On this weeks Quantum we look at Africa’s only official Christian nation – Zambia; Chinese pollution in Zambia; Germany abandons debt ceiling and industry; Scottish Greens on Gender neutral toilets; Dylan on machines making music; The Peat Inn for sale; the Dundee Derby; Newcastle United end trophy drought; SpaceX rescues astronauts; DOGE discovers ‘Magic Money Machines’; Tesla and BYD batteries; Persecution of Christians in Syria and the Congo; Banning ‘midwife’; New Jersey asks babies to self identify; Sydney rally against abortion; Ukraine ceasefire; The history of mail; C of E urges avoiding ‘Eurocentric’ prayers, Feedback – with music from AGAM, Bob Dylan, the Magpie Geordie, the Rolling Stones, the Carpenters, and Ailsa Turner
Here is the music used in this months podcast on Spotify….
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Catch up on last week’s episode – Quantum 346 – Ethiopia, the White House Press Conference, Gene Hackman and Brian Cox on the Universe and Humanity
Sources: Associated Press; YouTube; X; The Daily Sceptic; The Herald; The Daily Telegraph; CNBC; The Spectator; NYT; History Facts
Countries: Zambia; The US; Scotland; Germany; Australia; China; Ukraine; Russia; Israel; Iran; Syria, the Congo;
Ditch green beer – heed Patrick’s message instead
Irish Daily Mail19 Mar 2025
MARY Carr (‘Patrick, any chance you’d pay us another quick visit?’, Mail) reminded us how modern Ireland, within only one generation, has largely shed past religious observance. There was a stark lack of people near churches or cathedrals on St Patrick’s Day this year in central Belfast. Why has this happened, and what can be done about it?
I was a militant atheist as a 1980s medical student in Belfast. Later, while working as a family doctor, the spirituality of the Scottish Gaeltacht people stimulated me to explore why they were so resilient in the face of illness and death. The practice receptionist in a tiny single-handed GP surgery noted my interest and began to loan me books from her personal library.
On making a careful study of the evidences for belief, I eventually professed faith almost a quarter-century ago. Any personal journey to belief inevitably involves both reason and emotion. The writings of CS Lewis, and especially his shorter books such as Mere Christianity, work on the sphere of human reason. But engagement with community, including prayer/worship/ study/music, helps open up the heart or emotions to divine truth.
I took early retirement from medicine at the start of 2017, and later that year was commissioned as an evangelist by the Church of Ireland. But I rapidly became disillusioned with the suffocating character of the institutional Church tradition in Ireland.
The raw message of St Patrick, which freed Ireland from pagan barbarity and savagery, is encapsulated in his ‘Letter to Coroticus’ and ‘Confession’.
These are widely accepted as two of the oldest works of West European writing by a known author, and manuscript experts largely believe them to be from the hand of Patrick.
Why has our country, with such a rich spiritual heritage, seen church attendance collapse? If there is a single factor, it may be the lack of confidence or knowledge in just how robust the evidence for belief actually is.
My spell of work in the Hebridean Gaeltacht gave me time and space to make careful study of this evidence. But do lots of the rushing crowds, in central Belfast or Dublin, never give Christianity a second glance, as they glance at iPhones and iPads? Scottish Gaeltacht people still revere those Irish missionary saints who successfully evangelised the Hebrides, carrying Gaelic and the Gospel to Scotland. We should pay far more attention to St Patrick’s two great surviving letters, and very much less to green beer!
JAMES HARDY
Thank you for your inclusion of the clip from Bob Dylan. It brought a huge smile to my face to hear him complain that all current music sounds the same. I think you said this was from ten years ago.
Considerably more than ten years ago, I remember my mother complaining about me playing Dylan’s greatest hits album. Her complaint was that his voice was droning on and all the tracks sounded the same.
Ten years later she reviewed my Ramones album in the same terms.
Sorry Bob, your musical appreciation has not refined over the years. You are just getting old.
Wow, political prisoners in space! Could be a new TV series!