Of cats and crocs

Sometimes there are news that make me despair of the human race, yet there are others that make me marvel about the animal kingdom. And when I learn about cats, it is to marvel at their intelligence, beauty, resilience, and overall superiority. Cats are superior creatures and I am convinced that one day, when mankind will have disappeared due to its own stupidity, the feline race will take over and this planet will be in good hands. Or paws.

Anyway, yesterday Matt Dillahunty linked on Facebook an article about a sicko who had murdered a cat of a Democratic Campaign Manager. It had got me very upset and gave me bad dreams. Wanton cruelty over animals, especially animals I love, always makes me upset. I learnt today in the Metro (your reference for pointless news when you are tired) that a cat had won a fight against an alligator over some chicken. It scared the alligator off! Somebody filmed it and it got viral on Youtube. Okay, this is pure trashy news. And after watching the video I am honestly not very proud of the human species I mean somebody should have worried about the cat. I didn't like the cheap laugh, the amused comments, the whole America's Funniest Home Videos feel and look, nothing in fact but the fearless, in your face attitude of the feline.It is the attitude that got the better of the saurian, not the cat's size, not its claws or fangs, but its stare, its fearlessness, its character.

I don't know exactly why, but I make an association with both stories. In Elmore Leonard's Maximum Bob, an ex-convict, pathetic criminal is compared to an alligator: stupid, mean, but dangerous. The sick guy who killed a cat is also a mean, stupid, cold blooded, cold heart saurian. He should be locked away for good. But hey there are cats. Smart creatures that can hold their ground. It does not mean they are soft: anyone who has seen a cat hunting can witness how merciless they can be. But there is no real meanness to it: cats do it out of hunger and for self preservation. And unlike crocodiles, alligators and other saurians (who eat their own offspring) they are capable of tenderness and empathy. And they get the better of alligators sometimes. I hesitated to upload the video here, but decided to do it anyway.

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.

Those lucky secular students

A recent post by Matt Dillahunty on the Atheist Experience blog, about a secular students association (the Secular Student Alliance to be more precise), got me thinking about students associations. I have never been a member of a students association, except the casting of students plays. In my time here in English universities, I was surprised by the very strong presence of the Christian Union. It was something so surreal to me. We have our Christians in Québec, of course, but they were never that open. Members of the Christian Unions, mainly girls, were everywhere when I was doing my MA and PhD. I had a friend who was among them, a very nice person overall, but who I think was trying to convert me. They were preying (praying, preying, funny double entendre here) on foreign students: I spent an hour with my Greek and Italian friends in the Christian Union playing Twister. I didn't convert.

They were preying on drunken students too: they were making toasts and tea right next to the university's bar (I might have told this anecdote before here). I ate the toasts, drank the tea, it lessened my hangover the next day. Oh and I argued/debated with them. I was not at my best because I was fairly drunk, but I think I managed nevertheless to expose their contradictions. I was surprised to see that they were mainly creationists and thought it was moral to think that unbelievers (and wrong believers: Jews, Catholics and so on) were doomed to Hell. I asked them why I would even want to worship such a vain, immoral God, even if he existed.

I learned recently that there is now a secular/atheist association in my British alma mater, linked to the British Humanist Association. I wish there had been a thing like this when I was a student there. It would have opened me to a community I was already a part on but yet didn't know much or anything about (heck I didn't know I was an atheist). It would have helped me develop my critical thinking. And it would have given me something productive to do outside of classes and rehearsals. I envy this generations of students. This is what university life is all about: opening horizons.