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The lovely Sinéad yelped, ‘I’m NOT a bag of chemicals!’
After five university years in the biological sciences, I came out as a creationist. Which is why I got asked to speak on ‘Christianity and Science’ when visiting Bashkir State University in Ufa, Bashkortostan, central Russia, in the aftermath of the Soviet era. Before I went to Ufa, I decided any discussion would be enhanced… Read more
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Cross-examined
I hear that Mel Gibson is re-releasing The Passion of the Christ this year. I remember going to see it the first time at the opening night in London in 2004. A London film director went with me and after seeing the stunning effects of the crucifixion he said, ‘‘I was so taken with it… Read more
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The N word
I’m from the North. When I moved to go to college, I had to modify my accent – otherwise some people wouldn’t have understood a word I said. I later discovered that my hometown (Strabane) had been judged (by Channel 4) to be the third worst place to live in the United Kingdom. This past… Read more
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One another
In his book Hillbilly Elegy[1] J.D. Vance gives an insight into his family’s roots in the Appalachian culture of rural Kentucky. To get the story told, he writes in their home-spun expletive-laden vernacular. It’s obvious that he loves them fiercely. After recounting his extended family’s difficulties in personal and heart-wrenching detail, Vance turns to the… Read more
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‘I find it too very ugly’: The statue so divisive it was hidden in a Dún Laoghaire garden
Rite & Reason: I keep meeting people who tell me that, no matter how hard they look, they can’t see resurrection anywhere in the statue David Wilson Dún Laoghaire has long been proud of nudging the national interest towards the meaning of life. It did this in the 20th century through its artists, writers and poets.… Read more
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Jesus and Marx
My attention was arrested by the title of a book published last year: ‘Living a Marxist Life: Why Marx is a Drug You Should Probably Take’ [1] This continues the mesmeric attraction of Karl Marx that has been renewed, especially since his 200th birthday in 2018. This summer, Yanis Varoufakis the former Greek finance minister,… Read more
