Does the Universe come formatted with a pair of squabbling archetypes with optional avian headwear? [purplerabbits]

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So, the Bishop of Rochester says that "A Christian vision underlies all that is important about Britain". Your task for today, should you chose to accept it, is to help me make the longest list we can of "things that are important about Britain" with no relation to Christianity.

I'll start.

Decent beer
Pie and mash
The Beetles
Chicken Tikka Masala
Tying a handkerchief on your head on the beach
A nice cup of tea
David Attenborough
The National Health Service
Bass Rock
Postage stamps
Black taxi cabs
Stonehenge
Morris Dancing

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There are 43 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

John Stuart Mill
The weather
Bird tables

Doctor Who

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Street Market Fruit and Veg Stalls.
"PAAAAND-A-PAAAAAAAAND!"

People who say 'Mustn't grumble' and 'Bloody typical!'
Cream teas
Second-hand bookshops
Free range eggs and meat
Trainspotters and birdwatchers
St Pancras Station
Cider
Stephen Fry
[insert list of authors, actors etc here]
Transport strikes and engineering works, but on the whole a crowded public transport system that functions.

The Queen (obviously some relation to Christianity though)

Cider

OH YES! CIDER!
And out of all Authors... Douglas Adams. he couldn't have come from anywhere else.

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Also Shakespeare.

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Fish and chips
Freedom of speech
Feeding the ducks in the park
Conkers
Crufts
Barbour jackets
Supporting your local football team
Romping in hayfields
Dr Who
Sticks of seaside rock
Greensleeves
Piccalilly on ham sandwiches

This is starting to sounds a bit like Reasons To Be Cheerful (Part III); no bad thing in my view.

Oh, and it looks like it's the Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, who's saying it this time, not Rowan 'Stuck in the Dark Ages' Williams.

Oops. COrrected.

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Airfix model spitfires in 1/72 scale (original sixties blue-plastic version)

Oooh, yes. And the matching ME109!

Jumpers for goalposts, Treackle toffee and Parkin on bonfire night. ( though bonfir night itself is arguably a result of Christianity, albeit again probably a highjacking of Samhein )

Matchstick models of the Eiffel Tower.

Men's Sheds.

Greasy spoon cafés.

The bacon roll.

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That'll be the Messerschmitt Bf 109 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bf-109)- sorry, it's a personal bug-bear...

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I sit corrected... ;)

In my defence it is 30 years since I built the thing.

I'm sure there was a Fokker Wulf of some type too.

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Actually if we are being pedantic, the term "Me 109" was actually used in German documentation of the period.

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I shall add the item

grown men arguing about model aeroplanes
to the list...

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Yay!

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Mmm. Isn't it? Wsn't it? Jimmy Hill? Marvelous.

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Cryptic crosswords.
Straight-haired people called Curly and midgets called Lofty.
Pantomimes
Poll-tax protesters
Blackadder
Doc Martens
The coastline (and BBC's Coast)
The BBC!

Pantomimes

Oh no they're not!

(sorry)

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Oh no you aren't!

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He's behind you!

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Celebrations at the winter solstice and start of Spring, which were merely adopted by the christans when they arrived

Democracy

The abolition of slavery (in direct opposition to the old testament)

Equal rights for women (in direct opposition to Saint Paul)

The finance industry

The rail network

Post offices

Edited Date: 2007-11-26 02:30 pm (UTC)

I believe the abolition of slavery was campaigned for by many christians. The same holds for several other progressive causes over the centuries. The new testament explicitly overrules many of the ideas in the old testament, replacing a god of vengeance with a god of mercy.

Personally I don't believe in any god, but christianity has clearly had many positive effects on the world (as well as many negative ones).

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Surprised no one has said "Freedom of religion"

The ability to make fun of ourselves.

But the beer is the big one!

Prince Charles

Avebury.
Sitting on stony beaches in the rain at the height of the British Summer.
The Long Man of Wilmington, the White Horse of Uffington etc.
Warming the pot before another nice cup of tea, you can never have enough tea.
Cucumber sandwiches
Polite discussions on whether it is a matter of life or death to put milk in first when making that nice cup of tea.
Chatting to neighbours over the garden fence- which is a dying art I am proud to be continuing. Remember any salacious piece of gossip must be prefaced by the words "I have never been one to gossip but..."

A pint of winkles, which I understand warms the cockles of yer heart.
Tiddlywinks
And all other traditional things that lay themselves open to supplying material for making fun of ourselves.

James Bond
Wallace & Gromit
Crumpets
Marmite
HP Sauce

jhg
The Chap

Greasy spoon cafes where you can get a full English Breakfast with working man tea!

The welfare state.

Ribena
Veganism
The humanist society
Pooh sticks
Roobarb and Custard and all the small films output

Marks and Spencer, Burton's, Tesco and most other high street retailers!

Virgin Sacrifice!!

People bravely killing themselves in the name of science.

Madmen in sheds building jet-powered vacuum cleaners.

The Edinburgh Festival (much as it occasionally irritates)
Various sports involving men doing pointless things with balls
English muffins
Scotch whisky
Viking festivals
The Beatles
British comedy
Carry on movies
Kitchen sink dramas
Parkas
Punk
The Post Office
The Flying Scotsman
The Forth Rail Bridge
Tunnock's Tea Cakes

The English language
The British countryside
North Sea oil
power stations
industry
farming

*dressing up to do things (goths on the beach/ DDR)
*bagpipes
*Tablet
*Irn Bru
*Peter O'Toole
*Trevor Baylis
*Arthurian legend
*Hogmanay
*John Peel
*sausages
*macaroni pie
*tattie scone rolls

Red phone boxes
Red letterboxes
British Telecom
Royal Snail
GCSE
A-Level

Forming an orderly queue
Test cricket
The Shipping Forecast

Going to the beach in gale force winds because "we're on holiday"

Thermos flasks

Absence of a strong pro-life lobby

Jane Austen

Wellington boots

A sense of perspective.

I was talking to Lara and Seth last night, and :-

The Ordnance Survey.

August