Before you say anything, you should know I was thinking about shaving my head. See, doesn’t that make you feel better? Really, though, having short hair is quite nice. It’s easy to take care of, it doesn’t get in my eyes or whip my face in the wind, it looks Parisian (apparently). I even got asked, albeit hesitantly, if I was named “Simon.” Apparently I was standing in someone else’s meeting place. I do look a lot more like my brother, though, I admit.

In other (and hopefully unrelated) news, check out the Blasphemy Challenge. People submit videos declaring their disbelief in the Holy Spirit, that unforgivable sin, thereby overcoming the fear of Hell and the “psychological torture” of inculcated religion. Of course this produces some strong reactions in the Religious Right: Fox News shows the wrong way to respond. But I was most impressed with Father Matthew’s response — in fact, he’s downright awesome!

The problem is, religion doesn’t make you a nice person. Atheists aren’t innately immoral, and neither are theists innately moral. The warm, humanistic, embracing power in the Holy Spirit isn’t part of the Holy Spirit at all — it’s purely human. People act in the name of perfectly good gods and do horrible things all the time, but so too do people act with compassion and love and attribute it to nobody at all. As Richard Dawkins says, the important thing is to live your life to the fullest. So stop bickering about religion and get straight to it!