Monday, January 28, 2013

A Few Notes on the Atheist Blogging World

I always like to keep with the atheist blogging world, I like to discover blogs I haven't read before, and share great blogs with anyone who might be interested.

Two of my favorite bloggers have come back after a hiatus, and I would like to introduce two blogs to my readers.

The Way Forward: I am so happy to see that Bruce Gerenscer has returned, apparently he started back up again some time ago, but I just recently found out he had started blogging again.

 I always liked Bruce's writing, and he had a unique perspective as a former fundamentalist because he was a pastor in the Independent Fundamental Baptist organization. He is a great guy, he had found my blog when I first started blogging, and would comment on posts sometimes. I enjoyed having him stop by, and I had a lot of respect for him.

Free Thinking Gay Atheist: The creator of this blog, Glenn McMann, is one of my favorite Google + followers, and he is starting to get back to a fairly regular blogging schedule after retiring the blog for a short time. He is a tech expert, an openly gay atheist, and his blog is not for the easily offended. In his commentary on religion, he can be prone to profanity, sexual analogies, and sometimes even graphic imagery to get his point across.

It's kind of like some comedians, you'll enjoy his work, but at times, you will be saying to yourself, "Did he actually just say that?"

Some blogs that I have enjoyed reading recently:

Republic of Gilead: This blog is dedicated to keeping watch on fundamentalist and Christianity based cult groups. In some posts, the blog's creator Ahab, writes a full report on the group or minister, such as in this post, at other times, he writes a short post commentary or news tidbits post, with links to various news sites, blogs and cult watch groups. He's even used my blog as source twice.

He's an avid readers of this blog, regularly leaving comments. I had wondered where the blog name came from, there's an interesting story behind the name. Check it out.

Sunstone's Cafe: This blog has a remarkably simple format. The blog's author, Paul Sunstone, writes a rather short text only post, no videos, images, etc, with a simple statement of his views on a wide range of topics, then leaves the post open for discussion. It's a very simple, but very effective format, his posts often get more comments than my posts do on average. There's many good discussions taking place over there, stop on by.




17 comments:

  1. Obama also gave a shout-out to atheists when he swore an oath on TWO Bibles (a stack of Bibles so to speak), just before saying "So help me God."

    Ain't life funny that way?

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    1. Yeah, it's screwed up. Never mind the 1st amendment (establishment clause), isn't it highly inappropriate to say the least that politicians are sworn in on Bibles?

      They are going to be political leaders, not ministers.....

      Obama should have done what a new Arizona House Representative did and swear in on a copy of the Constitution.

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    2. I think some day...we will put an end to the Bible swearing in ritual. It is state endorsement of Christianity and certainly unconstitutional.

      Madalyn Murray O'Hair is noted for the decision overturning prayer and Bible reading in public schools. A great victory. She also lost countless lawsuits, losing far more than she won. However, fifty years later, we see groups like the Freedom From Religion Foundation winning similar lawsuits. We must be in this for the long haul and we must not lose hope.

      I am not a young man anymore, so some of the work I do now and the issues I support now will likely not benefit me. But...for my children and my grandchildren...I hope for a truly secular government and a country where they can worship god or not without recrimination.

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    3. Bruce -- Take comfort in the many secular activists working for church-state separation and religious freedom. We'll be in it for the long-haul too -- we've come too far to go back.

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    4. Bruce, the day will come where the US will become like Australia, majority atheist, and religion out of government, and made a personal matter, which is the way it should be. Don't give up hope.

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  2. I like Bruce's blog and he's agreed to an interview, so...its coming. Any question you think I should ask?

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    1. Oh, that will be great!

      He's a former pastor in the IFB denomination that I talk about, do some research on them, and ask question about his days in that group.

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  3. It's not that I use so many sexual analogies, I seriously think they should just have some good old clean fun with a cactus. Like these two awesome chaps giving a prime example.

    http://i.imgur.com/EjXSXqe.jpg

    Great way to show teamwork.

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  4. Sheldon,

    Thank you for the kind words.

    Bruce

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    1. You're welcome. I would love to do a guest post for your blog sometime.

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  5. Thanks for these great new blogs to check out!

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    1. I'm always glad to spread great blogs around for everyone to enjoy :)

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  6. Thanks for the information. I was not previously aware of these resources! ~Tim Chastain at http://jesuswithoutbaggage.wordpress.com/

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  7. Thank you so much for the shout-out! I'm very happy you like my blog.

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