Arguing with a Christian.

"Jesus came to save sinners.
Why does God have to fit the commenter's definition of a God?
Why can not God have his own reasons considering He created the parent's of teenagers anyway.
God has infinite knowledge.
Catholics are flawed. So atheists are perfect. False logic.
All priests molest children? Really. Wow. No atheist or Protestant ever, ever has? Amazing.
Even if a few homosexuals crept into the church it does not reflect on the truth of the catechism!
God is good and never created evil. So God did not make paedophiles, burglers, liers, sexual immorality, idolators, substance abusers, or the intolerant.
Science is not OK because it is not relevant. It deals with the observable world trying (funnily enough) to explain what God created.
I do agree that a correct belief system would be valid for putting down atheists.
The Catholic Church is a source of love and grace.
Richard = God? Richard tells God to clean all slates. Good luck with that one.
Killing Jesus is weird. Adam sinned. Humanity was damned. Jesus died to put humanity right with God.
Humanity has been on earth for 100,000 years! Prove it!
If the commenter is joking and does not belief he is going to Hell then where is he going?"

Well that's what Robert says on his blog HERE and I guess I have to answer it. Probably easier to do here than as a comment on Robert's blog.

So here goes:
(he is replying to comments I left on his blog - you can check them out, unless he deletes his post)


"Jesus came to save sinners.
Why does God have to fit the commenter's definition of a God?
Why can not God have his own reasons considering He created the parent's of teenagers anyway.
God has infinite knowledge."

It all really depends on whether this God character really exists. Is this Zeus on the comeback trail? There are many gods out there. I think Robert is talking about the Christian god. I assume he is going to provide evidence of his existence.

"Catholics are flawed. So atheists are perfect. False logic."

That is not a logic statement within itself. I only said that Catholics are flawed. Check out what their holy people are up to. Sexual abuse within this church is now well documented. Atheists are certainly not perfect.

"All priests molest children? Really. Wow. No atheist or Protestant ever, ever has? Amazing.
Even if a few homosexuals crept into the church it does not reflect on the truth of the catechism!
God is good and never created evil. So God did not make paedophiles, burglers, liers, sexual immorality, idolators, substance abusers, or the intolerant."

Homosexuals DO NOT molest children. That is a VERY IMPORTANT point. I'm talking about paedophiles. The reality is that an awful lot of Catholic 'holy men' have in fact molested children. How can you ever defend that? What did your god think of that? 

"Science is not OK because it is not relevant. It deals with the observable world trying (funnily enough) to explain what God created."

Think back to earlier times and people trying to explain things like earthquakes, volcanoes and storms that destroyed crops. We know how these things happen now. We don't need to put it down to gods being angry. Thank you Mr Science.

"I do agree that a correct belief system would be valid for putting down atheists."

Why? How do you know if a belief system is correct? By definition it is simply a belief.

"The Catholic Church is a source of love and grace."

No evidence of that exists.

"Richard = God? Richard tells God to clean all slates. Good luck with that one.
Killing Jesus is weird. Adam sinned. Humanity was damned. Jesus died to put humanity right with God."

That just makes no sense. I thought that God (the Christian guy) could do anything. Aparently not without killing someone.

"Humanity has been on earth for 100,000 years! Prove it!"

Well, how long do you think we have been here?

"If the commenter is joking and does not belief he is going to Hell then where is he going?"

Maybe to a nice place where they use better spelling and grammar?

Long Drive Home.

Just back from Auckland (Papatoetoe) and pleased to report that both my very old friends seem to be doing okay after a few health misadventures.
I set a Prowse speed record for driving back from Auckland to Wellington - 8 hours, 50 minutes.

The Batmobile reached speeds up to 

110kph today.

The previous record was held by older brother Chris who completed the journey in 36 hours non stop. You see our family are very slow drivers. Some people claim to have walked past us while we were driving.
Never mind, I have a legitimate record.

Thinking of my old friends Peter and Tony tonight.
They are very special people in my life.
Thinking of my old pal Mike too.

Be safe out there folks.

Armistice Day 11/11/18

Sorting final details.

I say this myself, but I made a good job of The Last Post yesterday.

No cracked notes.

Today it's off up north in the Batmobile.

I'll probably drive to Taupo, and then on to Manakau on Tuesday, though I might carry on to Hamilton if I'm in the mood.


In The Mood

(note the violin)

I'm only taking Signora Violina on this trip.

Keep those comments rolling in - I should be back late Thursday, all going to plan.

Sabato.

Armnistice Day tomorrow.

A gig for the green and black trumpet.

On Monday I'm heading up to see my old mate Tony. I hope to be back late Thursday because I have a gig Friday night.

The good thing about travelling by car is that it's easy to take instruments to practise, though I won't take my double bass.

The Batmobile

I've got a motel booked near Middlemore hospital but they were booked out Monday night so I might just take it slowly and use two days to get there.

The instruments I've chosen to take are Singnora Violina

and Jim Dandy.

"Why these two instruments?" I hear you ask.
Well, the trumpet was ruled out for obvious reasons and the double bass is too big.
I'm playing some violin in next Friday's concert and the guitar is a perfect instrument to play in a motel room because it is relatively quiet.

The worst instruments to try to practise in a motel room are bagpipes, drums, trumpet, tuba, banjo, accordion and oboe.
You'll probably think of a few more - like guitar with overdrive.
Euphonium wouldn't be a good choice either.
Obviously pipe organ is not going to even fit in the room.

Or the car, for that matter.

"I don't think this is going to fit in the car."

I'm talking to Antonio on Skype soon so I'll leave you there for today.
Enjoy your weekend.
Ciao.

Old friends.

Old friends are like family.
I've had a bad run with my old friends in the last two weeks.
One got very sick while I was in Italy. Thank goodness he is on the mend now!
Another had a bad event yesterday. I was relief teaching when I received a phone call.
I missed the call but rang back when I spotted it logged on my phone.
It was a huge shock and firstly I just didn't want to believe it.
I'll be heading up to Auckland early next week.
I have strong memories of this guy from primary school. He was a funny kid - very intelligent but certainly not standing in the middle of normal. I remember we were taking a pee when his cap fell into the urinal (caps were a compulsory part of the uniform in those days). He picked it out, shook it dry and put it back on his head.
Forward to secondary school, and near the end of our last year.
We both had a mate who was a very cool guy. This guy's name was Dan. Dan was taking a trip to Australia (a cool thing to do). My friend and I hadn't spent as much time together at secondary school because we were in different classes, he in the top class and me not. Dan was worried about us both and our inability to meet girls (arrogant bugger) so he decided that the two of us should team up and go out looking for them. My friend had this strange notion that girls liked men (boys really) who were a bit pissed. We managed to get some Bacardi rum (a small bottle) and mixed it with coke. We chose the Casa Fontana as our territory. The Casa was a big coffee bar that was always empty. I remember that we spent a lot of time sitting around. It was years before either of us had any serious contact with a female. This guy finished up with a PhD. How could such a bright guy be so ignorant about biology?
I guess we've been friends for about 57 years. That's longer than most people on this planet have known their family.
You can see why old friends are like family.
Old friends are family.
Please get well Tony.

Shots of Italia (3)

Monteforte d'Alpone.
This is a small town not too far from Verona. This is where my pal Antonio lives. We spent nine days here. The shops all close between 12.30pm and 3pm and the only supermarket is closed on Sundays.
Lots of old men sit around in bars. They don't seem to buy a lot.
It's a complicated procedure getting a drink in Italia. You have to sit at a table and wait for someone to come and take your order. Your wine arrives with food, whether you want it or not. Sometimes it's just chippies and peanuts, which seem to be free. Sometimes it's a big pile of stuff, like pizza bits, olives and sandwiches, which you finish up paying for. You pay as you leave. If you're just having a coffee, it is frequently drunk at the counter. Most Italians like tiny, strong black coffee. It only takes about two sips to drink it. Certainly not worth sitting down for that.

This is a very common sign in Italia. Smoking is forbidden.
A lot of Italians smoke.

This little running guy is everywhere too. I think he's supposed to show you how to get out of a building quickly - by running.
Or, at least, by moving quickly.
There again, he could be dancing out.

There you go, another post done.

Shots of Italia (2)

Let's start off with one for Robert (I saw this in a church).

The boys can look this up on Google Translate.

Change becomes a bit of a problem when you're travelling. 1 & 2 Euro coins are handy but the small stuff is just something you have to cart around.

There are two uses for change - paying tolls on an autostrada and going to the laundry. In the end we gave a lot of change away - not to beggars but to worthy causes.
Like what, I hear you say.
At automatic petrol stations you get these guys who pump your gas for you. They're not really employed but the owners let them do it. They don't ask for anything but I think the idea is that you can give them something. We gave one of our bags of shrapnel to one of these guys.

This is just a random restaurant that I took a picture of. 

We didn't eat there so there's really nothing I can tell you

about it. Sorry.

We went up into the hills with Antinio. Bloody steep cliffs! Enough said.

A romantic moment. It seemed the appropriate thing to do. Antonio took the picture. He doesn't have much luck with women. I'm teaching him a few tricks I learnt from a guy called Tony many years ago.

I don't need to tell you what place this is.

Here's another one for Robert. I went to the trouble of taking the photo so I thought I might as well post it.

Did God really say this?

 I bought a book for a little girl I know. Her mum is learning a bit of Italian so I thought this is something they could use together.
I read most of it myself and realised that I have the Italian ability of a child.

Actually, the children I heard spoke better than me!

This van belonged to a disco outfit who liked to call themselves an orchestra. We were staying in the country, a little south of Firenze, in a holiday apartment complex. On the Saturday night these guys thumped out music until 3am the next morning. Fige!

Here's our leased car. Note the number plate. European number plates are generally white and the have a letter to tell you which country the car is from. I = Italy, D = Germany, F = France, etc.
The red plate is a tempory one put on leased cars. Most of the locals didn't know that and thought I was French. A 'quieter' number plate would have been nice.

This is the window that the pope appears at.

 Unfortunately he let me down and never showed. Robert had to settle for a priest in Lower Hutt to let him back onto the team.

I bought Robert this t shirt as a consolation.

The priest in Lower Hutt wouldn't really have known if Robert had said the pope gave it to him. A quick trip to confession and he'd be back in the church and squeaky clean.


To finish off, here is an Amati viola.

Very, very, very, very expensive.

I guess you all know the difference in size between a violin and a viola - they're the same size, violinists just have bigger heads.

I guess you all know the range of a viola too - about 20 metres, if you throw it really hard.


Well, don't let anybody tell you that Richard's Bass Bag* doesn't finish its extremely interesting posts without a joke or two!





* the original bass bagging site