A horse in the street

I went for a quick walk downtown, had a couple of quick errands to do. On the way back home, I walked through one of the oldest streets in town. The street is named after a local saint, I think. it’s been there since medieval times, long before the reformation. Monks used to walk there on the way to the cathedral.

Suddenly my feeling of ancient times was kind of confirmed by a horse pulling a sled up the street. Horse traffic is sparse in town now. It's more common to see Teslas and other electric cars.

A few moments later I passed over the old town bridge, with a view to the technical university (where i once was a student), where they do reasearch on artificial intelligence and under-water robotics. All kinds of advanced stuff was invented here, like internet search and the GSM cell phone network.

I think that we have come pretty far since the last catholic arch bishop fled the town in1536. The first step of progress is to get rid of religious power.

Now I’m sitting in my favorite coffee shop (not the the Amsterdam type, here they only sell coffee). I'm drinking the coffee of the day and writing some crap, like I often do when I'm here. Whatever. The coffee is very good >:)

(Picture taken on my walk to town center today)

Charlie is back

Last week, we were shocked by the acts of terror in Paris. This week, Charlie Hebdo is back with a new issue. That’s great.  The artists and cartoonists are brave.  

I think duck liver is a hype, but I always liked the French cheese, and the French attitude to freedom of speech. Charlie Hebdo’s satire offends the Muslims. That’s fine. They just have to learn to live with it, like the Christians, Jews and Satanists have learnt.

What’s holy for you is not holy for me.  Mocking the gods and prophets can be fun, for sure. But blasphemy is more than entertainment. Blasphemy is an important part of the freedom of speech. Religion mixed with a political agenda is a bad combo, because it makes the agenda indisputable. Who are you to challenge God?

• Imagine Obama coming to The House proposing a new law received from God, and the Republicans could do nothing to stop it. 
• Imagine the Labor party coming to the Parliament with a political program given by God, and Cameron had to approve it right away. 

The French and the Americans (I think) were the first to develop a secular constitution. This is very important, splitting governing, legislative and religious power. Turkey is Muslim-secular, but develops in the wrong direction. Many Muslim countries are stuck in their political-religious swamp. The list of ridiculous laws and rules coming out of religion is endless:

• Women are not allowed to watch football games (Iran)
• Women are not allowed to drive cars (Saudi)
• Death penalty for blasphemy (Pakistan)
• Separate ski lifts for men and women (Iran)
• One-hour marriage with prostitutes (which makes prostitution compliant with the Quran; Bahrain).
• Men can’t sit next to women on airplanes (orthodox Jews)
• Women can’t become priests (Catholics)
• Priests must live in celibate (Catholics)
• Ban on condoms (Catholics)

None of these rules come from God. They were invented by powerful people as tools to control people. When rules can't be justified by rational arguments, the easiest solution is God. No wonder religious authorities  who make up such laws and rules (and their Prophets and Gods) become subject to satire and blasphemy.

The French author Michel Houellebecq once said that “among all ridiculous religions, Islam is the most stupid”. He was taken to court in Paris for this statement, but was acquitted based on freedom of speech. They are all about equally bad; I dislike religion in general. 

I have plenty of religous books in my shelf; the Bible, the Quran and the Book of Mormon, and I have read a fair part of them (but far from everything). Sharia is mostly useless as legislation for the modern world. But taking the worst of the Bible, it would make a pretty bizarre law too.

Some of the religious texts can be quite entertaining. Once we had fun drinking beer and reading load from the Quran in a pub up north. I think the pub was a safe place for our blasphemy. It's an unlikely place to meet jihadists and inquisition.

In Satan we trust >:)

(Cover page of this week's issue of Charlie Hebdo; link to WIkipedia. The text above Muhammsd's head says "Everything is forgiven".)

The land of the midnight sun

It seems like I’m back on my old informal blogging-schedule;  blogging while traveling. That’s when I get the time to do it, when I have the evenings  off, by myself. 

This year I have hardly been traveling at all. Yesterday, when I got to the airport security, I realized how much I appreciate being at home, with just a 10 minute commute to the office (thanks to the inventors of video-conferencing).

This week I’m up north, in the city known as The Paris of the North, and The Gateway to the Arctic.   

It’s quite some time since last time I was here for real. I’ve been here many times in transit. This is the town were I used to board the Antonov-24for Murmansk, when I travelled regularly to Russia. This is the transit stop if you want to experience the Arctic magic. This is where I have boarded vessels heading for the Arctic Seas, and where I slept over when I returned.

It’s great to be here in the summer, at 69 degrees North, well beyond the Arctic Circle. The mountains are still capped with snow, and the birches have just got a slight touch of leaves. It’s not very warm, but it’s light.  The sun shines around the clock. The last sunrise was 20^th May, and the next sunset is 25^th July. Two months of continuous daylight.

My hotel  (and all the other hotels in town) are down on the harbor, with a nice view to the bridge and the Arctic Cathedral on the other side. God present is here too, apparently. Religion is hard to get rid of no matter how far north you go.

The north is challenging for the Muslims. They all died out one summer when Ramadan was in the months of the midnight sun. I’m just joking.  The Muslims up here has a special permit (from God?) to follow the clock-times in Mecca. During Ramadan, they can eat when the sun sets in Mecca. Funny isn’t it?

Religion (all of them) is pure madness. That’s why I stick to science >)

(I took the picture above this morning. When I checked the last link above, I realized that I had basically the same picture 4 year ago. But if you compare, you will see that the weather is better today.)

My to-write list

It’s February already. January just flew away too fast, without a single blogpost. I was just to busy. Basically, I had three jobs. At daytime I did my regular job for BigOil, as usual. In the night I worked on the refurbishing of our house. Late night I was grading exams. It’s a Hell of a boring job, but I have to do it, since I have a part-time position in the university.

Now the exam-grading is done. Then I only have two jobs, and I hope I’ll get some time to write. I have many topics to write about. Just to remind myself, here are some headlines on my to-write list:

• The white gold
• Russia; good, bad and evil
• War heroes on the metro
• Mekka and Disneyland
• Jerusalem and Hollywood
• Some people still believe in God
• The importance if blasphemy
• Michel Houellebecq
• Haruka Murakami
• Management and leadership
• Monogamy
• I never got a Green Card
• Where does Satan live?
• Skiing in America
• My merits in battle
• Does size matter?

I don’t know in which order I’ll do the list. I’m open for suggestions.

Also, more than a year ago, I started on a one month blogging challenge; 30 posts in 30 days. I got half way through it. Maybe I’ll try to do the rest of it. But n

ot this month; February has only 28 days, it’s skiing season, and soon the Winter Olympics are starting up >:)

(The picture above is the huge Russian nuclear-powered ice breaker Lenin operating in the Arctic. I took the picture a couple of years ago. To be honest, I've never actually seen the ship. There is a big picture of the ice breaker on the wall in the reception of the Poliarnie Zori Hotel in Murmansk, and I took a picture of the picture on the wall, hehe.)

Democracy is un-Islamic

Skiing season is over, and my handyman season has started.  Living in a 100 year old house, there’s always plenty to do.

Yes, I can.  Now I’m refurbishing the attic, insulating the floor and ceiling and stuff like that.

I always listen to the radio while I’m working. It’s a very old radio. I bought it when I was in highschool. 

I can’t stand the chit-chat-and-pop-music stations, so my radio is tuned into the national broadcasting’s news station.  Most of the time they just switch in the BBC World Service, which is very good.  You get to learn a lot, not only about Europe and America, but the entire world (or at least the Commonwealth).

This weekend there was two main happenings: The resign of Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson after 26 years in charge, and the election in Pakistan.

I found the latter to be the most interesting.  And so did BBC World.

There was in-depth presentation of Pakistan’s political system. Reports from the big cities, and from rural areas, where politics, bribes and loyalty to local landowners are intertwined.

The campaign was very violent, with frequent bombings taking place. The Taliban did their best to undermine the election, claiming that “democracy is un-Islamic”.  Still voter turnout was 60%, including many women (provided their family allowed them to vote).  

It’s encouraging if Muslim countries start to move away from religious fundamentalism.

The election was won by the former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who was kicked out of office and exiled in the military coup in 1999.

The runner up was the former cricket star Imran Khan. His slogan was obvious:  “Yes we Khan”.

(I've never been to Pakistan. In fact, I've been to a Muslim country only once, at the World Petroleum Congress in Doha, Qatar, a couple of years ago. The picture above was taken inside the congress center, by the women's prayer room. Maybe I should build one in my attic?)

Thanks to Judas

It’s been busy times, a Hell of a lot to do at work. That’s why my blog has been dead recently.

I’ve been working day and night for the last couple of weeks, to finish the stuff we have promised to finish before the end of the first quarter of 2012. That’s the kind of things that managers measure.

Now I’m looking forward to Easter vacation, going skiing as usual.

I’m not very concerned about the religious part of it, but I think the Christians should stop talking shit about Judas. He’s the 2nd most important person in Christianity. What would Jesus been without the acts of Judas? Just imagine Jesus dying in loneliness, from old age in a dark and dusty cabin.

Judas was an important part of the plot, the antagonist who betrayed the hero. Without him the entire story would fall apart; no crucifiction, no suffering, no resurrection. Jesus and Judas had equally important roles in God’s plan, for those who believe in the story.

I think it was just an effective twist of a good fiction writer who knew his craft, almost 2000 years ago.

Anyway, I thank Judas for the annual skiing vacation he gave us, and after Easter, I hope my blog will resurrect.

Happy Easter Holidays >:)

(I got the Easter egg in the picture from my boss today. The egg was on the desk in my office when I came to work this morning. Nice boss, good candy.)

Out of the sand

It’s my last night in Doha. Tomorrow morning I’m leaving the desert. Mission completed. I’m flying back home, with Qatar Airways.

According to themselves, Qatar Airways is one of the world’s leading air lines. They’re not bad. I enjoyed flying with them. They had very cute stewardesses. It’s kind of strange, the young and sweet girls working in the cabin of the airplane, with short skirts and plenty of makeup. Once they get out in the street after work, they put their niqabs and hijabs on. God is great, but don’t worry above 30.000 feet.

I had a very pleasant stay at InterContinental Hotel, right by the beach, and with a nice view to the Persian Gulf. I must admit I liked this country. Qatar is a desert country. Doha, the capital, is apparently expanding rapidly into the desert. There are cranes and construction work everywhere.


There is no fresh surface water in the entire country. I don’t know where they get the water from, possibly drilling for ground water or desalting sea water. But they have plenty of oil and gas, which has made Qatar one of the richest countries in the world, and with the largest consumption of gasoline, and emission of carbon dioxide per capita.

The population is kind of special. 1.5 million people live in Qatar, but only 300.000 are citizens. The rest is cheap labor from other Asian countries (India, Pilippines, Indonesia, …). The Qatarians don’t treat their workers very well. Salaries are low, and unions is illegal. No good; shame on you.


Qatar is a liberal country, by Islamic standards at least. Women are allowed to drive, and foreigners can practice their own religion (or lack of religion). In Doha, there’s even a Catholic Church. Also, Doha is the hometown of Al Jazeera, the “Arabian CNN”.

In 2022, Qatar is hosting the Soccer World Cup. Nobody understands how this came about, but everything is possible for the gang that rules international football (I still mean soccer).

Maybe I’m coming back to the desert sand in 2022, but tomorrow I’m going home to the snow.

(I took the picture at the top last night. The low building, a little bit to the left, is my hotel. The other pictures were shot during my stay. I was amazed by the falconer and his bird. It was so calm and quiet as long as the cap covered it’s eyes.)

Catholic flashback

It's kind of strange around here. We're Protestants most of the time, but for one week every year, we're Catholics. (This doesn't include myself, though. I'm Atheist all the time.)

500 years ago, the Catholics were kicked out of the country, and the last arch bishop had to flee our town. We have been Protestants ever since. But every summer, we have a Catholic flashback. It's the full package; vesper and midnight mass, pilgrim walks with munks and nuns, fighting the lust of the flesh, in sneakers and Gore-Tex jackets (depending on weather). And there's a lot of regular tourists of course.

In the last week of July and first week of August, we have a festival to celebrate the holy king who brought Christianity to our country, 1000 years ago. We can discuss if this was an advantage or not. Anyway, it's a historical fact that it happened.

The kings mission was simple and efficient: Get christened or get killed. No wonder Christianity was such a great success.

The king was killed in a battle 1000 years ago, when he met resistance from an army of peasants. Every summer there is a historical play, an hour drive (with car, not horse) north of town. The play is performed outdoor at the battle field, and recreates the political situation and conflicts leading up to the battle. (The battle itself, though, takes place backstage).

I've seen the play 3 or 4 times. It's quite interesting and entertaining, for the kids too.

The king caused miracles for those who were in contact with his dead body, sick and blind people were healed, and the king's hair continued to grow after his death (according to the saga). He was canonized by the local arch bishop; later confirmed by Pope Alexander III in 1160.

The medieval cahtedral in our town is built on the grave of the holy king, who is known as Saint Olav.

(The summer festival is not only about gods and saints. There are various types of entertainment too. Last night I attended a concert with Jan Garbarek Group outside of the cathedral. I took a couple of pictures, even though it was not allowed. The drummer was very good, and he played the same brand of cymbals that I have; Zildjian. Good stuff.)

Constitution

Yesterday was our Constitution Day, and big celebrations.

In the morning it was the childrens parade, with all the elementary schools in town. Little boy is in 4th grade, and was participating with his school.

Then there was the citizens parade, with all the clubs and associations in town; the Kung Fu Club, Roller Derby Club, pro-football team, Students Society , Gay Association, Lions Club, Moto-Cross Club, Railroad-workers' Brass Band, Together for Jesus, and so on.

Same procedure as every year.

Our constitution is inspired by the French and the US, and builds on the principle of separation of powers; the executive, legislative and judicial, respectively.

Here are some punch-lines from the constitution, written about 200 years ago:
o All inhabitants of the Realm shall have the right to free exercise of their religion.
o The Evangelical-Lutheran religion shall remain the official religion of the State. The inhabitants professing it are bound to bring up their children in the same.
o Jesuits and monastic orders may not be tolerated. Jews remain excluded from admission to the kingdom.
o There shall be freedom of expression.
o Search of private homes shall not be made except in criminal cases.

My parents may have violated the 2nd statement, even though they possibly did their best to obey it (it just didn't work on me).

It's interesting that the most important statement is only six words.

One of the statements above has been removed from the constitution in modern times ... guess which.

(I don't take many pictures on the Constitution Day. It's the same every year, and I've seen it all before. The picture above is from the citizen's parade last year.)

The god of skiing

Easter comes late this year, about as late as it can possibly get. The sun is warming, but the mountains are still covered by white snow.

The mountains are crowded. There are people everywhere. That’s an Easter tradition in Winterland. That’s how people spend their Easter holidays.

Some go out on long ski trips. Some just find a nice place to sit in the snow, make a camp fire, and eat lunch, with the kids and the dog and Mother-in-Law. Maybe someone even think of Jesus suffering on the cross. I doubt it. We have better Gods at hand.

The Bible hardly mentions snow at all, and there is certainly nothing about skiing. What kind of religion is that?

Today we went into the valley named after the Norse God of skiing. His name is Ull. He’s not as famous and powerful as his colleague Thor with the Hammer, but a God well suited for our needs up North, for those who insist on having one, or more.

I don’t. I just ski.

(I grabbed my camera and took the picture above when we passed by the little hill on our way into the mountains. I don't know who the people are, but they demonstrate typical Winterlandic Easter celebration out in the snow)

The beauty of religion

I read in the newspaper about this farm worker in Pakistan. It was a woman who belongs to the Christian minority in the Muslim country.

One day she was sent to the spring to fetch water for the farm workers. The other farm workers refused to drink the water, because it had been carried by a Christian. The woman got pissed off and said: “Jesus died for our sins. What has Mohammad done for you?”

She was sentenced to death for blasphemy. Well deserved, of course, you can't just offend the gods and the prophets like that.

On the big day, she will be painted black in her face and pulled through town by a donkey, to the square where the cheering crowd is waiting to watch the execution. It will be a spectacular show.

It’s the beauty of religion.

Burning the Koran

I read in the news about a minister who wants to burn the Koran. I think that's a very stupid and childish thing to do. There are Muslims around the world who burn stuff, like American and Israeli flags, Salman Rushdie's book and sometimes the Bible.

There are many things in Islamic theory and practice that should be, and need to be debated and criticized; womens rights, sharia laws, violent attacks as response to critique. But burning the Koran means that we step down to the same low level of primitive outrageous action. Burning books is just a stupid thing to do.

I bought the Koran some time ago (and wrote a blogpost about it). I'm not gonna burn my copy. I rather read it. How about you?

Jesus the pirat

I was nine years old and in 3rd grade. At that time public schools in Winterland officially had a preaching objective (fortunately this is no longer so). We had to sing psalms and pray in class everyday. Our teacher was a Christian fundamentalist. She really taught us how to believe in God, properly.

Once in Christianity class, the theme of the day was Jesus calms the storm. After the teacher had told the story, we were set to draw the scene in our workbooks. My friend Foggy and I were sitting together on the back row. Our imagination was running off. We made some creative drawings with Jesus on board a pirate ship, with a pirate flag in the rear, and some angels flying around with propellers on the back. The kind of things little boys do.

The teacher was furious, and God was furious too, she said. We should expect a painful destiny in Hell, unless we prayed. The homework for next day was to color the pages black, to cover the blasphemic drawings. Tearing it out was no alternative. Then the attached page on the other side of the staple would fall out, the page where the Great Commission (Matthew 28: 18-20) was written down. Covering the drawings with black crayons was the only option.

That day, I learnt three things:

o Religion is a stupid thing,
o I'm an atheist,
o Black is my color of choice.

As I have grown older, I have refined my views a little bit:

o Religion can be a stupid thing, but doesn't have to be. Anyway, religion has brought more pain than good to the world. The Catholic Church has killed more people than Hitler (the church also had alot more time to reach the top of the killing list, of course, today it's mainly the Muslims who are running up).
o I'm an atheist, with some sympathies towards satanism (which is not a theistic religion, but more like a philosophy).
o I wear only black clothes, and I listen to black metal.

In Satan we trust >:)

The worst invention of all time: Religion

Religion is a strange thing; interesting, fascinating and disgusting. I have never liked it, and I don’t need it. Religious belief has screwed up people’s minds for thousands of years, and still continues to do so, more or less. More in Muslim countries, less in the Christian world. What has religion brought us? War, killing, repression (of women), misuse of power, and so on. No good.

Maybe it’s not religion itself that is the problem. Emperors, family fathers, people with power have used religion to justify encroachment and harassment that would have happened anyway, with a different cause. However, many religious texts and leaders support and recommend such acts. For me it doesn’t matter which issue is the more important. The effect is the same. I don’t care what messy thoughts swirl around in the heads of Christians and Muslims and Jews and Hindus. But it has a very bad impact on the world we live in.

Religion has always been challenged by free thinking and science. Religion’s only significant contribution to science has been to slow down its development, banning and rejecting ideas that did not fit in with religious doctrine. The most harmful and tragic effects can be seen in countries where religion still has major impact on government and lawmakers; sharia laws, refusing girl’s education, claiming land on the West Bank with reference to the Bible. It’s insane.

In most countries, the fraction of religious people has decreased with increasing level of education. Religious regimes (like Iran) have the main base of support in the uneducated part of the population. That’s good, there is still hope that rationalism will win in the end. It is easy to understand that people of ancient times called on gods and ghosts and goats to explain strange phenomena that they couldn’t understand; the stars in the sky, volcanoes, earth quakes and floods. Thousand years ago, the scientific domain was small and the religious domain was large. Today it is opposite, due to the development of science.

However, there is still a long way to go. There are countries where the majority of the population supports creationism, rather than evolution (according to polls). Part of the Muslim world is at a development level corresponding to the Middle Age. Religion is irrational, a question of belief. You do believe in God (one or more) or you don’t, as simple as that. As science evolves, it continues to move previous mysteries from the religious domain to the scientific domain. Science is providing a logical and rational explanation.

There will always be things that can not be explained by science. The religious domain is shrinking, but will never become zero (I even know religious scientists!). The existence or non-existence of God can never be proved. There can always be something else, something more, that science has not been able to explain. Who pushed the button to trigger the Big Bang? Who cares? Do we really need an explanation for everything, right now? I don’t, I can live (and die) happily with the fact that there are still things yet to be understood. I have no problems accepting that the death is the end, we’re recycled back to nature. I have no need for an eternal life in Heaven. It would probably be just boring anyway, and God is a mean and tyrant despot (according to the Bible) that I wouldn’t like to be near to eternity and beyond.

The worst inventions of all time

This is my top-three list of the worst inventions of all time:
1. Religion (the worst by far; all of them),
2. Handguns,
3. Pizza with pineapple.
I will come back to these items one by one, as soon as I get the time and inspiration to write about the misery.