Galileo's life shows there's always room for doubt
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1978267,00.html
Simon Caulkin
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
By a street, this column's business text of the year is Bertolt
Brecht's Life of Galileo. In the declining years of communism, Brecht
was less fashionable in the west than a second-hand Trabant. But, as
demonstrated in this year's thrilling National Theatre production, his
complex reconstruction of the 17th-century Italian astronomer's
validation, then recantation, of the Copernican model of the solar
system is as sharply topical as a Jeremy Paxman Newsnight interview.
Our leaders should listen to this man of monstrous ideas
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1978453,00.html
The challenges Christ set may be daunting but, in a country where
Christianity is on the wane, we need to rise to meet them
Richard Holloway
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
In spite of centuries of confident talk about him, a halo of mystery
still surrounds Jesus, whose birth we celebrate tomorrow. A great
theologian of the early 20th century said of him: 'He comes to us as
one unknown, without a name.' For Albert Schweitzer, whose words these
are, what he finally encountered in Jesus meant the end of theology and
the beginning of practical action. He tells us that after years of
laborious research into his meaning and identity, he decided to become
a doctor so that he might be able to work without having to talk. It
has to be admitted that this is an uncommon response to the Jesus
enigma, certainly within the church, which is why EM Forster sighed
over 'poor, little talkative Christianity'.
2006: a vintage year for ideas that will change our world
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1978427,00.html
Thanks to some truly original thinking - on subjects as diverse as the
web and global warming - mankind stands on a glorious threshold
Will Hutton
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
When words fade, it is the great ideas and arguments that move the
world on. John Maynard Keynes couldn't bear the 'practical' men and
women who forged economies and societies by getting their hands dirty
and mocking the thinkers. All, he said, were, in truth, slaves to some
intellectual, theorist or philosopher (usually dead) who had given them
their lines. He was right. We need an intellectual compass to make
sense of reality around us.
Tie a ribbon round a bucket of bile
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1978430,00.html
Candida Crewe
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
My friend Jane was on the board of a provincial theatre for 12 years.
She and the director did not see eye to eye. Jane was always coming up
with subversive suggestions at board meetings. When, eventually, she
decided to leave, the director made a hollow speech about how much she
would be missed and gave her an enormous bunch of flowers in opaque
paper.
'Every single one of these was chosen especially for the bunch,' he
said. My friend took them home and opened them. Every single one of his
specially chosen blooms was dead.
Why the Life of Brian beats The Passion of The Christ
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1978300,00.html
Mark Kermode
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
If headlines are to be believed, the rise of secularism on both sides
of the Atlantic is threatening to crucify Christianity in general, and
Christmas in particular. Here in the UK, scare stories in the run-up to
the 'Winterval' knees-up have ranged from British Airways banning staff
from displaying crosses on uniforms to local councils allegedly
outlawing any mention of Baby Jesus in their festive greetings. In
God-fearing America, video ads for the film The Nativity Story were
reportedly removed from a downtown Chicago Christmas festival after
city officials claimed they would be 'insensitive to the many people of
different faiths who come to enjoy the market for its food and unique
gifts'.
UN sanctions hit Iran after call by Bush
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1978612,00.html
Tehran must comply over nuclear programme
Peter Beaumont and Robert Tait in Tehran
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
The UN Security Council unanimously approved a tough resolution
yesterday evening authorising sanctions against Iran for refusing to
suspend its uranium enrichment programme, bringing to an end two months
of often fractious negotiations aimed at pressuring Tehran to clarify
its nuclear ambitions.
The resolution orders all countries to ban the supply of specified
materials and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and
missile programmes. It also imposes an asset freeze on key companies
and individuals involved in the programmes named on a UN list.
Lost in America: a mother's odyssey to find her missing son
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1978396,00.html
After 20 years, Hai Nguyen left Vietnam to find the boy she had sent to
the United States. It became a heartbreaking journey
Mai Tran and Christopher Goffard in Los Angeles
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer
She arrived in Los Angeles with $600 in borrowed cash, a failing heart
and arthritis in both knees. She spoke no English. She had not seen her
firstborn son Tuan for 20 years since he fled Vietnam for the US as a
teenager.
Judging from the letters he sent home, he had prospered here. He was
repairing watches, living in California. Four years ago his letters had
stopped coming. So Hai Nguyen had crossed the ocean, hoping to find her
son before she died.
Israeli and Palestinian leaders agree to 'rebuild trust' at surprise
summit
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2099980.ece
But row breaks out between Foreign Office and Archbishop of Canterbury
over Middle-East Christians
By Donald Macintyre in Bethlehem
Published: 24 December 2006
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, unexpectedly held his first
summit meeting with the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, last
night and promised to release $100m (=A351m) of tax it had been
withholding since Hamas came to power ten months ago.
The pledge to remit about a fifth of the total withheld tax and
promises to ease some travel restrictions in the West Bank were among
concessions offered by Mr Olmert to help Mr Abbas without directly
aiding the Hamas-led Palestinian authority.
UN votes for trade sanctions on Iran over nuclear fears
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article2100006.ece
By David Usborne in New York
Published: 24 December 2006
The United Nations Security Council agreed unanimously to impose a
first round of technical and trade sanctions on Iran yesterday for
refusing to answer demands that it suspend all enrichment of uranium,
believed by most foreign governments to be aimed at developing nuclear
weapons.
All the Security Council members voted in favour, after two months of
often tricky negotiations. In the end, a compromise text drafted at the
eleventh hour by European ambassadors satisfied Russian and Chinese
reservations over taking too harsh a stance against Iran.
Felipe Fernandez-Armesto: Oh, we Brits of little faith
http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/article2099900.ece
The real successor to religion is not science but our glib, fast-fix
culture
Published: 24 December 2006
No God, please: we're British. A recent survey showed that most Britons
associate Christmas with kindness, not with Christ. Religion was once
forbidden at British dinner tables. It now seems neglected in British
churches and mosques. Formerly, hostesses banned it because it might
arouse passion. Now clergy avoid it because it cannot excite interest.
Sermons are about society, not salvation. Alastair Campbell spoke for
England when he said we don't do God. The British now respond to
religion with the embarrassment once provoked only by sex. How did this
land of saints and sects lose religious vehemence and vocation? Four
answers are commonly suggested, all of them wrong.
Some people give science the blame or credit. But there is room for
both science and religion, except in narrow minds. When science claims
exclusive rights to truth it does not displace religion, it becomes a
faith with its own dogmas, prophets and gods: the unquestionable truths
of evolution, Dawkins' frightening eyes, the divinely bearded Darwin.
Science, at most, makes God an unnecessary hypothesis, not an
unreasonable one. For the religiously inclined, science is part of
creation, perhaps the key to understanding it - even a means of insight
into the mind of God. For those with no sense of transcendence or
inclination to metaphysics, science satisfies curiosity. Uninterest in
religion is not a consequence of scientistic thinking, but a cause of
it.
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