Author Archives: John Baxter

About John Baxter

John Baxter Teacher of Religious Education for 25 years and professional photographer for 16 years. Degrees from Rhodes (SA) Oxford and Bristol in Religion, Theology and the Philosophy of Education. Qualified as a Licentiate with the British Institute of Professional Photography. Interests Art, Photography, Religion and the issues it raises, Politics, Poetry, Writing.

A Resilience Service. A suggestion

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The aim of this paper is to encourage the setting up of a national resilience service to prepare for and deal with pandemics and climate change.

There will be no return to business as usual. Covid-19, flooding, drought, extreme weather, air and plastic pollution,  all threaten our lives, health, and work.  Covid has rudely woken us up to the fact that we face a radically different future from anything we have known, imagined or prepared for, despite the warnings scientists in many fields have been giving us for years. Continue reading →

ANVIL 14th April. David Warden leads on the HISTORICAL JESUS History or Myth

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ANVIL Associates and friends
This Wednesday 14th April 7pm Meeting on ZOOM we had our biggest turnout every, 35.  This included Dorset Humanists.
Our subject was “The Historical Jesus.” and we were very glad to have as our main speaker David Warden, Chair of Dorset Humanists.   Our first Responder was Alison Way, rector of Wincanton, followed by John Baxter.  Continue reading →

The Future we Choose     Surviving the Climate Crisis: Summary

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The Future we Choose     Surviving the Climate Crisis by Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac  Feb 2020 (Amazon £9.54.)  I write this to encourage you to obtain and read this important book and to give you a useful summary of its contents.  It has a powerful and inspiring message, that there still is the possibility for us to build a fulfilling and sustainable future, and I do this for the sake of my grandchildren.  John Baxter 2021 The Future we Choose

Continue reading →

Revised for 17-3-21 The Right to Choose a Safe, Painless, Death

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For our ANVIL Zoom Session 7.pm. Wednesday.  For invitation email me.

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER
The first version of this paper was written in Oct 2013 for ANVIL and is now much revised in this my eightieth year of March 2021. In it I put the case that it be recognised that everyone should be able to die painlessly (and safely) at a time of their own choosing as a basic human right and the law should be changed to facilitate this. Continue reading →

Reflections on what I have learnt about Covid-19

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How lucky we have been in having among our ANVIL Associates Greg Atkins, former professor of Virology at Trinity College Dublin, who offered, just before Covid-19 appeared at the end of 2019, to give us a talk on his specialism.  He entitled his talk “The Danger Posed by Emerging Virus Infections.” This week, on the 10th of June 2020, backed up by his UTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19RdLqBMoK4  Greg updated ANVIL and lead us in a discussion of his subject on ZOOM. Continue reading →