Weblog

Saturday, 30 April 2011

  • Adieu, xanga

    Some of my friends in the atheist blogosphere have convinced me that it is time to migrate away from xanga.  It has been an excellent time.  A lot of you have watched me grow from a snarky, flippant young student into a snarky, flippant leader in the atheist movement.  You have shared my victories and my struggles with mental illness.  I am grateful you have been there for both.

    The new site will be set up in wordpress, I'm thinking.  This seems to be what all the hip kids are using nowadays.  The blog will also need a cool, concise, and catchy name (alliteration optional).  I'm awful at naming things.  So far the top of my list is 'I Have Pewp In My Butt'.  So, if any of you have tips for working in wordpress or suggestions for a cool, edgy name, let me know.

     

  • Lazy NES thread

    Today is some of the first down time I've had in a while. I actually slept in!

    In the interest of being as lazy a slug as possible today, I've decided to spend the bulk of the daylight hours revisiting old NES games.  I plan to start with Legacy of the Wizard.

    If you have any suggestions, preferably of old school NES (or even SNES or Genesis) games that are diamonds in the rough, let me know.  :)

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand onward to a glorious, sedentary Saturday!

     

Friday, 29 April 2011

  • Raise money for Camp Quest! Help defeat PZ Myers!

    UPDATE: IF OUR SIDE WINS, PZ HAS TO SHAVE HIS BEARD!!!!*

    While the children of deeply religious parents are off being indoctrinated into the useless (and often maladaptive) dogmas and traditions of their various religions, Camp Quest gives kids the chance to learn actual applicable skills.  It's an endeavor and a group I completely support (to the extent that I am writing up a music program for them this Summer and will be a volunteer counselor at Camp Quest Ohio this Summer teaching kids how to do magic). 

    Amanda Metskas, their executive director, is a tireless and amazing worker.  She is also clever, and has devised a little contest to raise money for Camp Quest.

    Five awesome atheist bloggers are competing to see who can raise the most money to support Camp Quest!

    Since one of those bloggers is the indomitable PZ Myers of Pharyngula, we have made two teams in order to make this competition more fair.

    Team 1: Greta Christina of Greta Christina's Blog, Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist, Jen McCreight of Blag Hag, and JT Eberhard of Zerowing21.

    Team 2: PZ Myers of Pharyngula.

    The first team to raise $5,000 for Camp Quest, or the team that has raised the most by June 1, 2011 will win!

    What will the winning team receive? Bragging rights. Pure and simple.

    You can help your favorite team win by donating through ChipIn to support the team of your choice. Early reports think PZ has this sewn up, so if you like underdogs, give to this ChipIn and help his competition. Or you can make help make the pharyngulation complete by supporting PZ's ChipIn.

    All contestants and contributors receive: the knowledge that they have supported a fantastic program for freethinking families and their children.

    I will, of course, be ganking the support of all the Atheism Resource readers.  Atheists have no morals, so I'm not above cheating and using two blog outlets. 

    PZ already has a post up pissing and moaning about how unfair it is, so he has a head start.  I also hear he's extremely cuddly in person and that he, in fact, does not breath fire and have blood perpetually dripping from his fangs.  If you want to help an affable nancy like that, be my guest.  However, if you have an affinity people who think we should go after religion without reservation, you can (and should) contribute through a real firebrand!  happy

    Those who attended the American Atheists Convention in Des Moines this last weekend are fully aware that I was more livid than PZ Myers.  In fact, I recently emailed him after the conference and tagged my email with 'I'm angrier than you', a fact palpable to anybody who saw our talks.  He responded with...

    That makes me FUCKING FURIOUS.

    PZ is clearly not furious enough, says I!  I say we drive him into a frothing rage by helping me, Greta, Hemant, and Jen to lord over him in triumph!

    * PZ has not agreed to this, but I'm not above cheating. Besides, if the rumor spreads like wildfire, PZ will have to do it!

    Ok, PZ is handing us our asses out of the gate.  It's ok - we just need a super big donor to come in and save us.

    Also, PZ is taunting all of us via email.  Nobody likes a bully!

     

  • Out of my comfort zone, into adventure

    Am going dancing tonight.  I don't mean dancing like flailing about and grinding on as many other people as possible with techno in the background - I mean like Salsa, Merengue, Bachata, etc.  Y'know...real frakking dancing.  This is the aforementioned third date.

    I can't dance to save my life.  Seriously, when I was an opera singer, I was what they call a 'single threat'.  To say that I'm awful at dancing really undersells people who are awful at dancing.

    It should be fun.  :)

     

Wednesday, 27 April 2011

JT's responses to particular arguments

There are certain arguments that seem to always come up when talking about god. Here is where I will keep track of them. I will add more to this list as they arise.

1. That person is not a true Christian/my faith is different. Click here.

2. You're taking away peoples' hope/atheists have no hope. Click here and/or here.

3. Arguments from design, complexity, personal experience, and first cause. Click here.

4. Not all Christians are unreasonable. Click here.

5. Argument from fulfilled prophecy. Click here.

6. Science and religion address different questions/science and religion are compatible. Click here.

7. You can't get something from nothing. Click here.

8. There's no evidence for evolution. Click here.

9. Free will is proof of god's love. Click here.

10. Atheists and agnostics are different. Click here.

11. I don't think gay people deserve equal rights, including marriage. Click here.

12. Pascal's Wager. Click here.

13. You're just close-minded/the conversation with religious types doesn't go anywhere. Click here.

14. Science is also a matter of faith. Click here.

15. Abortion kills babies/should remain illegal for whatever reason. Click here.

16. Global warming is not happening, is not man-made, or is just a big, evil, scientific conspiracy (mwahahahaha!). Click here.

17. Why do you waste your time criticizing religion? Click here.

18. Stalin was an atheist too! Click here.

19. You can't prove god doesn't exist! Click here.

Blogging Team

JT Eberhard (Zerowing21)

JT co-founded the MSU Chapter of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster along with Dr. Dave, and assumed leadership after the good doctor graduated.

Since that time JT has been an active blogger and activist who has given several talks and participated in debates throughout the region on skepticism, religion, reason, and science. He is currently listed on the Center for Inquiry's bureau of speakers.

Along with Lauren Lane, he co-founded the Skepticon events and was the production team leader for Skepticon 2.

JT typically blogs about faith, science, and politics.

You can follow JT on facebook by clicking here, join JT's fan page on facebook by clicking here, view his on Atheist Nexus profile by clicking here, and follow him on twitter by clicking here.

Lauren Lane (Lartsy)

Lauren was one of the founding members of the MSU Chapter of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, co-founded the Skepticon events and handled finances for Skepticon 1 and 2.

Lauren typically blogs about feminism, skepticism, and pop culture.

Aron McCart (frie2)

Aron is a physics major at Missouri State that spends his time in a dark underground cave science-ing. He was last seen above ground hoarding cheese dip and vitamin C. He plans to graduate in 2011 and invent an army of sex robots.

Aron typically blogs about science, anti-science kooks, and current events.

Alexandra

Alexandra is a member of the Denton Freethought Alliance. She spends her free time masquerading as a sexy ninja lesbian and uses this disguise to harass Glenn Beck.

Alexandra typically blogs about current events, the oddities of humanity, and politics.

Jonathan

Jonathan is currently a graduate student at SUNY Buffalo where he is pursing a PhD in chemistry. He was raised in an Assemblies of God family who were very fundamentalist, even for the AoG. He was homeschooled (still isn’t sure how he feels about that), and raised as a Young Earth Creationist. He is currently an agnostic atheist who is very opinionated on matters of science.

Jonathan typically blogs on science, rational thinking, and religion.

Laura

Laura is a recent graduate of Penn State University living in our nation's capital, where she frequently tricks tourists and trips lobbyists on the metro. Often, vice versa.

She typically blogs about politics, American culture, and the religious right.

Dr. Dave (Trotsky311)

Dr Dave accidentally co-founded a Noodle based cult chapter, and has never looked back. He's not commonly seen doing anything at all, but has been known to drop nuggets of beardly wisdom to feed the yearning masses. A graduate of MSU with a degree in "something technical," he currently lives the movie Office Space & Idiocracy simultaneously.

His blog never made any coherent sense, and will be continuing the tradition here at Zerowing21.

Dr Dr Dave typically blogs about politics, religion, and humor.

Ravenna (RaVnR)

Ravenna studied philosophy at the University of Texas Arlington, after discovering that architecture wasn't for her. She is currently enrolled in the Texas Tech University School of Law, and when she finally graduates hopes to practice as an environmental defense lawyer. Naturally, she mostly blogs about law, philosophy, philosophy of law, and politics. She occasionally goes off-topic, however, and discusses sexuality as well.