After seven years meeting five or six times a year in Wincanton,, we decided, Greg Atkins and John Baxter, to base ANVIL as an open discussion group to meet monthly In Martock.
Our first session was on Friday 23rd Feb. 24 and was introduced by John Baxter with a response from David Warden. The subject was HAMAS AND THE GAZA WAR. Some 35 came and all had been sent (and said they had read! John’s introductory paper.
Greg Atkins writes:
We’ll meet again next Friday 26th April 10am to 12pm in The George Function Room, to hear presentations and discuss a seminal event in World War 1, the Sinking of The Lusitania. This occurred on 7th May 1915, when the ship sank off the coast of Ireland after being hit by a single torpedo from a German submarine; it took just 18 min to sink with the loss of 1199 passengers and crew. Although the ship was British (Cunard Line) it had departed from New York and 128 of the dead were Americans. Some have claimed that this event precipitated American entry into the war and eventual German defeat. The details of the sinking and how it occurred have remained, however, shrouded in mystery and speculation since the sinking occurred.
Ian Winkle, who is a retired Senior Lecturer at Glasgow University in Marine Architecture, has some new ideas about the technical aspects of the sinking which he will present. Ed Lorch has a Ph.D. in Physics and worked for many years as a research scientist at Amersham International. He was also founder and Chair of the Tintinhull Local History Association. He will introduce and chair the discussion following Ian’s presentation.
At our next meeting on 24th May, Don Reed will give a presentation on a recent best-selling book, “The Dawn of Everything – A New History of Humanity” by David Graeber and David Wengrow. This book puts forward some new and revolutionary ideas about human prehistory and evolution, and how modern society compares to prehistoric society; it is available from Amazon. More about that nearer the time, but you may wish to purchase and read this in the meantime. Be warned though that I have found it a difficult read as it is written in a very intense manner!
On June 28th myself and Graham Stride from Wincanton will debate the arguments for and against Assisted Dying. ” the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia.”.
Planned Visit to the Met Office Exeter
I have been in touch with the Met Office in Exeter about arranging a visit to them on July 26th. This will be a day trip and hopefully will involve a talk on Climate Change and a guided tour. If you want to go please let me know now as the Met Office has asked for an estimate of the numbers. We also need people to volunteer their cars, so please also let me know if you can do this. If sufficient people want to go we could also consider hiring a coach or minibus. I intend that we should have lunch in a local pub. It is important that you let me know now if you intend to go, this will not be binding. The cost at the moment is just to contribute to the cost of lunch for your driver.
Blind Copies for ANVIL circulars
Several people have asked to be blind copied for these circulars. On reflection, I have decided to do this for everyone. If you wish to contact a member and want their email address, please write to me and I will ask their permission.
60 Members
For your information, we now have 60 members on the circulation list, but this is probably an underestimate of our membership as I know of several couples who share an email address. This is much better than I had hoped when myself and John started this venture; only a minority of these are members of the former u3a Science and Philosophy groups (although they are also very welcome). We are obviously fulfilling a need not met in Martock and surrounding area by any other organisation. I am gratified also that we are learning orientated, gender balanced, having almost equal numbers of men and women, and do not have a burdensome bureaucracy. The capacity of The George Function Room is 60, so if we were to get much bigger we will have to consider a move to the Parish Hall. At present though I don’t see this happening as experience shows that not everyone will turn up. Also, the facilities at The George are better quality and better organised than those in the Parish Hall, and a smaller group makes for better discussion.
IS WRIGHT WRONG? The Biblical and Historical Case Against Belief in a Physical Resurrection of Jesus. Written in 2018, Revised 2022 by John Baxter
Wright, Williams, McGrath and Welby
My paper takes issue with the formidable biblical scholar, former Bishop of Durham and Professor of Early Christianity at St Andrews, N.T.Wright. Now (2022) at Wycliffe Hall Oxford.
I do so with trepidation. He is also not alone in his views which on the resurrection appear to be shared by both Dr Rowan Williams, Professor Alister McGrath and Archbishop (Former Bishop of Durham) Justin Welby. Despite my respect for much of their work and many of their opinions I find I cannot agree with them on the nature of the resurrection of Jesus. This then of course raises the whole issue of the credibility of miracles and special divine action (SDA).
My paper however, influenced particularly by reading Geza Vermes, and Karen Armstrong and Wright on Paul, and Professor John Barton on dating attempts to suggest that historical and biblical study can be used to justify a very different conclusion to that of Wright. Continue reading
This poem was written just at the end of the Glasgow conference.
COP26. Time Will Tell Continue reading
CLIMATE CHANGE, SCIENCE, SPECULATION AND PROPAGANDA
We had an excellent session with our two speakers kicking off not they said as Climate Change deniers, but as questioning science driven voices. After their 40 min and 30 min talks, everyone who wishes spoke out their views and a vigorous discussion followed. I only gave bits of the paper I had prepared but here it is with responses from Greg and Iain to make of it what you will.
John Continue reading
CCC Climate Change Committee The Sixth Carbon Budget. The UK’s Path to Net Zero Predictions made in 2020, CONFIRMED 2021
The need to adapt to a changing climate This section summarises the evidence that indicates climate impacts will continue to increase even under a rapid reduction in global emissions and could be greater still if global emissions reductions are not sufficiently rapid to achieve the Paris Agreement. Continue reading
Please be ready to copy and forward this on to your friends – try and engage them in discussion. We can all get engaged in waking people up to how serious the situation is so they will accept and work for change.
At the instigation of the authors of THE FUTURE WE CHOOSE (Figueres amd Rivett-Carnac. Summary attached) who organised a webinar I watched on Zoom, I have now watched and commend for you a quite exceptionally important video entitled:
BREAKING BOUNDARIES
The Science of Our Planet
and have bought and read the excellent book with the same title. Continue reading
letter for general useJoining us via ZOOM from Durham we had as our main proposer Dr Sarah Pearce who is a retired medical consultant currently working on a Graduate Diploma in Theology and Religious Studies at Durham. She gave what everyone found an excellent, clear and shocking paper based on the Marmot reports which analyses how Covid has laid bare the extent of poverty and inequality in Britain and how this has been getting worse. . Continue reading
I am very glad to support your (John Baxter’s) insistence that Jesus was a real historical parson. Continue reading
The Search for JESUS YESHUA
Reflections on David Warden’s paper for ANVIL April 2021 John Baxter 4-5-21
This essay, which has kept on expanding and being rewritten, is my reaction to David Warden’s carefully researched paper which argues that Jesus is no more an historical figure than Romulus or King Arthur. It is restricted to considering that question and is not an attempt to write yet another version of the historical Jesus. JESUS YESHUA
Please feel free to add your own comments to this discussion . To do so email johnbaxte119@nullgmail.com