It's almost Hogswatch!

I just finished watching The Hogfather movie last night, which was enjoyable. If I ever had a nanny, I would want it to be Susan of Sto Helit. Wish Death could have been more like I imagined though, but that's the problem with movies from books is it not. As always, Mr Pratchett has some great lines in amongst the humour. My favourite would be the following, which was taken from the book:
Susan: "Thank you. Now ... tell me ..."
Death: What would have happened if you hadn't saved him"
"Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?"
No.
"Oh, come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact."
The sun would not have risen.
She turned on him.
"It's been a long night, Grandfather! I'm tired and I need a bath! I don't need silliness!"
The sun would not have risen.
"Really? Then what would have happened, pray?"
A mere ball of flaming gas would have illuminated the world.
They walked in silence for a moment.
"Ah," said Susan dully. "Trickery with words. I would have thought you'd have been more literal-minded than that."
I am nothing if not literal-minded. Trickery with words is where humans live.
"All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying that humans need ... fantasies to make life bearable."
Really? As if it was some kind of pink pill? No. Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little ---"
Yes. As practice. You have to start out learning to believe the little lies.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
Yes. Justice. Mercy. Duty. That sort of thing.
"They're not the same at all!"
You think so? Then take the universe and grind it down to the finest powder and sieve it through the finest sieve and then show me one atom of justice, one molecule of mercy. And yet --- Death waved a hand. And yet you act as if there is some ideal order in the world, as if there is some ... rightness in the universe by which it may be judged.
"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point ---"
My point exactly.
She tried to assemble her thoughts.
There is a place where two galaxies have been colliding for a million years, said Death, apropos of nothing. Don't try to tell me that's right.
"Yes, but people don't think about that," said Susan. Somewhere there was a bed ...
Correct. Stars explode, worlds collide, there's hardly anywhere in the universe where humans can live without being frozen or fried, and yet you believe that a ... a bed is a normal thing. It is the most amazing talent.
"Talent?"
Oh, yes. A very special kind of stupidity. You think that the whole universe is inside your heads.
"You make us sound mad," said Susan. A nice warm bed ...
No. You need to believe in things that aren't true. How else can they become? said Death, helping her up onto Binky.
"These mountains," said Susan, as the horse rose. "Are they real mountains, or some sort of shadows?"
Yes.
Susan knew that was all she was going to get.

The line about human being where the fallen angel meets the rising ape, that's what I'm celebrating. Happy Hogswatch everyone, and Merry Christmas.
Scott

PS And other things ending in 'olly

Winter Solstice & Lunar Eclipse

It's all over the interwebs, but just in case you didn't know, a full Lunar Eclipse and Winter Solstice fall on the same day this year. Get out there and look at that moon. If you're like me and on MST, then total eclipse will begin at 0:41 MST on Tuesday. Here's a link to NASA's page. I sure hope we have clear skies for it. "Good night, and keep watching the skis."
Cheers,
Scott
This picture can be found here.

Happy Saturnalia!

Today is the traditional first day of Saturnalia, Dec 17. I love the Christmas season, so much history, across so many cultures. Living in the north, with cold, dark and snow a constant, celebrating seems like a proper reaction. In a different time of my life, I used to feel offended when people would take away from a Christian focused Christmas time, now I know how silly that was. James McGrath has a good entry on that topic. With that in mind, I very much appreciate the Wikipedia entry on Winter Solstice observances. It has a list of a lot of other celebrations during this time of year. So many good excuses to party and be with the ones you love. It seems like there are also many good excuses to scare small children.
Music is an integral part of the Christmas season, and my favourite modern Christmas song is by Tim Minchin. It have some very good lines that sum up how I feel about Christmas. If you choose to buy it on itunes, all the proceeds go to charity. Go buy it. I really like this song.



For an older Christmas carol, I love the Roger Miller classic "Old Toy Trains".

Changing ones mind

It's been several months since I've had time to do any entries. That does not mean the thinking has stopped. If it had, then maybe I would have stopped? Lately something I've been pondering is changing your mind or deconversion from previous beliefs. Many of the people who know me know I've changed my beliefs a lot in the last decade. I feel it very keenly sometimes. I think the video below explains how ones belief slowly can be eroded away. He's specifically talking about belief in g0d, but I think it can apply to anything. I know it's sort of how it worked for me. Enough points get countered strongly enough, you just end up waking up one day believing something different. On a slightly related note, I asked a friend a few months back what started him on his road to deconversion. To paraphrase my memory of what he said, he said that instead of just reading the quotes that apologists would use, he went to the source material. Finding that Christian apologists tend to distort and 'lie for Jesus' makes it hard to buy into their arguments. That's a specific reason not to believe, but as the video shows, it takes more than just one specific reason.