Robin Harvie

(13 September 2012)

Second in a bunch of books bought at the Book People shop on the local High Street – and I don’t think I’d even been to the dentist on that occasion. This is a dangerous book to read if you’re contemplating extending your half marathon training to see how far you can run (building up gradually) and then considering a marathon. Or a good book. I’m not sure.

Harvie had done a few marathons when he decided to join the rather alarming world of Ultra running – show more running distances longer than the 26.2 mile classic marathon. He sets his sights on the Spartathlon, oddly enough taking place in Greece, but does a lot of interesting races in between, decides fell running is a bit too scary, trains maybe a little too hard and obsessively, worries his wife and worries himself that he’s running away from issues in the family. All of this is set amongst a useful if slightly too well-known to someone who’s read a few long-distance running book) potted history of the marathon and beyond, references to other great books on the topic from Haruki Murakami (“What I Talk About When I Talk About Running“) and Richard Askwith (“Feet in the Clouds”) among others, and some amazing, visceral descriptions of his own long training runs or race attempts.

There was no greater end than that which this journey was satisfying, although there were plenty of other things I could have spent the last twelve months doing that would have been infinitely more pleasurable. (p. 257)

These passages are the stars of the book and really get into the nitty-gritty of what it feels like to be a distance runner. They inspire empathy, wincing and the desire to emulate his trials and achievements – after all, pretty well anybody can train for a marathon and there’s a joy in pushing yourself past your limits (he makes an interesting point about it being fair enough to praise the person who only ever runs one marathon because that is the pinnacle of their physical achievement, but if someone does more than one, they can probably do a bit more – do other runners agree with this?). His descriptions of attempting the Spartathlon are uncomfortable but unforgettable reading. Did he make it to the end? You’ll have to read the book to find out!

Oh – and there’s a quotation from Iris Murdoch on page 202, about attention teaching us how to observe things without greedily appropriating them for ourselves”, although this is tantalisingly not referenced. But one for my friend, Pamela, who likes to collect references to IM in what we read! show less

Summary: Just because you don't believe in Christ, doesn't mean you shouldn't have a very merry Christmas. That's the position taken by The Atheist's Guide to Christmas, a collection of forty-two* short pieces that is the outgrowth of the Atheist Bus Campaign, a project in which buses in the UK sported ads that read "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." (*Douglas Adams reference fully intentional.) The essays are divided into six sections: stories, science, how show more to, philosophy, arts, and events, and touch on everything from Christmas dinner to traditional Christmas hymns, the star of Bethlehem, the best use of Christmas decorations, what to get your favorite atheist for Christmas, and how to get into the holiday spirit even when you don't believe in the Holy Spirit. All in all, the essayists in this book take Paul Krassner's suggestion for the 11th Commandment: "Thou shalt not take thyself too goddamned seriously."

Review: The introduction to this book starts off brilliantly. Any book that starts with a Douglas Adams reference is likely to get high marks from me, I was laughing out loud by the second paragraph, and was fully ready to believe the editors when they promised funny, insightful, Christmas-themed essays that were "safe to leave around your grandmother."

And, for the most part, that's what they delivered. Large chunks of this book were really well done, and there were spots that I would go so far as to call brilliant. If I tried to type up every passage that made me laugh, we'd be here until Easter (or the spring equinox, take your pick.) For example, while I got a good chuckle out of Catie Wilkins's observation that "anyone who says it [the Christmas story] is the greatest story ever told clearly hasn't read Watchmen", Jennifer McCreight's suggestion that you buy the atheists on your gift list "grayscale crayons, to represent how atheists view a bleak world devoid of divine purpose and meaning" had me roaring with laughter. (Don't even get me started on the diagram illustrating the accessories that come with Atheist Barbie.)

And amidst all of the funny business, there were some really good insights about Christmas, and some - dare I say, inspirational - sections about celebrating the holiday with love, joy, goodwill towards men, and a sense of reverence towards something bigger than ourselves. I particularly liked Simon Singh's suggestion of using Christmas to celebrate not the birth of Christ, but the birth of the universe (hey, the Big Bang could have happened on 25 December, 13.7 billion BCE), by taking a minute to listen to white noise on the radio, which includes traces of cosmic radiation that's been around since the beginning. I also appreciated Mitch Benn's more tongue-in-cheek point that "if only practicing Christians can use the word "Christmas," then only Vikings can use the word "Thursday.""

Unfortunately, and somewhat obviously, being an atheist does not automatically make one a brilliant essayist. (If only.) There's a distinct sense that some of the contributers were picked for their (lack of) beliefs rather than their writing ability or comedic chops, and some of the essays lose the thread a little bit. They're in the minority, but a number of the essays read like extended arguments in favor atheism, which - to use a rather ironic metaphor - is a serious case of preaching to the choir. We're reading this book; we're already convinced. There's also a rather larger subsection of essays that touch on Christmas only glancingly, and a few not at all. They're not bad in and of themselves, but I wish the editors had stepped in with a little more direction: if I'm reading a book about Christmas, I actually want to be reading about Christmas, y'know?

The only other thing that bugged me about this book was that more than a few of the authors seemed to take great pleasure in slagging off on agnostics as being wishy-washy wafflers who are unable to make up their minds, when in fact, the scientific method that everyone is so fond of says that it's impossible to prove a negative (i.e. the non-existence of God) - hence the "probably" in the Atheist Bus Campaign slogan that was the jumping off point for this entire book. It's undoubtedly one of my personal hot-buttons, but I get tired of agnostics getting picked on just for daring to suspect that human beings might not yet have all the answers. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: Whether you're a hard-line atheist or a secular humanist, if your reaction to the "reason for the season" folks is to start talking about fourth century priests co-opting the druidic winter solstice celebrations in order to encourage converts, then you'll find something in The Atheist's Guide to Christmas to hold your interest, make you laugh, and help you have a very Merry Christmas indeed. show less

Who remembers the Atheist Bus Campaign? When I first heard about it, I couldn’t decide whether to be delighted or appalled. Atheism, in general, is not a movement or an organisation or in any way controlled. It’s about individuals choosing logic over dogma, and rejecting the idea of an overarching consciousness controlling the universe. To have a campaign about it seemed, to me, to go against the principles behind atheism. I eventually decided it was amusing and forgot about it.

Fast show more forward to Oct 2009 when Harper Collins sent me a copy of The Atheist’s Guide to Christmas to review. I had no idea they’d even made a book from the campaign.

It turns out that the campaign and the book were created by the British Humanist Society. Driving force Ariane Sherine has gathered 42 short stories and articles celebrating atheism, talking about life without religion, about the universe, space, humans and what we are.

It’s brilliant. Entertaining, moving, thought-provoking and elevating, there’s something in this collection for everyone.

It’s not a book about bashing the religious. It’s a book about Christmas for those of us who just do it for family, for friends, for companionship, without the underlying Christian message.

And it’s funny. The writers that editor Sherine has chosen have done a lovely job of bringing out the human in humanist, and reminding us about what it is that makes us who we are.

Like the meaning of Christmas, in The Real Christmas Story by Jenny Colgan:

Christmas, as a practicing Catholic child, was seen as a reward for lots and lots and lots of church.

Or sharing your birthday with Jesus, in A Child was Born on Christmas Day by Emery Emery:

Every birthday party I attended was clearly a day set aside specifically to celebrate one person’s most important life event…but as it turns out, Jesus was born of a virgin on December 25th and they deem it a miracle. How can any kid compete with that?

And I dare you to read Nick Doody’s excellent article, How to Understand Christmas: A Scientific Overview and not laugh:

Robins, as is well known, have an unusually high level of natural Yule – far higher than a mouse.

But it’s not all humour. For the scientifically inclined, there’s the wonderful Starry, Starry Night by Phil Platt, or one of my favourites, The Large Hadron Collider: A Scientific Creation Story by Brian Cox:

About 13.7 billion years ago, something interesting happened and our universe began.

There’s also a great How-To section; How to Have a Peaceful Pagan Christmas, I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas and How to Decorate the Outside of Your House, and Not Have All Your Neighbours Hate You.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this collection, and would recommend it as a great gift for the hard-to-buy-for person in your life. It’s a book for the thinker, the skeptic, the logical. A really wonderful experience. show less

Very smoothly written essays on the topic of Christmas and what it means to atheists or more accurately termed agnostics. These are humorous and satirical rather than critical of Christmas as annually celebrated by traditional Christians. Not a new book but still worth reading now. It's hard for a group of contributors to lambaste a god they don't believe exists or doubt can be proven so the essayists all stick to describing their own personal experiences. I like reading about atheism but it show more was a chapter by Simon Le Bon singer of Duran Duran that interested me enough to read the whole book. I know Andy McCluskey of OMD is an atheist and mostly likely so are John Lydon and Siouxsie Sioux. This book is a lighthearted and irreverent take on a seasonal holiday and therefore entertaining in a way critiques of religion are not. show less