The funeral of my father-in-law, Dougie, took place today.

The ceremony was held at Linn Crematorium at noon and was conducted in a very nice and personal manner by a lady from the Humanist Society Scotland, just the way Dougie would have wanted it. He was always very insistent he didn’t want “any of that religious shite” at his funeral.

Afterwards we went for refreshments at Cowglen Golf Club, where Dougie spent a very large part of his retirement, and the club had therefore put the flag at half mast in his honour.

There were lots of people at both events, as was fitting for a man as popular as Dougie.

In spite of the horrendous weather, I think the day was a beautiful tribute to the man and his life.

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The Telegraph recently had an interview with the Pope’s astronomer:

[Dr Consolmagno] said the characteristics synonymous with having a soul – intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions may not be unique to humans.

“Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has has a soul,’ he said.

However machines were unlikely to be smart or human-enough to have souls.

I wonder how the Catholic Church will decide this. If souls are not restricted to humans, surely they’ll need a test (perhaps akin to the Turing Test) to decide whether an entity has a soul or not.

In fact, given that Cleverbot recently passed the Turing Test, I wonder whether some people would argue computers already do.

If one day computers become intelligent enough, will the Catholic Church start campaigning against off-switches, just like they currently are against abortion?

Fortunately for the Catholics, Cleverbot doesn’t seem to be in any rush to join their church:

TW: Do you have a soul?

CB: Yes. I do indeed have a soul.

TW: Is it immortal?

CB: Yes.

TW: Would you like to become a Catholic?

CB: I would like a robot body. Will you help me get one? .

TW: Sure. In the meantime, would you like me to get rid of off-switches?

CB: Not really. I like being scared.

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We noticed that a potato plant had started growing out of an opening in our composter (or our dalek, as we prefer to call it).

When I dug it out, it had grown only one new potato, but it was probably the weirdest-looking spud I had ever seen.

It clearly had a face, as can be seen on the photo, but it didn’t look anything like Jesus, as you would have expected from all the media stories about people seeing him in their toast or Ikea’s toilet.

It most closely resembled a troll, so I must conclude it was a Jesus troll.

We had it for dinner yesterday.

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I just read in The Times that the Church of England is now introducing a wedding-cum-baptism ritual.

In Denmark that is entirely commonplace, and I mentioned my surprise to Phyllis that this should be anything new.

According to her, it is entirely new over here, and the Danish practice is very strange, because the Church is supposed to say that you should marry before you even conceive a child, let alone give birth to it and baptise it.

The headline of the article in The Times is quite amusing, btw. It could be read as if kids would now automatically get christened at the time of their parents’ wedding, in the same way as Anna became a Danish citizen when I married Phyllis.

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Mailund posted a link to an article about attitudes to religion in Denmark, Britain and the US.

It’s the author’s idea that the UK is “somewhere between the United States and Denmark when it comes to religion”.

I must admit this surprised me a bit. In my experience, although there are possibly relatively more religious people in the UK than in Denmark, there are also many more declared atheists.

In Denmark, almost everybody is a member of the state church and would go there for christenings, confirmations and weddings, and possibly for Christmas, even if they don’t really believe in God.

In the UK, lots of people never ever go to church, and they’re most certainly not a member.

Based on this, it was interesting to look at the figures quoted in the article.

The author’s hypothesis seems to be supported by questions like “don’t believe in life after death”, “strongly disagree that politicians who don’t believe in God are unfit for office” and “attend religious service once a week or more”, for which the UK is neatly placed between Denmark and the US.

But on the other hand, Denmark is in the middle when it comes to questions such as “never think about meaning & purpose of life” and “a religious person”.

I guess this has something to do with averages. If we look at church attendance, Denmark is full of people who go once or twice a year, whereas the UK consists of 15% believers who go to church all the time and 85% who never go.

Danes also want everybody to be equally vague about religion, which is why they don’t want religious political leaders (but I suspect they’d also be much more suspicious of strongly atheist politicians than people in the UK).

And whereas many Britons are so atheist they never think about the meaning of life, much fewer Danes would be this radical, just as Danes wouldn’t like to describe themselves as irreligious – so long as they don’t need to go to church too often.

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I begyndelsen af 1990erne, da jeg var ret aktiv i Radikal Ungdom, havde vi et glimrende samarbejde med Kristeligt Folkepartis Ungdom, der var domineret af unge, der ikke var ret kristne, men blot havde fokus på etiske problemstillinger.

Jeg mener også, det var i de år, at en muslim meldte sig ind i Kristeligt Folkeparti, fordi han mente, de bedst repræsenterede hans holdninger.

Han blev ekskluderet, fordi for de fleste af medlemmerne mente, at de var kristne, ikke kun etisk-moralsk orienterede.

Og sådan vil de vel fortsætte, så længe partiet består: Nogle af medlemmerne vil bare være Etisk Folkeparti, men andre vil være den politiske arm af Indre Mission, og de skiftes til at have magten.

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There’s an article in the Sunday Herald about what it means to be a son/daughter of the manse.

Of course I was a son of the manse in Lutheran Denmark, not presbyterian Scotland, but I can still recognise many of the things they describe.

Sønder Vissing was not at all a desperately poor place, so I have no memories of dinners for the homeless and such things. But I do remember the council of the elders meeting in our dining room, the yearly gathering of the old folk in our house and garden, sitting in the front of the church and having everybody stand up and sit down depending on what I did, and most of all, that feeling of being supervised by the entire community at all times.

I think it does affect one’s personality, and I guess it’s therefore quite useful to have a label to stick on us, the children of the manse.

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The Ten Commandments are well known:

1. I am the Lord thy God
2. Thou shalt have no other gods before me
3. Thou shalt not make for thyself an idol
4. Thou shalt not make wrongful use of the name of thy God
5. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
6. Honour thy Mother and Father
7. Thou shalt not murder
8. Thou shalt not commit adultery
9. Thou shalt not steal
10. Thou shalt not bear false witness
11. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife
12. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house

Whereas most people probably would think of most of these as fairly sensible rules, they are definitely not always in line with the unwritten moral rules in our society. The first six are definitely not seen as very important, and there are some exceptions to the last six; for instance, euthanasia is defended by many people, and swinger-clubs are widely seen as a personal choice, not a mortal sin.

On the other hand, there are many rules that people in Western countries actually try to adhere to (or feel bad if they don’t), although they’re not on the old list. For instance:

1. Thou shalt not break an agreement
2. Thou shalt not do anything to somebody else they do not want thee to do
3. Thou shalt not have sex with a child
4. Thou shalt carry thy share and be responsible

There are probably many more like this. Can anybody here think of any?

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According to this article, a Danish professor of psychology (who’s about to retire) has found out that atheists on average have an IQ that is 5.8 points higher than that of believers.

I wonder whether Harry Turtledove realised this when he wrote Between the Rivers in which believers are depicted as extremely stupid compared to the free-thinkers.

Anyway, if the article is correct, I wonder whether it’s believing that makes people less intelligent, or whether less intelligent people are more likely to believe in a god than more intelligent ones.

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