I wrote three long pieces on my reaction to seeing the Christian vandalism…

I wrote three long pieces on my reaction to seeing the Christian vandalism of this sacred site but none would post. I'll try again.

Finding the circle is not easy. It is old, not maintained and really not looked after or treated as the important place it is. The nearby hill fort is Iron Age I believe and I will take another walk up there soon. What you find, if you ignore the maps and use GPS is a circular ditch or moat that must be a couple of hundred feet in diameter. The circle comes close to the road and the whole area is covered in a beautiful beech wood. As you explore you have moments when it is apparent and moments when you feel completely lost. There are various mounds and hollows that suggest that some sort of quarry mining has taken place here over the years. Hell, the whole area of countryside around where I live is cut and shaped as numerous stones and minerals were here before we were. Most of our ancient sites have been used and changed. Stonehenge has been the work of not only many men and women but entirely different cultures, a thousand years apart have improved upon the wood henge long decayed which in turn was an improvement the original earth work. This suggests people throughout history of many cultures have understood the importance. What always strikes me is that those engaged in building this incredible structure must have been aware that it would be their children's children's, children's who would see its completion. The sacrifice in labour was an investment in the people as a whole. Our lives are over in a flash yet hundreds and maybe thousands of people saw humanity as something that they were part of. Today it is rare to find anyone engaged in any projects that are considered greater than the individual.

Political differences have pulled traditionally in three directions. Conservatives have sought to preserve the institutions and traditions that are proven to have value throughout the years. The socialists have seen equality as the highest of human values and the NHS stands as a shaky testament to our commitment to the common good. The third party that traditionally seldom achieved political power with their belief that individual freedom is our highest duty. But a strange thing has happened. Liberals on the right have seen a greatly shift in the divide between the rich and the poor as characters like Elon Musk achieve great power as their freedom to explore their personal ideas into a seemingly unlimited place. The liberals on the left have created a world where a boy can become a girl through their personal, individual freedom.

If old England is to retain its values it now must engage, straight faced with a growing number of Islamic people that will brook no argument with the word of the Quran as this is the direct word of god. Muhammad though a paedophile who saw the beheading of hundreds of Jews in the belief they are doing gods work.

Brexit was the name given to the United Kingdom opting to leave the European Union. The foolhardy David Cameron held a plebiscite under the impression that the people of country were aware of the complex trading systems that had taken decades to put in place. Freedom of movement meant that hundreds of thousands of skilled migrant workers were able to take up the jobs necessary to support an ageing population. People from Poland and other Eastern European countries blended quietly and caused little trouble. Builders in London found their prices undercut. But the bulk of the vote came from a large majority of working class people who had never had it good. All elections had done for them was a different shade of shit. But now they were given a chance to take a vote that would have an effect. The country still dependant on migrant workers saw the poles leave to be replaced by an increase in immigration. However these were not the people who had shared our values. Instead they came from the countries different governments had intervened in. Islam is now growing as the fastest religious shift England has ever known. 40% of these people believe in sharia law. Abattoirs now see animals hung up by their rear legs, their throats slit and they bleed out in pain for halal meat. Ideas we had overcome centuries ago are returning. Politicians must now defend the constituents who believe in the supernatural. People who believe that the soul is the unit of currency when we once had agreed that life was sacred and the true unit of currency. The speed of change has been so great that figures can't keep up to speed with the growth of a medieval outlook that despite having full knowledge that we live and die and the search for a better life is becoming lost to those who see it as e mere phase we pass through.

Though I am an atheist I am at risk of expressing my truth. A truth most intelligent people now know. This country has fought wars to stop the ideologically unsound view that people are different. Yet now we face a world where the belief in the supernatural is becoming commonplace. As yet we have not had an openly atheist prime minister and America is way further back. A presidential candidate who professed a belief that there is no god would not stand a chance. But we should not allow anyone who still believes in the supernatural to be in power. Tony Blair turned to his Christian faith to help him through the senseless war in Iraq that caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. How can anyone trust someone who believes in fairies, ghosts and gods. If we don't speak out now this country will lose what it is to be English.

Were I to have a religion it would be the belief in nature. Not unlike the pagans who built the stone circles that measure the movement of the sun and reveal the times to sow seeds.

I am pessimistic about our future. The planet is now changing due to our lack of care. All animals are representations of their environment. They are part of higher systems. Take a fish out of water and it soon dies. And we too are animals dependent on our environment. But sadly the cult of the individual has seen us forget this truth. We no longer give our lives to protects that our genetic line will get to see the value of. We no longer think beyond our own three score year and ten. Though individuals are engaged in projects to try save the planet they are outliers engaged in futile work. The problems the planet now faces are not national ones. They are global. And it is human nature to cheat. We just no longer have the culture where men will sacrifice their lives in labour for the future.

An interesting aside is why I could never engage with AA. The belief in a higher power. Some told me that you can just ignore that part and do the rest. But in the last few years I have realised the wisdom of this. It isn't so much a higher power but rather that we are pretty much all the same. We are part of the human race. There was an arrogance in my atheism. I thought that life was a film playing just for me. The only thing I know is that I am conscious. But we all are. So I finally saw that it was the seeing of yourself as the key viewer of reality that is at the heart of addiction. At some point you have to face other people and become humble. The builders of Stonehenge probably never even entertained the thought that they were more than a member of the whole.

So back to my disgust at the desecration of this ancient site by a Christian vandal. I am an atheist but I am culturally Christian. I respect his teachings. Do unto others as you would have done unto you. Forgiveness. Tolerance. I can see it as a continuation of the cultural shift where pagan sites were trashed and churches built in their place

. This was how it spread . Through violence and persuasion and persecution. But there is something that is magical about ancient sites. They are mysterious. We will never know for sure why they were built only that whatever the reason was it was very important to them. And they were greater than the sum of their parts. Their collective whole was indeed a higher power.

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