I only created this blog yesterday, and already I'm famous!
Yesterday, I may have been only half-serious. But now I really have to make a go of it, to justify Hemant's faith in me. (He called me cool!) Any bloggers with wise words to share on how not to let a blog fizzle and die after an enthusiastic start, please let me know.
I'm writing this at 3 in the morning, because a pack of feral young apes is making an appalling racket in the central green outside my window, and I can't sleep. Which makes me think about the drink culture here. (I don't know if they're drunk or just idiots, but it reminds me of the many people who are frequently both in this city.)
Which in turn reminds me of one of the more unexpected realizations I made when we started the Edinburgh University Humanist Society. The first time we had our Thursday evening pub meeting, we realized that most of us were either teetotal or very infrequent drinkers. We still have a great time at the pub, drinking and chatting and all (join us if you're ever in the city). But easily 90% of the drinks we order are Pepsi or juice.
Now, I know there is nothing explicitly anti-alcohol in humanism, so I wonder whether we're an anomaly or if there's something about humanism that makes us less likely to imbibe? Perhaps our willingness to face the world as it is, without distortion? Perhaps our vivid awareness of how easily people can be fooled into false belief even with a clear head and all our faculties intact?
What do you think?
Saturday, 1 September 2007
2 comments:
This blog has now moved to a new domain:
http://friendlyhumanist.net/
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Heh. As a light-drinking humanist I think you might be on to something.
ReplyDeleteI don't drink much for two reasons: 1) I like to talk to my friends when we meet up, and alcohol gets in the way of that, and 2) my general lack of drinking means that my system can't cope with more than a few pints nowadays.
That said, if I'm at someone's house (as opposed to the pub) I can easily go through a couple of bottles of wine. But, I can stay more focused and coherent on wine.
Great blog, by-the-way.
To give a data point in the other direction, I'm neither a teetotaler nor a particularly infrequent drinker (I happen never to have made it to the EUHS pub gatherings, but I will soon, promise).
ReplyDeleteI've never thought there was a particular link between my humanism and my drinking habits. What might result, I've thought, from humanism is a lack of dogmatic and/or moralistic thinking regarding mind-altering substances in general, but that's a slightly broader topic.