The Lion King

A few weeks ago I went to see The Lion King. Not sure how this one slipped by me for so long.

Anyway there's little you can say about it really. It is brilliant. And incredibly moving. I know Disney get a lot of shit from people for  presenting a candy coloured vision of the world. But you just get them on father children relationships and it quickly gets dark.

Look at Nemo, Peter Pan or Mary Poppins. In the Lion King Simba gets crushed under the weight of expectation there is for him following the footsteps of his father.

The resolution is satisfying but the scene that moves is the encounter with his father's ghost in the wilderness. I was pretty moved (man talk translation, I cried a little bit).

Hitch and Me

I was much saddened earlier in the week at the death of Christopher Hitchens. I've had a pretty troubled relationship with him over the last few years. For many years I described my faith position, for want of a better term, as being agnostic. In other words I didn't believe in God but wasn't totally convinced of his non existence either.

Then a few years ago I heard Christopher Hitchens on Fivelive being his usual rather beligerent self. The representative of the other side was at pains to be reasonable and not take offence at Christopher's non belief. Whereas Hitch had no problem in not accommodating the other person's beliefs at all. At the time I was cross at Hitchens' apalling rudeness and the agression of these atheists.

Fast forward a few years and the arrival of The God Delusion and I got even more irate with these 'New Atheists' bullying people who were doing them no harm in believing what they did. I had of course not read the book just decided I did not like it.

I think I now know what was going on. Although I called myself an agnostic I think I always knew that deep down I was an atheist. I was scared of reading a book that may strip away the last vestiges of my flimsy beliefs. I never set out to read The God Delusion. it just so happened that one day at the library the best audio book available happened to be it so I took it.

In truth as good a book as it was it didn't really tell me a fat lot I did not already really know in my heart. The lesson it did teach me undoubtedly was that there was no shame in being an atheist and that atheists are not to be feared. We are just people who happen not to believe in God.

For me personally the door is not totally closed on the thought there may be 'something other than' the physical world we see around us.This is based on nothing more than the fact that not existing makes more sense than actually existing. Something must have put the singularity there to start us off on our journey.

The other real joy that came from reading the book was the fun to be had watching videos of Hitch on Youtube being his beligerent, no quarter given and most importantly articulate best. I am truly sad at his passing. A great light has gone out.