I Can't Believe You If I Can't Hear You

I spent the weekend in London - where spring is a bit closer than in Helsinki (although to be fair all the snow had disappeared here as well when I got back Sunday night). Finally got to meet Tori's beloved - a very nice young gentleman if I may say so, and I did a bit of shopping. My to-read list now exceeds 40 titles, hence I needn't worry about impending boredom any time soon. I found a lovely, lovely bookstore called Bookthrift (22 Thurloe Street, South Kensington, right next to the underground station) - definitely worth a visit if you go to London.

Watched a bit of football in the weekend, and off course the Arsenal game did not help the heartbreak from the weekend before (they played 2-2 against Birmingham, even though the latter were 1 man down after an ugly incident involving Eduardo's leg). They clearly have no regard for my piece of mind. Apart from that London is always a nice place, I've been in love with the city since the age of 8. This time around I was, however, puzzled by the extent of security measures against terrorism. You can't get anywhere near the buildings you used to be able to walk right up to, and hence a big part of the atmosphere was lost for me. What used to be so good about London was that you would have a sense of history being right at your fingertips, now you have a very strong sense of metal bars and security cameras.

American Gods is proving to be an extremely good read, I've almost finished it and wish I could do the book club meeting all over again as there is so much to discuss. It has also stirred my old love for myths, and I'm contemplating whether or not I should finally finish my comparative religion studies. Might be a bit much with work and all, though...

In modern day Lutheran Christianity it is commonly believed that the concept of Hell can be defined as "the absence of God" - the absence of that which is good. The concept of "evil" is a bit more foggy. If evil leads to a state of hell, does this not mean that all absence of good is evil? When individuals group together and form big societies the need of good acts per capita is likely to decrease - each person does not have to perform good deeds for the society to function. My question is basically - is it evil to not do good?

If I don't watch out my blog will turn into a full blown philosophy site. For reference I do not prescribe to any system of faith myself, but I believe in the search for meaning and that religious philosophy has a lot to offer in this respect. I promise to go back to only dealing with music, movies, books and my mess of a life in the next posts.