The Death Of The Voice Of Reason
Few in the UK have heard of Narendra Dabholkar, but according to this report, he was murdered in India a few days ago. Here’s an extract.
Blaming opponents of the anti-superstition bill for the murdering rationalist Narendra Dabholkar, Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said organisations behind such acts should be isolated and their activities stopped.
Amid spontaneous public outrage and grief over 69-year-old Dabholkar’s killing in Pune on Tuesday, the state government on Wednesday had cleared a proposal to promulgate an ordinance to check black magic and inhuman religious rituals.
“The forces which did not want this Bill to be presented and passed into a law were the people responsible for silencing his voice,” Mr. Chavan said.
Before we say that things like this don’t go on in the UK, we ought to look at ourselves carefully. David Aaronovitch in the Times yesterday wrote a powerful piece about this case and detailed cases all over the world and in our past.
I am happy with my life as a scientifically-correct atheist, but doubt I’ll ever see superstition and most religion consigned to the dustbin of history. Let’s face it we can’t even get to grips with things like the appalling treatment of women, children, and those with a different colour or sexual orientation, by quite a few people in this country.
German Trains Don’t Have A Coach 13
German stations like a lot of continental ones, have a poster showing where your coach will be on the platform.
German Trains Don’t Have A Coach 13
It looks to be a good idea, but just imagine the system at somewhere like Clapham Junction or Crewe, where we seem to run many more trains than our European cousins.
Incidentally, I don’t think we have a coach 13, as we give coaches on long trains, like those out of Kings Cross and Euston, letters rather than numbers. Several times though, I’ve travelled in coach M. Is that unlucky?
The Anonymous Widower 