Another new video of me today. Filmed and edited by David Tubb.

You can also read my written account of the same event here (this, having been written closer to the time, is more accurate).

Instead of a written entry, today’s blog post will be a video!

NOTE: This is not ALL of my pocket items, just the ones that were in at the time I made this video. Many are not included.

One suggestion that’s been sitting in my suggestion box for quite some time is that I write an entry on America. Now, this was such a broad suggestion, so I never really knew what to write, but I’ve decided now to simply make an entry about all American things that I like.
    Firstly, my internet friends! I have three internet friends who live in America: Riley Barlow, Devna Desai and Iris Martinez. I always enjoy chatting to the three of them because, well, they’re nice people! Furthermore, since they are all roughly the same age as me, I’m able to get nice insights into how things would be different if I lived in America as opposed to England. Admittedly, I don’t speak with them all that often, but I still value them highly!
    Secondly, there are several TV shows which I really like which all originate in America. There’s The Waltons which is, potentially, my favourite TV show and is about a family living through the 1930s and 1940s, and during the first five years focuses on the family’s attractive, intelligent, kind, endearing, agreeable eldest son John-Boy and his attempts as an amateur writer. There’s also Friends, a sit-com which, I’m pretty sure everybody will be rather familiar with! I also rather enjoy Futurama (about a regular guy named Phillip Fry finding himself in the future), it is by far my favourite animated comedy series due to the fact that, rather than being silly all the time, it occasionally takes the time to be serious. Recently I’ve also started watching The Big Bang Theory and it too is quickly becoming one of my favourite shows, mostly due to Sheldon Cooper! There’s also House (how couldn’t I like something based on Sherlock Holmes?) and I’ve already mentioned my thoughts on Star Trek.
    Finally, I’d also like to mention a couple of American authors I like. First, Earl Hamner (I’ve reviewed some of his books before) whose novels are what led to the creation of The Waltons (which he also played a significant role in, behind the scenes)! I’m also a pretty big fan of H. P. Lovecraft and the ideas behind his stories: basically his stories are set in a very unhappy universe were humans are utterly insignificant and could be casually wiped out by the squabbles between ancient alien beings at any time.
    But yes, those are my favourite American things! Oh, plus, it’s quite nice that Coca Cola with Vanilla is still available in the USA. I decided against mentioning films or music because most films are American made so there’d be too many, and music-wise I don’t usually tend to like specific artists a lot, it tends more to be a few songs from a variety of people. But anyway, that’s my American entry done!

One, rather weak, criticism of atheism I’ve seen lately is something along the lines of “Yeah, well, isn’t that an awfully depressing thing to believe? It just makes your life a pointless nothing in the infiniteness of the universe” and what I’d like to do is argue that atheism is actually a more positive outlook on life than several of the major religions in today’s world.
    First, is it really all that depressing? Sure, at death, the majority of atheists believe that that’s it. You’re just dead. And with most religions there’s eternal happiness in paradise after that. Clearly atheism is the depressing one. Except, that’s not the case: if one of the world’s religions came true (and was as the majority of its followers believed) then while some people would have that eternal paradise, everybody else is burning in a lake of fire forever. Surely those people would rather just be properly dead? Rather than having to suffer forever? Let me make an analogy: imagine two states: one has an elite group of people who are treated really, really well, which sounds nice, except this elite is a minority. Everybody else is strongly discriminated against, forced to live in unimaginable poverty, subject to violent hate crime and has a generally horrible life. Meanwhile, in the second nobody has it bad, and nobody has it good. Everyone lives a perfectly content life and are all treated equally. Surely the second state is the nicer one?
    Secondly, I find it very hard to see how atheism makes your life meaningless. Let me put it this way: in most religions, current life is just an unimportant material existence and, at death, you will be raised up towards the true perfect existence of the afterlife. Meanwhile, most atheists believe that death is the end, but that this, right now, is the ultimate reality. So with religion, once everybody has left this mortal coil, literally everything you’ve achieved in this life, is meaningless (not every bad thing though, they’re on your permanent record!), because it all starts again later. While, with atheism, you really have to make the most of your life because it’s the only chance you have. Your achievements in life will eventually be your legacy after death and, as such, are immensely important!
    Finally, I’d just like to talk a little about morality and human achievement. When somebody does something really selfless or kind for somebody else, is it not much nicer to think “Aww, they did that simply due to the fact that they are a good decent person” then to think “That person is trying to be nice in the eyes of the Lord”? Similarly, when it comes to great human achievements, is it not better to think “Wow, that’s one impressive thing that person has done!” than to think “It was nice of God to allow that person to excel!”? Plus, before a counterpoint of “But that’s just you being a prideful human” I’m not trying to say that I am the one who’s done anything really great like this, I’ve never done anything noteworthy, but other people certainly have done things that are commendable!
    I’m not attacking the theistic viewpoint with this entry, nor do I wish to offend, rather, I am defending atheism and trying to dispel the incorrect view that it is pessimistic and depressing. I welcome all rebuttals!

I recently bought myself a little set of panpipes. I can pretty much do nothing with them, but I have made up a very short (fifteen seconds actually) little tune of my own. I wanted to preserve it, and a friend of mine told me to upload it, so here it is:

Just in case anybody reading this entry doesn’t know what my Reading is Cool shirt is, here’s a picture of it just to show you: