Twelve years of 9/11

It is the 11th of September again. This year, I barely noticed it. Ironic, as the day was fittingly commemorative: cold and gloomy. I wrote my most important posts about it in 2008 and in 2009 already. I will commemorate it briefly tonight, by uploading first this drawing from webcomic Atheist Eve by Tracie Harris. I hope she doesn't mind. I deeply admire her work, this specific strip especially, how intelligent and compassionate it is. How eloquent too. Then I have decided to upload The End by The Doors. It was not meant to be a song about the end of times, but one cannot help feeling this association, especially with its use in Apocalypse Now, fittingly re-released back in 2001. Of course, 9/11 was not the end of times. There is no such thing, not by human standards anyway. Nevertheless, this reminds me of that day, of a certain state of mind that the world is in since that day. So here it is.

The best godfather

This is a quick, anecdotal post, before I find the energy and mind to blog about serious things. No, I am not talking about the movie epic. I am talking about godfather in the proper sense. Before Christmas, I received a card from my godson and his family. My godson had written: "you are the best godfather in the world". I was deeply moved, since I barely see my godson. There is a whole show of The Atheist Experience (episode 771) about atheists becoming godparents. I never thought about it much when his parents asked me to become his godfather, but whatever I did during all those years (my godson is 7 now), I did it right. It made me say: "Not bad for a godless man". Which deserves to be a great unknown line.

Atheist Eve on hiatus?

I have just read this update from the Atheist Eve strip. I love the monthly web comic, I love how Tracie Harris defends an argument so efficiently in such a restricted format, with intelligence and genuine humour. Among my favourite strips are Real Christians, Witnesses, Happy Eostre, Who Wrote the Bible?, Was it Offensive? and of course Remember (Why it matters). They are among my monthly internet treats, Tracie Harris is also always a pleasure to listen to on The Atheist Experience and Godless Bitches (which I don't listen to enough). I can understand that she has been very busy and that the comics had to be momentarily sacrificed. Still, I have been missing it for a while now.

I once suggested to her in a comment on The Atheist Experience blog that she writes a book, maybe a whole comic book, something like "Atheism made plain" or something like that, where she would explain how someone comes to disbelief and why. She has the intelligence and the skills to do it. If she was writing one right now, I would forgive her for putting Atheist Eve on ice.

Secular(ist) Twelve-Step

The Atheist Experience has a new blog. I haven't changed it in the blogroll yet, hopefully I will shortly. I haven't been on it much yet, but one post caught my attention: Matt Dillahunty did his own take on the Twelve-Step Program. And I really loved it. He criticised it on the show before, so his post does not come as a surprise to me.

I am enthusiastic about it for a simple reason: as a still Catholic teenager, I saw plenty of alcoholics and addicts giving testimony in religion classes. It had its use and it did open the eyes of many on the danger of alcohol (or other substances), but I always found the A.A. program somewhat sinister: it is about oblivion of will and powerlessness, I always thought it was replacing the substance by another kind of addiction. Using God as a placebo, so to speak. I thought this even as a Christian and I think it might have put me off drinking: I didn't want to cure an addiction by doing the program. I find Matt's Twelve-Step more empowering.