The
question for the BBC discussion program this morning was "Is
there a difference between a religion and a cult", with
representatives from both in attendance. Plus an Atheist or two.
Though the latter didn't get much air-time. Needless to say, the
question wasn't answered and not much light was shone on anything. I
wasn't too surprised to learn that all cult representatives feel
there's nothing wrong with their beliefs and activities. But I was
surprised to learn there's a cult/religion called Jews for Jesus.
Essentially, like Christians, these folk believe that Jesus was the
prophesied Jewish messiah and so are a Christian sect.
Understandably, they're not too popular with old-time Jews. Overall,
I didn't find the discussion as funny as I'd hoped. Though it was
certainly amusing to hear the representative of the Raelian
sect/religion talk about UFOs, aliens and mankind's key role in the
creation of the universe. Click here for a full description of this
loopy creed.
I
suspect I've cited this before but never mind. I came across a book
on Galicia tonight at the house of some friends. It's entitled
Spanish Galicia and, as it was written back in 1922, it gives
the opportunity to contrast Galicia as it is now with Galicia as it
was 90 years ago. Likewise literary styles. You can read it online or
download it here. The author is Aubrey Bell, by the way.
And
another book on the same shelf was "Call of the Camino",
which was written rather more recently and which has garnered some
pretty positive reviews on Amazon. The author is Robert Mullen, who's
an American living (Why?) in Scotland. Having only flicked through it
tonight, I can't express an opinion myself. But it looks good.
I'm
very relaxed about - indeed, I enjoy - the ability of English to
either absorb words from other languages or to coin a new noun or
verb from a pre-existing word. Sometimes, though, I wonder whether
they deserve to stay in use. So it is with the words remode and
remoding. A British politician managed to get both of these in
one sentence on Saturday - We're trying to reroute, remode, retime
and reduce our travel, so I'm remoding at the moment. There's a
prize for the first reader to translate this sentence accurately. You
can hear the politician utter these words here. At 1m.10 secs into
the video.
Finally
. . . I found another large pile of bird droppings on the side of my
car yesterday. And this morning I saw a large snail had somehow
managed to slither its way to what was clearly an attractive meal
opportunity. I found this impressive, as the snail can only have got
to the car's bodywork by first climbing up the tyre. Which took some
working out in a brain the size of the snail's. Nonetheless, I knocked it off, back into the road. But at least I didn't tread on it. On the
grounds that it might be a member of the Raelian sect.
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