Blogging Fatigue and Some Writers Worth Reading

I haven't written new posts for the blog as often as I would like to. I haven't gotten around to writing, because I simply haven't had anything to say. Blogging is getting kind of tiring, and old.

 I've haven't had new topics to discuss in depth, and even when I do, I haven't had the time to go into them as deeply as I would like to. I'm kind of a perfectionist in that way, I want a post to be the best writing that I can do, and if I don't feel I can do that, then it kills all the motivation to write.

For instance, I've had a guest post that I need to finish for the blog for the site Homeschoolers Anonymous, it's a great site, they have already re published  a post I wrote several months ago for the blog Reason Being, and the creator of the site said that he thought it would be a great idea for me to write an original guest post for them.

I've been working on that post for several weeks now, and I've got writers block. I think in many ways it's important for former fundamentalists like me to share our stories with the world, but it gets tiring. Rehashing the past, bringing up all those old memories again, and then struggling to find a way to keep the writing fresh, and to keep from repeating the same thing over and over. However, at the same time, that's what people want to hear about the most often, my story, my past. Such is the paradox of being a former fundamentalist blogger.

Oh well, I should quit complaining..... Though I haven't been able to write recently, there's a few items of note in the blogging/commentary world that I want to share with everyone in the meantime.

Turkish sociologist thinks there's a link between atheism and autism, and that's not a good thing to him:

From My Secret Atheist Blog, written by my good blogging friend, Godless Poutine. (Read full story here):

A Turkish sociologist, Fehmi Kaya (pictured at left), sincerely believes that that autism and atheism are one and the same, and that autistic children "lack a section for faith in their brains"

A few quotes from the post by Godless Poutine that I really love in response to this, he has a son with autism, and has personally experienced some of the more bizarre beliefs regarding autism and "cures" for it that have been floating around both in the outside culture, and within the autism community in Canada:

This, naturally, caused a great deal of outrage among autism associations around Turkey. Now, I find it outrageous because there appears to be no credible scientific study to back it up.  And if it is true that people with autism are statistically more likely to be atheists, then what's the problem?  In this sense they likely see the world more clearly than many neurotypical people who's brains seem to fall prey to superstitious mumbo jumbo. 

But I suspect many people in Turkey (and pretty much everywhere outside of Sweden) find it downright threatening.  Because being identified as an atheist there is unlikely to help anyone who already has the sufficiently burdensome challenges of being on the spectrum or caring for someone who is autistic.  It's more than likely going to compound any problems you would already have navigating the healthcare system trying to find plausible treatments.

 If people in a highly religious nation like Turkey start thinking of autistics as atheists, that's just going to make discrimination and misunderstanding more prevalent, since atheists  aren't viewed in a highly positive light in predominantly Muslim nation.

It Appears a Famous Blogger Is Reading My Blog

I had noticed that from time to time that I had been getting a large number of pageviews from someone linking to my blog on Twitter, but I couldn't figure out who it was linking to my blog.




Today, I noticed this on the Twitter feed of the well known Patheos blogger Libby Anne of Love Joy Feminism:

That's right, she's linking to this post on my blog, where I was ranting about two prominent Christian leaders, one a Creationist/fundamentalist, the other a liberal blogger, who both claimed that if you leave Christianity, that you were never a "true" Christian in the first place. That post was a big hit on the blog, and received quite a few comments (at least by this blog's humble standards).

Thanks, Libby Anne, for the help, I need all the readers I can get. :)

It's Been A Wild Ride For Me As A Blogger This Week

This week has been a wild one for the blog, with plenty of surprises, ups and downs, and there's been a lot for me to keep with. A guest post of mine was published, I've received a guest post submission, a request for an interview, and some backlash to a post I wrote several weeks ago.

All that in just 3 day's time.....

First, I'll start out with the published guest post. Jonny Scaramanga of the popular blog Leaving Fundamentalism, published a guest post I submitted. It was much the typical fare that you would come to expect on my blog.

 I went more in detail about the private school I attended that was a part of the Independent Fundamental Baptist network. I must have forgotten to include my title when I e-mailed it to him, I had originally titled it "Jumping On Cassettes", after a bizarre experience with the pastor who owned the school (read more about that in the guest post. It was a "life story" post that continued on with more about my home schooling past, and about the road that led me to become an agnostic.

 It was a great honor to write for his blog, he was raised up with the same fundamentalist curriculum I was, Accelerated Christian Education. If you have the time, I would highly encourage you to read a guest post he wrote for my blog, about his own personal experience with this system. It was a great guest post, and a great insight into this awful curriculum.

That very same morning (Monday). I also got a big surprise. I had wrote a guest post for Laughing In Purgatory that was a response to an article by Libby Anne of the Patheos blog Love Joy Feminism. Well, Libby Anne found that post of mine, and responded to it on her blog Monday.

A few things I learned from that experience:

1. Always beware of the tone of anything you write, my post took a somewhat accusatory tone towards Libby Anne, which wasn't what I intended.

2. When talking about a controversial topic, even if the post is meant to be a rant/discuss your personal feelings, always back up the post with links/quotes, people will expect it, even though you just intended for the post to be a rant.

3. Be prepared for backlash. The response wasn't as bad as I expected it to be, and Libby Anne, much to her credit, was rather civil, both in the post, and in a conversation I had with her by e-mail (I respect that about her and her writing, her blog is one of my favorite blogs).

Speaking of Laughing In Purgatory, which is where that original post of mine was posted, the author of that blog, Andrew Hall is back to bring some of his great satire to my blog. I've just received a new proposed guest post from him, I'm reading it now, and it will probably be published on Friday or Saturday.

The last time he sent in a guest post for this blog, it was a great success, and well received by readers. Read that post, Scholar Awarded Templeton Prize for Proving Jesus' Virgin Birth. There were some hidden jokes in that post, for instance, do you know who the man in the picture of "Dr. Mountebank", actually is?

Finally, I've been invited to be a part of the atheist blogger interview series on the blog Deity Shmeity. The blog author, "Grundy", has some great bloggers in that series that have responded to his request for interviews, blogger i have a lot of  respect for, like Vjack of Atheist Revolution, and Hermant Metha of The Friendly Atheist.

I'm honored to be invited to be a part of this project. I can't say for sure when this will be published, it all depends in part, on how soon I can get around to writing my responses to his questions (I've already received them in an e-mail).

It's been a wild week, for sure, it's the most excitement I've had as a blogger in quite a long time...

Marriage, Family, and Social Norms in the US (part 2)

This is part two of a two part series, I recommend you read part 1, which I wrote as a guest post for Laughing In Purgatory, before proceeding to read this post

In part 1, I responded to an article by Libby Anne of the Patheos blog Love Joy Feminism about gender roles, and gave my own views about the US views on gender and the way US divorce courts are ran. Today, I have a rant, related to family, and US society, but the focus will be in a different direction this time

I can not tell you how many times I have been hearing complaints in recent years from families about their adult children who have just dropped out of life entirely.

They won't get a job (and won't seriously search for one), won't make plans for their life, still live at home, and have no intention of ever leaving.

Their parents gripe and complain about this endlessly, and it probably is frustrating, but many of these same parents don't even realize that they have created this very situation, or at least are enabling it.