That's my Google.com review ranking as of today... 8th from the bottom! Nice...

I was in Salt Lake City (Utah) on the 13th February 2007, when a gunman rampaged through a Mall and killed six people (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6356071.stm). Now you might have been nowhere near that Mall when this dreadful thing happened, but I myself was on my way there to have dinner, and arrived only 15 mins after the gunman had been shot dead by police. However, I would have been there 30 mins earlier had some friends not decided to delay their arrival to meet me...

 

Some people have attributed the fact that I was not in the Mall at that time to a 'higher power', but I myself do not like to think of things like that. I believe that to think I was 'saved' from being in the Mall implies that those who were there and got shot (and killed), were meant to be there. I don't know about you, but I am rather uncomfortable with that view of things. I also take issue with thinking that the world was ordered in such a way by a 'higher power', so as to make sure that I was not there - something I also consider to be a very arrogant and self-centered view of things! Instead, I am grateful that my friends delayed their arrival. I do not think that I was 'saved' from being there, it was pure chance that I was not, and chance also that others were.

 

What is interesting about all this is that my first instinct having found out that I could have been in the Mall when this gunman entered was not to consider my eternal fate, but to wish that I had been able to do something to stop him... I am saddened that people have needlessly lost loved ones - I think of nothing else but the grief those still alive must be going through. I have also never once pondered where I might be going (if anywhere) when I die. I now know for sure that I truly have no interest in such things other than for academic reasons, even though I could have potentially been on the verge of staring death in the face myself!

• Comparing Christian and Buddhist forms of worship

Saying that, the plus side to the game was the half time show when Prince played - He was awesome, even though it was pouring down with rain (not Purple)... He must have been played a shed load of cash to do that, 'cause he is a tetchy little so-and-so (emphasis there on the little, rather than the so-and-so).

MORE! Boomed the master, as Oliver asked for more food...

 

Well, unlike Oliver you can have more - More stuff is going up on this site daily. Here are my lastest offerings, to fill your academic and spiritual belly:

 

In a new race-relations section, I have added an article called What is truth? An introduction to Holocaust Denial Theory. This article introduces some of the reasons why certain 'academics' have denied the Holocaust occured, and in particular looks at the work of the dis-credited historian David Irving. This article will be of interest to those wanting to learn more about anti-semitism.

 

I have also added another podcast to www.gcsepodcast.com, this time on Christian attitudes to euthanasia. This is a FREE podcast, which you can download and listen to right now. There is also an online revision task which accompanies it, and you can find that by clicking here.