Since, according to Alain de Botton, atheists need to replace religion with other spiritual experiences, I present you this Sunday with something to fill that God-shaped hole in your psyche: two lovely photos of my favorite felid, Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul, also called the “manul”).
This one’s not fat—just fluffy!
Look at that face!
No god is as amazing as that.
As a bonus treat, listen as a lion cub tries its best to roar.
Why they keep insisting that we need to replace “something”? I do not have a spiritual hole, and I have not to replace anything! 6.99995 in Dawkins scale!
BTW: this cat is amazing!
The second Pallas cat looks just like how I would picture Basement Cat. That steady unblinking gaze that bores straight through ou.
Hahahaha,how pathetic is this….Christians aren’t that interested in atheists replacing atheism with God..so why do atheists get all hot & bothered if Christians dont want to replace God with atheism..oh and these cats are great by the way
What the bloody hell are you talking about? What, exactly, is “pathetic”?
I think we have a xter troll on board!
And anyway, as usual he/she/it/they lie. The xtians call themselves “evangelical”, meaning “spread the good news”. If that isn’t an expression of wanting, inter alia, atheists to replace atheism with Dog, I don’t know what it is.
She/it/they/he is pathetic. And bathetic as well.
is it bad that when I saw the Pallas Cat pics I immediately heard Fat Bastard’s voice in my head “Baby, the other, other white meat.”
erg, Pallas’s cat I mean.
So, not “Long Pig” then?
That lion ‘yowp’ is more a friendly contact call than a roar, but it makes a great contrast with his ferocious expression
Those folks that are laughing at the lion club will be playing a different tune in a year or two.
BTW, the Pallas cat looks like a Persian in full coat, but with the typical shorthair visage (if that makes any sense).
The second photo just screams “wisdom” to me.
It seems the Ancient Egyptians scooped you by a good few thousand years.
Cute cub. Makes my throat hurt when it squeeks like that.
Technical note:
JC, I’m not sure the issue, but it seems many of the embedded videos (e.g., the one above) you recently posted are coming up black & blank in your posts. I don’t know if I’m the only one to have trouble but I thought it worth mentioning, in case you have started doing something different.
It get that sometimes. Adobe Flash seems to get confused internally (the technical term is “loses its marbles”). Easily cured on my machine by shutting down Firefox and restarting it.
Thank you, I’ve isolated the problem to Firefox. I am now testing my new browser PyrePallas.
OK. I am converted. Next step: the collection plate. 🙂
If Alain de Botton needs spirituality in his life then he can have it. Just as long as he keeps it to himself. Why has he this apparent deep-seated need for the spiritual? Does he want to become the arch priest of reason? Has some supreme being given him a calling? Does he have a desperate psychological need for an official position? Personally, I have no need for ‘spirituality’ I rely on science and reason, not woolly-thinking.
How tameable is Pallas’s cat? Doable? Or is it like most of the smaller wild cats, irascible in the extreme?
Frank Keefe–it was Christians who invented the notion of a ‘god-shaped hole in your heart’ as a metaphor for what they imagine to be an aching void inside the minds of those who don’t worship as they do. From my point of view, each of them has a god-shaped parasite astride his or her mind, & I do not feel its lack.
That parasite would be Toxoplasmosis godii.
“god-shaped parasite”
So stolen.
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So, are you saying we should worship Bast? Or Pallas Athena?
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Ah… half-beaten by अहंनास्मि.
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I don’t want to be a downer, but I’m not crazy about the description of that lion cub video. It sounds like he comes from a forced breeding program at a zoo. According to the statement from Rachel Kane, the poster, the mother lion has three litters of cubs a year, and is separated from them, so they can be handled by people. I think most people would agree that this causes emotional trauma for that lioness.
Do lions get embarrassed by leonine “baby photos”? Or videos?
Ha ha ha! This study was done by a man of Christian Science studies by the way (fake science) and is so fallible on so many levels. He’s the one who throws his opinion that cats are “god-like”… since atheists would consider god-like as fictional. lol. Here’s the clincher…so atheists need cats to compensate for not having a god by needing something to worship. So Christians that have cats must be compensating for not having a real god and need something else to worship.. lol. Isn’t worshipping another god a sin in Christianity as well? Those poor confused Christians… they’re probably in panic mode burning their cats on the stakes right now… lol