Ask yourself what sort of weekend you had. Mine was windy. That's probably because october is Swindon's Windy Season anyway, but I guess most of the country were experiencing blustery conditions as well. Nonetheless I was bored so venturing out on the saturday night was definitely on.

Getting drunk is a bit expensive these days. So much so that landmark pubs are being demolished here in Swindon. There are two closed premises just down the road from me that are going to be turned into flats if the developers have their way. I used to frequent those pubs in days gone by, both as a customer and as my part in the Swindon music scene, such as it was. Perhaps if Swindon had realised that music existed these pubs might not have closed. Then again, everything seems that much expensive these days. Alcohol is no different.

So instead of getting drunk and finding enlightenment in the bottom of a pint glass, I popped down to to another gathering of Spiritualists Anonymous for films and discussions about life, the universe, and everything. No, come on, if you can't afford a social life you have to make these sacrifices.

One film was an amusing animated feature in which a bored and mischievious Saint Peter refuses an appeal by a condemned soul to enter heaven. The doughnut quaffing saint clearly relished the imminent pleasure of dropping the poor soul back where he came from. Unfortunately, Saint Peter over balanced, and having quaffed so many doughnuts, his tiny wings could not easily support his bulk. He needed help - Or he would end up somewhere down there. Not good. Not good at all.

The other soul reached out and hauled Saint Peter to safety. An act of mercy which did not change Saint Peter's desire for punishing him. So the lever was pulled and the soul departed downward in a big hurry. But of course there was a happy ending. The soul was granted wings and a halo for his act of mercy, and Saint Peter instead fell toward the abyss where his doughnuts would forever more be overcooked with lashings of brimstone.

It was quite amusing and of the two films, the only one that has stuck in the mind.

Paying For Sins

Among the group was an old chap, a polish gentleman who had been in a prison camp in Germany during the war. All night he told us quietly and very slowly that we must all be very careful. That we all have a responsibility. That we all answer for our deeds in eternity, because eternity is a fact.

No it isn't. Time is defined as observable change within our universe. There is only this moment, here, now, constantly vibrating on a quantum level and changing in microscopic increments on a colossal scale. Since eternity is the passage of infinite time, his concept is at odds with what scientitsts are predicting about our cosmos. We live in the stellariferous epoch, an early stage of the universe in which it expands and sparkles with energy. Eventually the universe will calm down, cease creating stars, and begin a long slow subsidence into stasis, at which point there will be no further change and therefore time will cease to have any meaning. In other words, our cosmos will grow, mature, and die of old age. Nothing exists forever.

That's kind of interesting, because a prevailing train of thought is that our current physical existence is merely a preapration for something more permanent in another form. That's a common idea around the world that forms the basis of much religious belief. Religion however exists for two purposes. One is to answer peoples concern about death and existence, the other is to provide a means of social control, usually exploited by dominant individuals in the same was any other form of politics.

After all, the crusades inspired untold thousands to fight the good fight for God. Yet so many of them had more worldly ambitions in mind, including the the pope who set the ball rolling. And if that is said to inspire modern suicide bombings, it's as well to remember that those acts are politically inspired. It seems the word of a higher power means anything you want it to.

As sincere as most individuals are in their chosen cosmological perceptions, so much of it seems to be constructed from a humanocentric point of view. There was a lady of my acquaintance who during her attempt to convert me to christianity enquired why I didn't believe human beings were intrinsically special or that there must be a higher power to which we somehow answer. Surely, if spiritualism as a generic quality of human endeavour is to somehow progress, then as we learned the earth is not the centre of the universe, surely we should grasp that humanity isn't either?

Of course these commonplace views are simply fabrications of th human psyche and intellect, or perhaps the wit, given how insincere many religious leaders turn out to be. Religion does not bother itself with the difficulties of self-rationalisation. Heed the word, Brother, and doubt not. Oh yeah. Cash donations would be nice. That would be the responsible thing to do, surely? Sadly not enough cash has been donated in our local pubs. Therefore pub landlords go out of business, brewers lose business, and I've nowhere to go on a saturday night except...

Paying For Curry

I'd had enough. This was saturday night for crying out loud. On the way home I decided to indulge in a curry. Haven't eaten a decent curry in ages. So I wandered in and bravely ordered not your usual run-of-the-mill off-the-menu selection, but a real customised made-to-order curry.

The guy behind the counter looked at me baffled by my unusual demand, though on reflection he was probably wondering whether I was drunk and therefore in imminent need of being sent elsewhere. He called his boss for assistance as assigning a price to a custom curry is clearly beyond his competence. The boss has known me for a long time. Therefore I was taken seriously and got my request at a reasonable price. It might have cost me the equivalent of three pints of booze, but hey, at least that's one curry house that won't close for business tomorrow. And I've got something to eat the day after too. It's a win win situation, or I like to think so, though for some reason I have a nagging doubt that my bank balance can survive this sort of continued entropy.