the world for the better.  I will continue to write and hit the send button and encourage you to do the same.

The more I learn and see of the world, the more I realise how much I don’t know and that it’s all a deep, deep mystery. Why did that beam of light shine on that rustic iron cross at the precise moment  I walked into a forgotten chapel, when I was in the middle of a remote forest, a long way away from home? The boring atheist says it was just coincidence, but others might ham it up into a really entertaining essay.

Well, that’s my delusion. But is it closer or further from reality than yours?

Civilization Collapse - Is Humanity Committing Suicide?

 I've avoided writing about climate change, as far better writers than I have provided a glut of info on the subject. However, this is my (be warned gloomy) view of  reality. 

What more is there to Say about Climate Change?

   
Back in Victorian times the river Thames was London’s waste disposal system. All of the cities rubbish, excrement, filth and muck was chucked in so that the river could flush it away. Even dead dogs where lobbed in for nature to dispose of. The problem was, that whilst the river carried the poo downstream, the tide brought it all back again six hours later. The stench was appalling, but nothing was done until the summer of 1858, when Parliament was suspended, because, such was the pong, that the retching MP’s could no longer debate the important issues of the day. Only after MP’s had been directly inconvenienced, was it finally decided to build a modern sewage system that piped the waste a long way down river, thus shifting the problem to some one else’s back yard. The whole affair came to be known as the “Great Stink“.

In our small attempt to make the world a better place, my partner and I often litter pick our local roads and paths. All too frequently we come back from a walk with a couple of bags of drinks cans, plastic bottles, sweet wrappers, surgical masks and crisp packets. On the quieter country lanes, fly tipping, cannabis farm debris and the contents of stolen cars are too common, but require clearance by the  Council. If our experiences are anything to go by, most people in the neighbourhood don’t give two hoots about their environment and are quite happy to live in a place that looks like a rubbish tip, or assume the people at the Council have nothing better to do, and plenty of money, to clear up after them.

Our friends, who have a wood burning stove, have just had a few hundred weight of coal delivered. They have decided that wood, even though it is a carbon neutral fuel, doesn’t give as warm and cosy a fire as burning wood, so have stocked up on coal. They are both animal lovers, intelligent middle class folk, and one of them volunteers for the local Wildlife Trust, so outwardly have good environmental credentials. However, when it comes to their own personal luxury and comfort, hang the CO2 emissions.

Whilst being driven about in a large 4X4 SUV, a retired science Professor I have known for years said “When I watch David Attenborough, and he is talking about Climate Change and damage to the environment, I feel so helpless”. I was truly shocked that such a clever and intelligent person could say such a thing. “Well we all have to start making small changes, as that’s what’s got us into this mess” was my lame reply. Politeness stopped me staying “well you could start by getting rid of this F******* big gas guzzler”
 
Even though in a previous essay,  I’ve come to the conclusion that because it harms future generations, it is morally wrong to use fossil fuels, I have to own up to still driving a diesel car. So I am a hypocrite of the highest order. When I bought the car 8 years ago, it was the most fuel efficient car for my driving profile and whilst my next car is going to be electric, I’m not going to change until the diesel packs up. With a 600+ mile range, low road tax and enough room to sleep in the back, an electric car will not be as good for my holidays to Scotland or the West Coast. Giving up my personal conveniences for the environment is proving too hard, even though I know it is morally wrong not to change.

The UK Government has set targets and says it is tackling the Climate emergency, but the first thing they did, was to propose a law that restricts people like Extinction Rebellion  protesting about it. People on the streets causing disruption is just too inconvenient. As for their other policies, I get the impression they will do as little as they can get away with, as they know that the vast majority of voters, when it comes to the crunch, want cheap fossil fuels to maintain their life styles of luxury, parties and selfish enjoyment. The future can’t vote, so its business as usual please.

It’s the same the world over. As counties wake up to what reducing carbon emissions will entail, resistance is becoming more visible and vocal. India, whose population size will soon over take that of China, says it wants to build coal fired power stations to develop its economy as it is the cheapest way to do it. China continues to increase the number of coal power stations even though it professes to be on a path to net Zero. Australia and Poland keep on digging the stuff, Saudi Arabia pumps the oil as its is its only source of wealth. Germany keep buying Russia gas even though it knows it is funding the war in Ukraine and heating the planet.The UK sets targets and talks the talk about building wind farms and nuclear power plants but that is a knee jerk reaction to our national security rather than because of the climate emergency. What do you think will happen when the war is over and we can resume buying Russian gas and oil without feeling guilty, have got a handle on how much green energy will cost, and the next election is won by the party that promises the voters they will cut your fuel bill and taxes?

And that's the problem with the Climate Change Emergency. Everyone, every Country, and even myself all act in our own self interest rather than for the good of the whole. We do the easiest thing and not the correct thing. It’s human nature, to primarily look after ourselves or our social group, but it can’t go on or we will wreck our ecosystems, collapse our civilization and kill millions.

When the meteorite hit 66 million years ago the planet changed radically. The world dominated by the dinosaurs ended and the mammals  evolved to take their place.  The world has never been the same since. The Permian Triassic extinction had an even bigger impact. What isn't generally know is that both of these and all the other mass extinctions, were caused by wild changes in CO2 levels. Life couldn't cope with the rapid environmental change. Meteorites impacts make for a better movie but is was the Deccan traps pumping out C02 that saw off the dinosaurs after the deep winter of the impact. Currently we humans, by burning fossil fuels, are doing what  volcanoes did millions of years ago but at a far faster rate. Our man made Climate Change will have a similar effect. Mass extinction. (see Scotese, Mills & van der Meer (2020) for the global temperature curve over a geologic time scale.)

The problem is that unlike a meteor strike that would obviously require action, carbon dioxide is invisible, likewise sea level change and ocean acidification. You can only see them in scientists statistics which are not very interesting to people concentrating on their daily problems. Even though it is not a climate change problem, plastic in the ocean is visible and so action is easier to promote, . Flooding or large storms may be increasing in frequency, but they come and go locally, so have no permanence in the wider public's imagination. Exotic species, always the first to go extinct, don’t affect anyone and soon get forgotten. Fishermen have already forgotten about North Sea herring  and are currently working their way down the food chain, catching not fish but crustaceans. I expect they will soon be harvesting the plankton. . 

Compare the climate change problem with the recent covid saga for instance. Almost overnight,  a great many people on this planet suddenly woke up to the fact that if they caught the virus, they could die tomorrow. Having to face up to their own mortality, what happened? From the fear, panic and hysteria that followed there was instant action. People immediately surrendered their freedom, locked themselves away, stopped seeing their friends and family, refused to go to work and hid away like frightened rabbits. And as the majority is always right, the Governments of the world went along with it even though historically covid is a mild disease that only picks off the old, unhealthy or genetically unlucky. In the UK £400Billion was spent and what have we got to show for it now? Older people are still dying of covid.  In China they are still trying to defeat nature - good luck to them.  But climate change is not like Covid, its hard to get worked up about a concept that will affect future generations, not ourselves. There is no immediate threat, so why take immediate action?. When will the changing climate become a crisis - only when it is too late to do anything about it. As demonstrated by the Great Sink, those in power will only take action when it affects them directly and stops them dealing with their important short term issues - like making money.

 
So I think that we will be very lucky indeed if the world solves the climate change problem and scientists warnings don’t materialise. Hopefully fusion reactors will be economic. If not, I doubt Governments will show the leadership required and will continue to pander to greedy voters who can never be criticised. Also the challenge of  changing human nature through education in so short a space of time will be never be possible. Unless there is something equivalent to a “ Global Great Stink” or Covid Crisis or dramatic meteor strike, the required drastic action will not be implemented.  Because of human's selfish genes, preprogrammed tendency to look after your own social group and lack of real intelligence, we aren't geared up to deal with an invisible and indirect problem of such planet changing magnitude as global warming. Evolution doesn't work at the level of an entire species. We will just keep fighting over a decreasingly smaller portion of an ever more poisoned pie. Future generations will have to adapt to the mess and destruction we are making. 

There simply aren't enough people who want to make the world a better place and are willing to make the sacrifices to their lives to make a difference.

If there is anyone in the future to read this, I apologise for our carbon crimes. But if it is any consolation, we did have great time. UK to Barcelona for £5 return - Eee, them were't days!