January

After rather unbelievably reading a Tweet from someone within my social media sphere who stated that he believed in the Mayan Prophecy (you know, the whole 2012-the-world’s-going-to-end-nonsense). I felt compelled to write a post about my take on the whole end of the world scenario.

It’s now the most popular post on my blog with an average of around 2000 visits to that page alone per week. At times it’s been as high as 15,000 per week. It’s also been the reason for some disturbed individuals sending me nasty messages because I don’t believe in their crazy fantasy world. Hey ho.

Some outtakes from Brian’s Horizon on Gravity were put up on YouTube.

I also found out that I was going to be working on the new X-Files movie. Some of my Tweets from that time (1, 2, 3, 4) are pretty obvious about that fact, but only really in retrospect…

February

February was really all about our trip to San Francisco and the TED conference where Brian spoke.

I was also working on the very fabulous film Water Lilies.

March

Brian was made Professor while we were still in San Francisco, just after his 40th birthday at the beginning of March. That was pretty cool!

My mum came to visit for a bit and during that time we went beachcombing on the Thames and found some cool stuff.

April

This was the coolest month! Right after visiting CERN with both Phil Plait and Chris Morris, I was delivered the super top secret X-Files script. I had a terrible cold and, I learned later in the year, had asthma which was making me very ill. That is my excuse for looking so utterly terrible in this video. :)

May

OK, wait, THIS was the coolest month. Apart from Brian going off to film his Horizon on Time, it included getting my hair cut and dyed like Dana Scully, then flying off to Cannes to ‘interview’ Harrison Ford and having a chat with X-Files’ producer Frank Spotnitz.

June

June was X-Files-tastic!

Excitement was definitely building for the X-Files film and I was caught up in it all. Towards the end of the month, I went to LA for the LA Film Festival to attend a special screening of a couple clips from the film, along with a Q&A with David Duchovny, Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter.

July

X-Files! X-Files! X-Files!

The film premiered at the end of the month and Chris, Frank, David and Gillian attended the London premiere. The day after the premiere Chris and Frank did a signing at Forbidden Planet.

August

Brian and I went to SciFoo in Silicon Valley and had a fabulous holiday in LA being touristy.

September

This is where things start getting a bit weird for me as I found out I was pregnant so had a bit of a awful time over the rest of the autumn dealing with morning sickness and anxiety over scans and blood tests and the like, all the while being unable to talk about it with anyone.

September was also when CERN swtiched on. Along with all the excitement of the whole build up to it came all the nasty emails from the idiots who thought it was going to destroy the Universe and who thought that Brian was somehow the Sith Lord in charge of the destruction of the human race. All that wasn’t too entertaining. Honestly, it’s just not fun at all to be newly pregnant and then receiving emails calling the father of your unborn child the ‘Black Hand of Death’.

Brian on Newsnight the night of CERN’s switch on reminded me exactly why I love him so much.

October

The main things I was thinking of in October were morning sickness. Obama and Jonathan Ross.

I started keeping a pregnancy diary in October as I wasn’t blogging about it, but after a few entries it was pretty much just, “Nauseated. Constipated. Tired. Fat.’ so I decided to give it up. I realised that even in retrospect it would be boring.

My obsession with Obama, of course, was not unique to me. I mainly kept out of the whole election thing on my blog this time around as the Rightwing Christian Republican Dumbshit Bush-lovers (yes, for long-time readers, I mean Amy Proctor, Bull-headed Donna and the other one) caused me such grief before, during and after the last election (did you know that one of them tried to get me fired from my job on Sunshine?!), I wasn’t up for a second round. I was just hoping that they’d get their reward in November when Obama won. And they did. The twunts.

Now, Jonathan Ross.

The whole Daily Mail-fuelled madness just confirmed to me that most people are absolute illogical fucktards and that includes MANY people in positions of ‘power’ in the media. This whole episode has given me LESS hope for the human race than ever before… Thank Christ Obama changed that in November.

November

OBAMAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

This month I was up for a new job on telly. I’ve not done any telly for a few years now, mainly because all the web producing I’ve been doing has been keeping me busy. Also because I was enjoying using my brain, being creative, being able to make decisions *myself* which is pretty much unheard of for most TV presenters.

This job, however, seemed different. Not only was it a ‘tech’ programme, but it was a retro tech programme AND it wasn’t a presenter’s role, but an on-camera expert role. So I did the meetings and the screentest and crossed my fingers that I’d get it cos it sounded like it’d be a lot of fun. I had to wait until December for a decision.

This month was also the most stressful pregnancy-wise. Along with waiting for scans and blood tests looking for chromosomal abnormalities in the baby, I also had to have blood tests for various diseases. Having an HIV test- no matter how sure you are- has this funny way of making one become highly illogical. ‘I wonder what the chances are of it turning up a decade later? Two decades later?!! Maybe it DOES and they’ve just not figured that out yet!!! Oh. God. What will I do when they tell me I’ve got HIV?! Oh. God. I’m feeling a bit ill. It’s HIV, I know it.’

Not fun.

Everyone I’ve told about my HIV test worries who has had an HIV test themselves said they went through EXACTLY the same thing. Every. Single. One. So glad to know I’m not the only lunatic… (For the record, I don’t have HIV, nor do I have Hep C or Syphilis. w00t!)

Also, this month Jonathan Ross surprised me by asking me to be his Neu Meeja advisor (or whatever). First thing I did? Got him on Twitter. He’s been Tweeting up a storm!

December

I found out I got the TV job. It’s called Electric Dreams and will be on in April on BBC4. Right before the Christmas break I did the first bit of filming and it’s been good fun.

Brian and I also found out that we’d got a book deal to write a kids’ book on Physics. So that’s going to keep us busy…

This month, generally, has been good mainly because I was finally able to announce my pregnancy. It was getting increasingly difficult for me to hide it as I was getting pretty big fairly early on. This is me a couple days ago.

The other day Brian and I went off to Llandudno in Wales to visit our friend. I got a lovely snap of Brian and Peter talking politics whilst walking along the beach…

And today, the last day of December and 2008, I’m looking forward to an exciting year ahead. I hope you all have a good year!!

via WaterKula

I have now completely changed my mind. With this whole Sarah Palin thing, McCain has shown that he is clearly chaotic and dangerous. He should not be in charge of a country which has so very much at stake. America has a chance to step out of the darkness, a chance to wake-up, a chance to join this wonderful world we live in. This will NOT happen with McCain in the White House. If he puts so very little thought into who he chooses as his running mate – the person who could end up being the Vice President of the country for 4 whole years- what amount of contemplation will go into, say, starting another bloody war?

It’s clear now that the McCain camp more-or-less tossed a coin when it came to choosing a Vice-Presidential running mate. McCain spoke to her once on the phone and once in person the day he offered her the job.

“Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was not subjected to a lengthy in-person background interview with the head of Sen. John McCain’s vice presidential vetting team until last Wednesday in Arizona, the day before McCain asked her to be his running mate, and she did not disclose the fact that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant until that meeting, two knowledgeable McCain officials acknowledged Tuesday.”

She had ALREADY been given a lengthy questionnaire which asked for information on ‘personal matters’, but she didn’t feel it appropriate to mention that her 17-year-old daughter was pregnant in that questionnaire. She waited until Wednesday, the day before they offered her the job, to let them know that. She had informed them about her husband’s DUI and McCain aides say they had already found out about the ethics investigation she’s under in Alaska (you’d think the Republicans would have had enough of those for a while).

One of McCain’s advisors said, clearly using this week’s Acceptable Republican Terminology (in italics): “We made a political determination that the American people would not object to a female candidate with a 17-year-old daughter who was pregnant. We believed that parents all over America would understand that life happens (my emphasis). The team made a recommendation to the senator that these issues were not disqualifying.”

“Life happens”. Hmmmm. Now, in normal language that would read “mistakes happen”. You know, the condom breaks, she forgot to take a Pill, he didn’t pull out in time, they weren’t given adequate sex education to understand how to prevent themselves from getting pregnant, their parents either never talked to them about birth control or forbade them from using it. You know, those kinds of mistakes.

BUT… because last spring when Obama used the word ‘mistake’ when talking about sex education the Republican Machine took the quote out of context and said that he was talking about abortion. Well, of course, they can’t use the word ‘mistake’… so what do they do instead? Use a completely ridiculous sounding sentence- “America would understand that life happens” (when you’re busy making other plans) – with that good ole Manchurian Candidate-like trigger word ‘LIFE’ which wakes up this crowd of Bible-thumping zombies hiding out in the backwoods.

Speaking of Bible-thumping zombies, this is Sarah Palin at her church. it’s about 14 minutes long, if you don’t have the time to watch it all, let me just tell you that at one point she says that she thinks the War in Iraq is ‘God’s will’ and that God wants drilling for oil in Alaska’s 20 million acre wildlife refuge. Seriously.

The documentary explores the idea of Time – what we think it is, what it isn’t and asks ‘does it exist at all?’ He talks to all kinds of people from the Director of the US Naval Observatory which keeps the Master Clock, to cosmologist Max Tegmark (who acts out what it would look like if he were to fall into a black hole), to theoretical physicist Neil Turok who talks about how Time may *not* have had a beginning. He explores Einstein’s theory of Time as well as newer theories of ‘granulated’ Time…

I’d like to point out the videos where he is talking about the idea that the Maya of Mexico predicted the end of the Universe in 2012. The sensible amongst you may not realise, but there are a sizable number of people around who seriously think that the world is going to end in December 2012 because one of the many calendars used by the Maya ‘ends’ then. Here is what I think of that.

I’m not alone, of course, in my distaste for this kind of ‘whacky stuff’ being taken seriously… Here’s what Brian thinks…

They filmed loads and loads of stuff which won’t end up in the programme, so the director Paul Olding is putting some of it up on YouTube. Here’s a bit of Brian and Jerry from the Talking Heads messing around which won’t be in the documentary ;)…

The documentary explores the idea of Time – what we think it is, what it isn’t and asks ‘does it exist at all?’ He talks to all kinds of people from the Director of the US Naval Observatory which keeps the Master Clock, to cosmologist Max Tegmark (who acts out what it would look like if he were to fall into a black hole), to theoretical physicist Neil Turok who talks about how Time may *not* have had a beginning. He explores Einstein’s theory of Time as well as newer theories of ‘granulated’ Time…

I’d like to point out the videos where he is talking about the idea that the Maya of Mexico predicted the end of the Universe in 2012. The sensible amongst you may not realise, but there are a sizable number of people around who seriously think that the world is going to end in December 2012 because one of the many calendars used by the Maya ‘ends’ then. Here is what I think of that.

I’m not alone, of course, in my distaste for this kind of ‘whacky stuff’ being taken seriously… Here’s what Brian thinks…

They filmed loads and loads of stuff which won’t end up in the programme, so the director Paul Olding is putting some of it up on YouTube. Here’s a bit of Brian and Jerry from the Talking Heads messing around which won’t be in the documentary ;)…

When I was 19, I saw the film ‘Jesus Christ Superstar‘ (US) and said to my friend, ‘Judas is so cool!’. She laughed and I had no reason why. I hadn’t learned that Judas was hated by Christians for betraying Jesus. When I learned this, it seemed truly bizarre:

• Surely, Jesus ‘foresaw’ Judas’ betrayal (according to the lyrics in JCSS: ‘One of you here dining/ one of my twelve chosen/ Will leave to betray me…’ or in Matthew 26: 21: and as they were eating, he said, ‘Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.’), so, clearly, Judas had no freewill in the matter. Why should he be ‘damned for all time’ if he had no choice?
• I didn’t understand why, exactly, Judas should be damned for being a vital part of the Saving of Mankind. Clearly, according to the rules of Christianity, Judas was created by God specifically to ‘betray’ Jesus. Doesn’t seem right to me.
• Why did Jesus, on the cross, say about the men nailing him up, ‘Forgive them, they know not what they do,’ but poor Judas was damned for eternity?

These logical flaws were the start of my interest in religion.

It’s incredibly easy to accept the ‘truths’ of religion if you a) don’t know very much about the Bible or b) don’t know very much about history or c) don’t know very much about science or d) actively work to delude yourself. If you’re a rational, intelligent person who hasn’t been brainwashed since birth, the second you start to read the Bible, alarm bells start ringing. The more you learn about the historical reality of Israel and the Roman Empire at the time, the more unlikely it all starts to sound. The more you learn about pagan myths the more unlikely Jesus, Son of God, becomes. The more you learn about science, the more ridiculous the ‘miracles’ sound. If you are an educated and intelligent person who is also religious, you must delude yourself in order to remain religious.

I’ve spent 15 years or so devouring books on science, artificial intelligence, technology, psychology amongst many other topics which provided me with a grounding in “reality”. Whenever I’d look at religion and saw what people believed, I’d be shocked and astounded at their, well, to be frank, their ignorance. I have, however, only recently started reading books on Atheism specifically. I’ve subsequently learned that a lot of my own ideas about religion had already been voiced by many people before me.

I thought I’d make a list of a few of my recent favourite books on atheism, in case any of you are interested in reading more.

Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan

US Readers:
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

This isn’t about atheism directly. It’s about the scientific method. It teaches you how to use logic and rationality to recognise reality from ‘baloney’. Every school kid should sit an end-of-year exam on this book. If you only read one book on my list, make it this one. It’ll give you a good grounding in how to think.

Why I Am Not A Christian by Bertrand Russell

US Readers:
Why I Am Not A Christian And Other Essays On Religion And Related Subjects

This is, for me, the best place to start reading about atheism. The title essay was originally given as a talk in 1927 just down the road from me in Battersea. The other essays were written by Russell between 1899 and 1954. This, I think, is the most logical and simple book on the ridiculousness of religion you can read. It’s unencumbered by modern politics like the other books on this list. Some of the arguments have moved on since then, so those of you who are still actively deluding yourselves with religion may have a few ‘ah! ha! That’s wrong because…’ moments. I would, however, invite you to read the rest of the books on my list before feeling smug.

Portable Atheist edited by Christopher Hitchens

US Readers:
The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

Now, I love Christopher Hitchens for so many reasons. Mainly because he cracks me up. In this book, he has chosen excerpts from some of his favourite writings on atheism. From Spinoza to Mark Twain; from John Updike to Carl Sagan, this book is filled with brilliance. Each chapter stands on its own so you can jump around throughout the book as you wish. This is the perfect ‘taster’ book.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

US Readers:
The God Delusion

I’ve got to put this one here as it’s the one everyone knows. It’s not my favourite on this list, to be honest, though he wrote some very good things on morality and children in this book (I, too, called religion ‘child abuse’ a few years ago) and find the book incredibly readable. I don’t find his arguments as deep as other writers’, but he’s always incredibly clear. I honestly think that if you read this and you’re still religious afterwards, then you are definitely delusional.

God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens

US Readers: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Hitchens again. Oh, how he makes me laugh. (don’t think he’s funny? Watch this.) If you’ve read the first three books, you’ll definitely be ready for this one. This book is sharp and biting and often very, very funny. This was clearly written to start arguments. I heard recently that Hitchens said he’d be upset if we all woke up tomorrow and no one on the planet was religious. When asked why, he responded, ‘The I’d have no one to argue with.’ I love him.

End Of Faith by Sam Harris

US Readers:
THE END OF FAITH

This one is for ‘advanced atheists’ who enjoy digging a bit deeper into the whole topic OR people who’ve moved on past seeing the ridiculousness of Christianity and have moved onto the silliness (and/or violent insanity) of religious fundamentalism. This is probably my least favourite book on the list, but I mainly enjoyed it for the ‘thought experiments’ (at one point, he actually condones torture… and admits he wasn’t expecting to end up doing that). Most people who have criticised this part of the book have clearly never engaged in similar thought experiments themselves (you can learn quite a lot when you challenge your own beliefs). I also genuinely enjoyed his thoughts on how you can be an atheist AND spiritual (which is something I truly know to be possible). I was also interested to read that he sees religion as a form of mental illness (if I were doing a psychology PhD, I’d be researching the connections between religion and schizophrenia).

THE NEXT BOOK I’M READING

Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

US Readers:
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

Carl Sagan’s book Cosmos (US) was what really kick-started my interest in science. When Brian and I first met and started writing science programmes together, we’d always stop and think ‘What would Carl do?’ We still do that.

We were truly and deeply honoured to have met Carl Sagan’s widow and long-time collaborator Ann Druyan in New York in May. One of her friends had seen Brian speak at TED, so arranged for us all to meet up for lunch when we were at the World Science Festival in New York. For both Brian and I, it was a really huge ‘meeting a hero’ moment.

We saw Ann most recently at SciFoo. She and I took part in a ‘Religion and Science’ discussion there and afterwards I told her how brilliant she was in the discussion, so strong and clear. She flattered me by complimenting me on what I said during the discussion, too. *blush* We then talked for ages about being both scientific AND spiritual people and how we couldn’t see that there is a conflict between the two at all. We talked about our kids and how, when they aren’t brought up with religion, they see religion for what it is perfectly clearly by the age of 5. She talked about Carl. I love when she talks about Carl… God, she must miss him…. I’ve got a total girlcrush on her in the biggest way. I absolutely want to be her when I grow up.

Anyway, let me know if you decide to read any of these books or, if you’ve read any of them already, what you thought of them.

When I was 19, I saw the film ‘Jesus Christ Superstar‘ (US) and said to my friend, ‘Judas is so cool!’. She laughed and I had no reason why. I hadn’t learned that Judas was hated by Christians for betraying Jesus. When I learned this, it seemed truly bizarre:

• Surely, Jesus ‘foresaw’ Judas’ betrayal (according to the lyrics in JCSS: ‘One of you here dining/ one of my twelve chosen/ Will leave to betray me…’ or in Matthew 26: 21: and as they were eating, he said, ‘Truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.’), so, clearly, Judas had no freewill in the matter. Why should he be ‘damned for all time’ if he had no choice?
• I didn’t understand why, exactly, Judas should be damned for being a vital part of the Saving of Mankind. Clearly, according to the rules of Christianity, Judas was created by God specifically to ‘betray’ Jesus. Doesn’t seem right to me.
• Why did Jesus, on the cross, say about the men nailing him up, ‘Forgive them, they know not what they do,’ but poor Judas was damned for eternity?

These logical flaws were the start of my interest in religion.

It’s incredibly easy to accept the ‘truths’ of religion if you a) don’t know very much about the Bible or b) don’t know very much about history or c) don’t know very much about science or d) actively work to delude yourself. If you’re a rational, intelligent person who hasn’t been brainwashed since birth, the second you start to read the Bible, alarm bells start ringing. The more you learn about the historical reality of Israel and the Roman Empire at the time, the more unlikely it all starts to sound. The more you learn about pagan myths the more unlikely Jesus, Son of God, becomes. The more you learn about science, the more ridiculous the ‘miracles’ sound. If you are an educated and intelligent person who is also religious, you must delude yourself in order to remain religious.

I’ve spent 15 years or so devouring books on science, artificial intelligence, technology, psychology amongst many other topics which provided me with a grounding in “reality”. Whenever I’d look at religion and saw what people believed, I’d be shocked and astounded at their, well, to be frank, their ignorance. I have, however, only recently started reading books on Atheism specifically. I’ve subsequently learned that a lot of my own ideas about religion had already been voiced by many people before me.

I thought I’d make a list of a few of my recent favourite books on atheism, in case any of you are interested in reading more.

Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan

US Readers:
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

This isn’t about atheism directly. It’s about the scientific method. It teaches you how to use logic and rationality to recognise reality from ‘baloney’. Every school kid should sit an end-of-year exam on this book. If you only read one book on my list, make it this one. It’ll give you a good grounding in how to think.

Why I Am Not A Christian by Bertrand Russell

US Readers:
Why I Am Not A Christian And Other Essays On Religion And Related Subjects

This is, for me, the best place to start reading about atheism. The title essay was originally given as a talk in 1927 just down the road from me in Battersea. The other essays were written by Russell between 1899 and 1954. This, I think, is the most logical and simple book on the ridiculousness of religion you can read. It’s unencumbered by modern politics like the other books on this list. Some of the arguments have moved on since then, so those of you who are still actively deluding yourselves with religion may have a few ‘ah! ha! That’s wrong because…’ moments. I would, however, invite you to read the rest of the books on my list before feeling smug.

Portable Atheist edited by Christopher Hitchens

US Readers:
The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

Now, I love Christopher Hitchens for so many reasons. Mainly because he cracks me up. In this book, he has chosen excerpts from some of his favourite writings on atheism. From Spinoza to Mark Twain; from John Updike to Carl Sagan, this book is filled with brilliance. Each chapter stands on its own so you can jump around throughout the book as you wish. This is the perfect ‘taster’ book.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

US Readers:
The God Delusion

I’ve got to put this one here as it’s the one everyone knows. It’s not my favourite on this list, to be honest, though he wrote some very good things on morality and children in this book (I, too, called religion ‘child abuse’ a few years ago) and find the book incredibly readable. I don’t find his arguments as deep as other writers’, but he’s always incredibly clear. I honestly think that if you read this and you’re still religious afterwards, then you are definitely delusional.

God Is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens

US Readers: God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything

Hitchens again. Oh, how he makes me laugh. (don’t think he’s funny? Watch this.) If you’ve read the first three books, you’ll definitely be ready for this one. This book is sharp and biting and often very, very funny. This was clearly written to start arguments. I heard recently that Hitchens said he’d be upset if we all woke up tomorrow and no one on the planet was religious. When asked why, he responded, ‘The I’d have no one to argue with.’ I love him.

End Of Faith by Sam Harris

US Readers:
THE END OF FAITH

This one is for ‘advanced atheists’ who enjoy digging a bit deeper into the whole topic OR people who’ve moved on past seeing the ridiculousness of Christianity and have moved onto the silliness (and/or violent insanity) of religious fundamentalism. This is probably my least favourite book on the list, but I mainly enjoyed it for the ‘thought experiments’ (at one point, he actually condones torture… and admits he wasn’t expecting to end up doing that). Most people who have criticised this part of the book have clearly never engaged in similar thought experiments themselves (you can learn quite a lot when you challenge your own beliefs). I also genuinely enjoyed his thoughts on how you can be an atheist AND spiritual (which is something I truly know to be possible). I was also interested to read that he sees religion as a form of mental illness (if I were doing a psychology PhD, I’d be researching the connections between religion and schizophrenia).

THE NEXT BOOK I’M READING

Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

US Readers:
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God

Carl Sagan’s book Cosmos (US) was what really kick-started my interest in science. When Brian and I first met and started writing science programmes together, we’d always stop and think ‘What would Carl do?’ We still do that.

We were truly and deeply honoured to have met Carl Sagan’s widow and long-time collaborator Ann Druyan in New York in May. One of her friends had seen Brian speak at TED, so arranged for us all to meet up for lunch when we were at the World Science Festival in New York. For both Brian and I, it was a really huge ‘meeting a hero’ moment.

We saw Ann most recently at SciFoo. She and I took part in a ‘Religion and Science’ discussion there and afterwards I told her how brilliant she was in the discussion, so strong and clear. She flattered me by complimenting me on what I said during the discussion, too. *blush* We then talked for ages about being both scientific AND spiritual people and how we couldn’t see that there is a conflict between the two at all. We talked about our kids and how, when they aren’t brought up with religion, they see religion for what it is perfectly clearly by the age of 5. She talked about Carl. I love when she talks about Carl… God, she must miss him…. I’ve got a total girlcrush on her in the biggest way. I absolutely want to be her when I grow up.

Anyway, let me know if you decide to read any of these books or, if you’ve read any of them already, what you thought of them.