I am a white, Afrikaans-speaking queer, the antithesis of what my family and church stood for. My identity crisis led to my identity formation
God
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Easing the lockdown like clockwork
As we move into coronavirus lockdown level four, a scene from A Clockwork Orange illustrates the eerie limbo we inhabit
Posted inEquality, General, Health, Tech
A question of balance…
Two days ago my partner and I went on a whirlwind visit to Gauteng and North-West Province – flying to Johannnesburg and driving from there in a rented car to the Potschefstroom campus of North-West University, where I had been invited to participate in a debate on the question: ‘Is God still necessary for morality?’ […]
Posted inEnvironment, General
God, Darwin and Spinoza
People often ask me if I believe in God, and my honest answer is always: ‘It depends what you understand by the word “God”’. This word probably means something different for every person who professes such a belief, which is why there is such a thing as ‘orthodoxy’ in a church (let alone ‘dogma’): it […]
Posted inGeneral
Are you an agnostic?
What is agnosticism? Broadly speaking, it is the position that claims that human beings cannot ‘know’ whether God (or gods) exists or not. We simply do not have the means to have such knowledge. I put ‘know’ in scare quotes because that is where an agnostic puts the emphasis. The ancient Greek word, ‘gnosis’, means […]
Posted inGeneral
The recurring historical struggle for freedom
Several things that I experienced recently contributed to a renewed reflection, on my part, on the meaning of freedom. Much has been written about it, and I, like everyone interested in the topic, have my favourite authors in this regard. Here, however, I want to take these experiences as my point of departure. The first […]
Posted inGeneral
Don’t touch a pastor on his studio
“Religion is the opium of the people.” – Karl Marx A good day to you in the name of my holy television set. On SABC 1’s Worker’s Prayer program early this morning, it was well when Florentina’s testimony of a reckless, sluttish lifestyle was used to much profit. Then, in a stroke of spiritual inspiration, […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Thank God for Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens, author, journalist, master debater and razor-sharp intellectual has died. His passing was accompanied by an almost audible sigh of collective relief from the many hapless individuals that encountered him in debate while he lived. You could search long and hard for a sharper tongue driven by a more insightful, enormous brain for all […]