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rjc1008

Listed below are comments made by rjc1008 between Friday, 16th May 2008 and Tuesday, 27th October 2009.

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24 hours with Ubuntu 12:33pm on 27 Oct 2009 I started using Linux back in 1993 after no end of problems with Windows 3.1 at the time. I've moved through the distributions and used Ubuntu for quite some time now.

Familiarity is the thing, but I believe that Ubuntu is well designed. Its menu layout is well organised into categories unlike the mess of my Windows XP Programs menu at work. It runs the software I need well. Software installation is easy and appears well designed with central management of all applications and their updates. Network configuration is easy whether at home or roaming, and performance is good. My main day to day applications are Firefox (web), Evolution (mail), Amaroke (music), Bibble-Lite (a commercial photo processing suite) and Open Office.

I do not accept for a moment that Windows is easier to use - because I end up spending a fair amount of time around friends' and family's and friends of friends houses fixing problems with it. The biggest problems I have with Windows are its incredible complexity and that it tends to hide that important information that you need to work out what may be wrong with it.

Some people I know have installed Ubuntu for people like older relatives and set it up as a secure way of using the internet. I hope to see it grow, and as it grows more and more third parties to support it and provide software.
What have the noughties done for God? 2:15pm on 28 Sep 2009 There is a world of difference between that inner search for 'something' and dogmatic religion. It is a huge jump from "I feel this" or "Something must underlie" to "If you don't believe what I believe you are an unrepentant sinner and deserve hell". It is dogmatic religion that is challenged by secularism today, and quite right.

We see interfaith dialogue at a standstill with even similar religions refusing to agree. We see an arrogant belief that only one set of ideas and values can be correct and all the others are plain wrong and must be discouraged. We see this promoted in places such as the Alpha Course with its booklet "So what about other religions?".

Religion, in evangelical churches anyway, seems too much about who you believe in being more important than how you are as a person. This seems wrong. I can imagine a Christ who taught compassion and love. I can look at The Good Samaritan and remember that the Samaritan was not a person of the "right religion" at that time. That is a point I think is missed today. I think parts of the church focus too much on "I am the way, the light..." and forget the rest.
Why are we ashamed to talk about God? 1:02pm on 04 Feb 2009 Concerning evolution giving us receptors for drugs - drugs work by using receptors that we do need to function in every day life. These receptors are not otherwise useless, they are essential. It's just that some people have found ways of subverting them.

Concerning Christianity being the only religion with a relationship with 'God' - have you talked to many people of other religions about their relationships with their gods?
Why are we ashamed to talk about God? 12:57pm on 04 Feb 2009 The question of evolution and creationism is rearing its ugly head.

The contention is the request that we teach Christian creationism as fact in school science lessons. I believe that it can be taught in RE lessons, and science lessons should put forward the case for evolution and an understanding of what science is and how it works.

Creationists may complain about their children being taught evolution, but non-believers don't expect their children to be taught about creationism in that way.

What would those that wish for creationism to be taught in schools think if we also demanded that the Hindu model of cyclic time is taught also as fact? After all, none of the claimed evidence for creationism actually tells us who created it, and at least the Hindu model allows for a universe of sufficient age to explain things like fossils.

The state schools around here have Christian assemblies, yet accept children of various backgrounds. What are they saying to these children about their family's beliefs?

There are questions concerning religion that do need to be asked, and do need people to come together to sort them out.
Why are we ashamed to talk about God? 08:51am on 04 Feb 2009 When people have come up to me in the past and said something like "Can I talk about God?" it has generally been followed by an attempt at conversion. In one case it ended in two Jehova's Witnesses praying over me in the street that I may be freed from my wrong ways. If that ever happens again then I'll have to pray back that they may be less intolerant of other people.

I'm normally fine talking about religion. Some say I talk too much about it - but my community expects me to be part of a church who's beliefs I do not share. I'm not unreligious - I'm just not Christian - and that causes some people problems.

Christianity teaches evangelism. People who are strongly Christian seem to believe that it is their duty to tell others. OK - there are plenty who don't believe this and are happy to discuss other ideas and find the common ground, but enough can get evangelical.

I think it's the thing that unfortunately religion is more than just a preference to some people. There are beliefs that who you worship if at all is more important than other aspects of your life and when that comes to the fore discussion can be uncomfortable.

It's not "I find Jesus really good, but I recognise that you find your religion good too." it's an often implied sometimes explicit "The bible tells me that you'll go to hell if you don't convert.". It's often "Jesus is the only way" and a complete refusal to find that common ground.

That is what makes religion uncomfortable. To be a non-Christian challenges Christian beliefs. Evangelical Christianity challenges other beliefs.
Thought for the Day: "a genuinely difficult question" 10:54pm on 07 Jan 2009 If you don't believe that atheists can have moral views - some of the comments here seem to reflect this - then take a look at some philosophy books. I particularly like Andre Compte-Sponville including his "Little book of philosophy" which is an excellent introduction to ideas of moral and ethical behaviour. He gives reasons for compassion and so many of the things we see as good that do not come from a god's dictates but come from philosophical reasoning.

Barbarians at the gate indeed! Barbarians within if you're going to say that!

I challenge also the idea that the opposite of "bowing down to a god" is "being selfish and greedy". I'd say in practice there is little correlation between the two. We get good Christians and bad Christians, good atheists and bad atheists. It seems that what matters is not which god you worship if any but something else about how you are as a person and how you live.
Thought for the Day: "a genuinely difficult question" 10:38pm on 07 Jan 2009 I think it's only right to widen it so that atheists and agnostics can also present. I'm sure there are such people who have some wonderful things to say that can be morally uplifting and it would be good to explore other rationale for compassion and service or other approaches to complex questions of the day. It is a shame to deny them this.

Why deny them this? Is there a fear somewhere? Why should Thought For The Day be restricted to people of certain faiths?

Does it hurt a Christian listener any more to listen to a humanist talking about how they see the world then it hurts them already to listen to a Muslim or a Hindu?

It is outright discrimination to rule that members of such a significant part of our society cannot have a say on a public service radio program aimed at providing a moral viewpoint. There is no justifiable reason to assume that atheists and agnostics are not qualified to make such broadcasts.
Map of the Week - Community Life 4:48pm on 01 Dec 2008 What is community? When I was young, back in the 70s, community was strongly orientated around our village and the families within it. As a child, time was spent with friends, at school and in the local scout troop.

Now I live in the suburbs and I have no children. things may be different for that reason. Both my wife and I work full time. We need to.

Few of us know the people on our streets, but few of us have anything in common. We work in separate places and do different things with what free time we have. Does extra travel allow us to reach societies, sports clubs, charities, slightly further away? In suburbia all of these things are an easy cycle ride from home.

Would church be a good thing? Something that did the same job but without the need to believe would be good. Such a thing would be more open to many different people. Then again, there are plenty of secular organisations that can get people together. Maybe doing the same things as everyone else on your street isn't a good measure of belonging.
Little Big Planet's global delay 10:05pm on 20 Oct 2008 I wonder why the sound designer chose to include it, or was he/she just unaware of what it was and chose it as ambience? It would be interesting to hear but the YouTube link is now dead. Good marketing for the game though.

On a part related note, a lovely example of religious verse in music, in this case in film, is the use of Hindu scripture and prayer in the third part of the Matrix trilogy. That's an example where the sound designer or probably more likely composer has done well with the words seeming to fit.
One Laptop - hello Windows, goodbye Linux 12:37pm on 16 May 2008 I think if Microsoft can afford to sell Windows for $3, then that should be offered everywhere. Why can't we in the west get Windows for $3.

If they're selling at a loss to get into a market then that's dumping and should be illegal if not already.

I'd rather see these things run Sugar because that interface reminds me of the fun I used to have with computers that were easy to tinker with and program. The lower resource consumption of this system is also a huge advantage.

What are we teaching kids to do? To understand computing and to be able to create and take control, or just to know how to pen-push in a Microsoft world?

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