You will no longer be seeing them at this blog. I won’t be quoting them or linking them for any reason. Sapphocrat has the story. From now on all news will be coming from other sources. I don’t think any of us will be missing out by avoiding them, and many other worthy sources will have a chance to be heard. It’s sort of a win-win situation.
This was a Friday the 13th challenge so I’m a bit late to the party. But as they say, better late than never. I was tapped by The Freethinker to participate in this meme which originated at nullifidian. At the heart of “the challenge to find out at least a little bit more about each other in the atheist blogging community” is a series of questions – each to be answered by individual bloggers. Below are the questions and my answers.
Q1. How would you define “atheism”?
Lack of belief in gods (weak/implicit/agnostic atheism), or the belief that gods don’t exist (strong/explicit/gnostic atheism).
Q2. Was your upbringing religious? If so, what tradition?
I was an atheist until I was eight. I thought God was just another TV character, particularly on Davey and Goliath, which I watched on the weekends. Then my mother started taking me and my sisters to church at which time I was told that God was someone in the sky that I was supposed to love, worship, obey, etc. I became a Christian and remained one for the next 20 years though as an adult I switched to United Methodism. I then had a period of doubting which I tried to squelch with more Bible reading, prayer and good old denial, but I had to finally admit that I no longer believed.
Q3. How would you describe “Intelligent Design”, using only one word?
Balderdash.
Q4. What scientific endeavour really excites you?
Stem-cell research. The potential to treat and eradicate disease and disability is astounding.
Q5. If you could change one thing about the “atheist community”, what would it be and why?
Tone down the somewhat dogmatic elements in it. I don’t want to see atheism going the way of theism with notions that one must think a certain way to be a “true” atheist.
Q6. If your child came up to you and said “I’m joining the clergy”, what would be your first response?
I don’t have any children and never will. But hypothetically if I had a child who said they were joining the clergy I’d ask them to at least consider the Unitarians. They’re quite tame as far as religions go.
Q7. What’s your favourite theistic argument, and how do you usually refute it?
That all morals come from God/the Bible, and therefore atheists cannot be moral. I tell them that morality existed before the Abrahamic god was dreamed up, they exist in cultures that have never heard of him, and they certainly exist in people who have heard of him but don’t believe in him. Furthermore there is ample evidence of immorality in the Bible, much of it directly ordered by the god people claim is the arbiter of morality.
Q8. What’s your most “controversial” (as far as general attitudes amongst other atheists goes) viewpoint?
That atheists can be spiritual. Some atheists reject any notion of spirituality because it suggests belief in spirits. But others, like myself, consider the deep sense of awe/joy we feel at certain times spiritual.
Q9. Of the “Four Horsemen” (Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris) who is your favourite, and why?
Daniel Dennett. Some of his specialties are interests of mine, such as philosophy of mind and cognitive science. He also brilliantly demonstrates in this quote why faith should not be placed on a pedestal the way it is by some individuals and societies:
[I]f you want to *reason* about faith, and offer a reasoned (and reason-responsive) defense of faith as an extra category of belief worthy of special consideration, I’m eager to [participate]. I certainly grant the existence of the phenomenom of faith; what I want to see is a reasoned ground for taking faith as a *way of getting to the truth*, and not, say, just as a way people comfort themselves and each other (a worthy function that I do take seriously). But you must not expect me to go along with your defense of faith as a path to truth if at any point you appeal to the very dispensation you are supposedly trying to justify. Before you appeal to faith when reason has you backed into a corner, think about whether you really want to abandon reason when reason is on your side. You are sightseeing with a loved one in a foreign land, and your loved one is brutally murdered in front of your eyes. At the trial it turns out that in this land friends of the accused may be called as witnesses for the defense, testifying about their faith in his innocence. You watch the parade of his moist-eyed friends, obviously sincere, proudly proclaiming their undying faith in the innocence of the man you saw commit the terrible deed. The judge listens intently and respectfully, obviously more moved by this outpouring than by all the evidence presented by the prosecution. Is this not a nightmare? Would you be willing to live in such a land? Or would you be willing to be operated on by a surgeon you tells you that whenever a little voice in him tells him to disregard his medical training, he listens to the little voice? I know it passes in polite company to let people have it both ways, and under most circumstances I wholeheartedly cooperate with this benign agreement. But we’re seriously trying to get at the truth here, and if you think that this common but unspoken understanding about faith is anything better than socially useful obfuscation to avoid mutual embarrassment and loss of face, you have either seen much more deeply into the issue that any philosopher ever has (for none has ever come up with a good defense of this) or you are kidding yourself. Darwin’s Dangerous Idea
Q10. If you could convince just one theistic person to abandon their beliefs, who would it be?
I honestly have no desire to de-convert anybody. I detest proselytizing so I wouldn’t do it to another person, even if it would have great potential benefit to others or myself.
I’m now tapping the following atheist blogs to carry the meme:
1.Anal Iced Bible
2.Deep Thoughts
3.Atheist Revolution
Carnival of Sex and Sexuality #1 - Silence is up at Homo Academicus. Included are great posts from The Day of Silence Blog, Greta Christina’s Blog, Brain Blogger and more. Since this is the first issue of a brand-new Blog Carnival please make a special effort to show it some love!
Carnival of the Liberals #63 is now up at Vagabond Scholar. There you’ll find many excellent articles from Liberal blogs like Greta Christina’s Blog, Divided We Stand United We Fall, The Greenbelt and many more! Stop by, you won’t be disappointed.
For anybody who missed it the first time around, we’re offering the LGBT Blogroll. We’ve received a number of submissions but we’re seeking a few more before we launch it. Any interested parties click the “comment” link below and follow the instructions. Hope to hear from you soon!
It’s up now at The Rational Response Squad. There are great entries from Atheist Ethicist, Executed Today, The Atheist Blogger, Greta Christina’s Blog, Providentia, and much more so pop in and check out the godless goodness.
If you are an LGB and/or T blogger The LGBT Blogroll , a joint effort of The Gaytheist Agenda and Lavender Newswire is just the thing for you. It’s an excellent way to increase your exposure and bring traffic to your blog.
You may have noticed the Atheist Blogroll in my sidebar. Since joining it my readers have had ready access to the more than 500 blogs on the Atheist Blogroll. What’s more, my traffic increased dramatically since I joined the Atheist Blogroll as every member has the blogroll–including my blog–posted on their blog. People see like-minded sites in a handy list and they click because the site name sounds interesting, because they heard about it from a friend or just out of plain curiosity. It’s amazing how many new readers this type of feature can bring in.
Here are the basic requirements:
1. The blog author(s) must be L,G,B and/or T.
2. The blog should be, but doesn’t have to be, written from an LGBT persepective.
3. Please, no pornography be it printed, pictorial or video format.
4. The blog should be fairly active; at least two posts per month.
To apply for membership click “Comment on this entry” below this post. When replying :
1. Indicate that your message is about The LGBT Blogroll .
2. Include a valid e-mail address, the title and URL (http address) of your blog.
3. If you wish, include any other information you feel is relevant.
Once we receive about 10-12 submissions we’ll contact members with important details and launch the LGBT Blogroll!
I thought I’d do something a little different now and have a bit of an open forum. Got something on your mind about Atheists, Atheism, LGBT issues or similar topics? Go ahead and ask and I’ll do my best to answer. Please keep questions respectful as I reserve the right to ignore questions that aren’t. To submit a question click on “Comment on this entry” below this post and follow the instructions!
And I invite you to do the same, whether or not you are gay. Here’s the story from My Gayest Look :
The word from Leno: “In talking about Ryan’s first role, I realize that what I said came out wrong. I certainly didn’t mean any malice. I agree it was a dumb thing to say, and I apologize.”
Fantastic. That takes some guts. But will it last until the next easy assumption comes along?
Until then, we’ll hold Jay’s feet to the fire. Our response these past few days has been overwhelming, but we will post each and every pic that was submitted.
……
So, back to the site:
On Thursday, March 20, 2008, Jay Leno welcomed as his guest on The Tonight Show the actor Ryan Phillippe, who, early in his career, played a gay character on the daily soap One Life to Live. During the interview, Leno hounded Phillippe, telling him to look into the camera, pretend it was his “gay lover…Billy Bob,” who “has just ridden in shirtless from Wyoming” (still milking the Brokeback jokes), and give it his “gayest look.”
…..
Jeff—who, in 2006, famously penned a letter to Jay Leno about his homophobic humor—completed another missive, in which he included a photographic sign-off (at left) of his “gayest look.” Melissa—who was similarly agitated in 2006—then offered up her “gayest look” (also at left), and soon her readers began to send in their gayest looks—and an avalanche began. Simultaneously, writer Dan Savage suggested to Jeff that he collect people’s “gayest looks,” and that, folks, is called synchronicity. Forces were joined.
And while we’re being a bit cheeky about all this, our message is dead serious: A 2005 study by GLSEN found that 90% of LGBTQ teens had been harassed or assaulted during the previous year. They were three times as likely as non-LGBTQ students to say that they do not feel safe at school and remain at increased risk for bullying, assault, and suicide. That doesn’t happen in a void. Gay jokes are not harmless; they contribute to a culture in which institutionalized homophobia has tragic consequences. We want Jay Leno to know that we, LGBTQ people and their allies, are not amused.
So now it’s your turn! Send us your “gayest look” for Jay
here .
And here is my Gayest Look for Jay Leno. I hope you’ll contribute yours, for it’s a very worthy cause.
The all new Dead Celebrity Alert created by my better-half ! Get obituaries on the famous and the infamous as soon as they hit the newswires. The original Yahoo! group was so popular that it’s now a Blog. Stop by and check it out. For future reference the permanent link is available under Fun and More in my sidebar.
