Faith-lite?
The Movement for Reform Judaism has just published its new funeral service. It contains material – readings, poems – recommended by, among others, the devotedly atheist Claire Rayner. The purpose is, according to Rabbi Jonathan Magonet, to “allow more options to make it easier for rabbis taking the service to meet the needs of the […]
Funerals for the faithless
I don’t want to have a cheap pop at atheists. But I do like this – because it makes me chuckle. It’s the way it’s written. So I just back from my great uncles funeral. I never knew him as a faithful or church going type of guy, but I never knew him as an […]
Why do atheists have dead bodies at funerals?
The question Can you have a funeral without a body? is not as useful as the question Why would you have a dead body at a funeral? Yes, yes, you can’t have a wedding or a civil partnership without the happy couple, and you can’t have a baby naming without a baby, so how can […]
Why do atheists believe in heaven?
All faith groups have sects to be ashamed of, the ones who want to string up gays, stone women taken in adultery, that sort of nonsense. Let’s not get into one of those complacent debates about how it could be that faiths based in love can spawn such hatred. We might, though, consider drawing […]
Cross
Just once in a while things, if they are little enough and come in a cluster, can subvert the sunny disposition for which I am justly famous. This morning I was at Sutton Coldfield crematorium, my first time. I had already got the measure of the place. A telephone enquiry yesterday about whether there was […]
