Ik heb twee dagen geleden Small Gods uitgelezen van Terry Pratchett. Het is het eerste boek van hem dat ik heb gelezen maar het is echt een schrijver met zó veel humor!
Het boek gaat over Brutha, een soort van novice die maar niet hoger komt in de rangen van de kerk omdat hij niet zo slim overkomt. Hij onthoudt wel elk detail van alles wat hij doet en ziet. Op een dag hoort hij een stem in zijn hoofd, die van een schildpad vandaan blijkt te komen, de god Om, die iedereen in zijn land zóu moeten vereren, maar ondertussen vereren ze meer het idee van het geloof dan de God zelf, en Brutha is ongeveer de laatste die echt Gelooft. Nuja, verder is het een heel verhaal dat je zelf maar moet lezen, want het is ontzettend leuk. Ik denk dat er nog meer humor in zit dan ik kan begrijpen, omdat mijn beheersing van de Engelse taal niet zo goed is dat ik alle woordgrapjes herken enzo.

Common Sense Atheism has posted a list of what he considers the best Atheist Books of the past 10 years. Top of the list is John W. Loftus’ Why I became an Atheist: A former preacher rejects Christianity

Prometheus Books

The book is often praised for its author’s first hand knowledge of Christianity, and evangelical Christianity in particular. John will be at the SBL in New Orleans, speaking in the session on Religulous. You can also visit his blog, Debunking Christianity.

John is also editing a new collection of essays with contributions by Hector Avalos, Robert Price, Richard Carrier and others. The forward is by Dan Barker.

The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails

You can preorder it (due out on Prometheus Press in April) on Amazon.com but alas, not yet an Amazon.ca or Chapters.ca. Darn ‘merykans.

~~~~~~~~~~

Now, what would my favourite atheist book be? Not that I’ve read many. Most of my reading is either biblical scholarship or Terry Pratchett novels (believe it or not, I can tell the difference).

Here’s a tip: Pratchett’s Small Gods is one of the best parodies of organized religion and belief EVER!

“The figures looked more or less human. And they were engaged in religion. You could tell by the knives (it’s not murder if you do it for a god).”

I think my favourite book in favour of atheism is Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell, which I am just about finished reading. I really must read more on evolution and evolutionary explanations for religion. I don’t know how much I follow that whole meme thing, but clearly the kind of thinking that goes into the core structures of religious thought are pretty fundamental to the human being as an animal. There must be an evolutionary explanation for that kind of thought.

I wonder if I can find this book to read next:

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The Death of the Disc was a traditionalist who prided himself on his personal service and spent most of the time being depressed because this was not appreciated. He would point out that no-one feared death itself, just pain and separation and oblivion, and that it was quite unreasonable to take against someone just because he had empty eye-sockets and a quiet pride in his work. He still used a scythe, he’d pointed out, while the Deaths of other worlds had long ago invested in combined harvesters.

Humans! They lived in a world where the grass continued to be green and the sun rose every day and flowers regularly turned into fruit, and what impressed them? Weeping statues? And wine made out of water! A mere quantum-mechanistic tunnel effect, that’d happen anyway if you were prepared to wait zillions of years. As if the turning of sunlight into wine, by means of vines and grapes and time and enzymes, wasn’t a thousand times more impressive and happened all the time…

Disse il primo:

“Occorre inventare nuove parole”.

“Mio stillicidio“.
“Mia pietra angolare“.
“Mio sistema nervoso“.

E il secondo:

“colui che pregate non è altro che un pugile suonato”.

Al terzo, bastava aderire alla luce.

La pelle è l’ultimo avamposto.

Small Gods was added to my list on the recommendation of lovely Pajabites. As ever their taste is impeccable. Small Gods carries on in the great tradition of immensely entertaining British Science Fiction/Fantasy. I have a vague recollection of reading one or two of the Discworld series when I was a young teenager and I never went back. I was an idiot.

I can only assume that I didn’t enjoy it then because I mostly didn’t get the joke, as a teenager I definitely wouldn’t have gotten the beauty of Pratchett’s theological and political positions. It takes an amazingly gifted writer to mock the ridiculousness of religious fundamentalists without ever picking on a particular theology. He argues for secular democracy with more humor, grace and power then any political philosopher I’m aware of. 

The hero of our tale is Brutha, a novice at a monastery who has little hope of ordination primarily because he appears to be not so bright. His character grows throughout the story in a way that outlines how people grow in life (all things going well). Going from total innocent to a person of understanding and with a marvellous illustration the hardship and confusion that often accompanies that growth. 

Interestingly Pratchett explore how our leaders or those who claim to know what is best are those that know least about what is good. He give a fascinating insight in to how the minds of those who seek to lead work. He is fierce in his criticism of the manipulative and deadpan in his description of where the alternative lies. He has the grace to see that the world is never perfect and the intelligence to see what the next best thing might be in light of these leader types. 

The nature of belief and what it can bring to the world is a major theme, unsurprisingly in a book called Small Gods. I found it astonishing that while Pratchett is sometimes fiercely critical of the idea of organised religion/a religious state and those that claim to be devout but it never feels like he’s passing judgement. It takes a master of tone to manage to do that.

I know that I have talked more here about ideas then character and story but there is no way that these ideas could be covered so well without the writing being up to scratch. The characters are full and interesting and the plot moves along apace. It’s just fantastic.

“Linkeroever”, de debuutfilm van Pieter Van Hees, is geselecteerd voor de competitie op het Internationaal Filmfestival van Edinburgh, dat loopt van 20 tot 29 juni. Van Hees zal in Edinburgh aanwezig zijn om er de internationale première van zijn film bij te wonen. Het nieuws van de selectie werd woensdag bekendgemaakt door het Edinburgh International Film Festival, melden het Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds en Kinepolis Film Distribution.
“Linkeroever” vertelt het verhaal van een jonge atlete die na een blessure verplicht rust moet nemen. Wanneer ze bij haar nieuwe vriend intrekt, ontdekt ze dat de vorige huurster verdwenen is. Het vormt het begin van een nachtmerrie. Pieter Van Hees schreef het scenario samen met Dimitri Karakatsanis, de regisseur van het vorig jaar in Venetië geselecteerde “Small Gods”. Eline Kuppens en Matthias Schoenaerts vertolken de hoofdrollen. De film werd geproduceerd door Bert Hamelinck, Kato Maes en Frank Van Passel voor het Brusselse productiehuis Caviar. “Linkeroever” kwam tot stand met steun van het Vlaams Audiovisueel Fonds.
Eind maart 2008 bracht Kinepolis Film Distribution Linkeroever in de zalen. De film is op weg naar de 40.000 betalende bezoekers in Vlaanderen en Brussel.

Copyright(c) Belga 2007 – 2008

Small Gods #6

Submitted by: mediozo