Here’s some stuff I read on the Internet, to save you the bother of looking for it – just click on the links for more. If you’ve read anything you’d like to share, you could tweet us. You don’t tweet? Well, there’s Facebook (see link right), or just contact us via this website.

In the latest edition of Humanist News, Alom Shaha writes about his book, and how some publishers rejected it because it was about a rejection of Islam. He asks,

So what is this terrible tome I have written? At this point, if you havent read my book, you might be forgiven for thinking that, to have struck such fear into the heart of Britains literary elite, I must have written a pornographically blasphemous account of the life of Muhammad. But I have done no such thing. My book, The Young Atheists Handbook, simply tells the story of my personal journey to becoming an atheist.

You’ve heard of the ten commandments. Hasn’t everyone? Awfully prescriptive, aren’t they? However, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is much less demanding. I came across a site that reminded me of its eight Id Really Rather You Didnts. They begin:

Id really rather you didnt act like a sanctimonious holier-than-thou ass when describing my noodly goodness. If some people dont believe in me, thats okay. Really, Im not that vain. Besides, this isnt about them so dont change the subject.

You’ve never heard of his great noodly goodness? Where have you been? Click here to find out about Pastafarianism.

Some of you may remember that we were introduced to Alain de Botton’s ideas about how to be happy at a recent meeting. Opinion was divided on how useful they were. To be honest, I was probably in a minority of one, in finding him ridiculous. Now he’s offering his thoughts on how to have sex. Helen Lewis in the New Statesman seems to find Mr Botton as amusing as I do:

Holy hell. Not content with telling us how to work and how to be happy, Alain de Botton is now going to tell us how to have sex. No, really. 

Still, as long as he’s happy, I suppose. Maybe his next offering will be on how to suck eggs.

The National Secular Society reports that the “Cardinal who covered up child abuse and got away with it says secularists are immoral”. Now that really is ridiculous. They say,

Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor said that “secular values” were behind the violence carried out in totalitarian states and some of the 20th century conflicts that have killed millions.

Maybe Cormac’s never read a reliable history book or a dictionary. That’s Catholic education for you.

Note: the opinions expressed above are all mine. If you don’t agree (or even if you do), why not let us know? Commenting is easy.