The Atheist Blogger

Law professor Douglas Whaley has written a book which he describes as an “atheist thriller”. He was kind enough to send me the following synopsis and information.

Franklin Whitestone, a lawyer in Columbus, Ohio, is trapped in the rubble of the Ohio State football stadium when a Muslim terrorist sets off a bomb. During the rescue Franklin becomes a hero by holding onto a girder while allowing over 50 people to escape. This is  captured on television, and is the one bright spot in the what becomes known as  “9/11 Two.”  Franklin is flown to New York City for an appearance on the Jimmy Ball Show (the equivalent to the Larry King program). Accompanying him to NYC is his significant other, Kelly Keyfold, and since the two of them are the guests of the tv show, they dine at a fancy restaurant where Kelly insists on a bottle of wine, telling Franklin it would be good for his nerves to have one glass himself. He does this, but at some point during the meal a  waiter refills his goblet, and so he drinks two glasses of wine. At the studio, Franklin is shown into the green room, where the first guest on the Jimmy Ball Show, a rummy comedian, offers him a drink from a flask. Franklin at first refuses, but, unused to national tv and shaken to his very core, he finally takes another sip. Of course, this proves unwise.

When Franklin goes on the air, the video clip of his heroics is shown and applauded, and then he and the host answer call-in questions from the live audience. One of the callers is a woman from Salt Lake City, and she asks him whether he was praying to God to give him strength during his heroics, and—his judgment clouded by alcohol—Franklin blithely says no. “God,” he tells her, “was not the solution, but the problem—belief in him is what caused the bombs to go off.” This sparks outraged calls from other viewers, and Franklin
makes some other ill-considered statements along this same unfortunate line. When asked by the host if he is an atheist, Franklin replies:

“Let me put it like this, Jimmy. When I was a child I had an imaginary friend who was with me everywhere I went, helping me out, very real to me. I loved him with all my heart. But as I got older I didn’t need that crutch anymore, and one day he just wasn’t there, nor did I miss him. As an adult I’d be embarrassed if I still needed an imaginary friend to help me run my life.”

Of course, saying this is a mistake of major magnitude, as is made clear to Franklin when his life blows up on many fronts, starting minutes after he’s off the air.

The book has much to say about theism versus atheism, and the role of each in today’s society (I am a lifelong professional teacher and this is a subject about which I am passionate). But the novel is much more than that. There is quite a bit of humor in it, as well as a number of action sequences (and some violent encounters). I would hope that anyone picking up the book would find it an entertaining read.

The book can be ordered from Amazon.com ($15.00).

Finally, let me add that I know this is a delicate and controversial subject, and I have tried to handle it in a way that is fair to all viewpoints. The reader can judge for him/herself whether I have succeeded or whether to join the crowd gathering tar and feathers. I would love to hear any and all comments readers have about the  book, and my email address for making them is in the “Author’s Note” at the end of the novel.

Douglas Whaley

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The book is currently only out in America, so we can’t add it to the book club list, but if anyone reads it please write a review. Many thanks to Douglas for passing this information on, and best of luck with the book!

The book for October’s book club is “50 reasons people give for believing in a god” by Guy P. Harrison. It is available from Amazon and hopefully I will be able to contact the author and invite him into a live discussion like we did with Hemant Mehta.

For this month, the book is “Biblical Nonsense” and we are abandoning the live discussion due to lack of interest. At the end of the month, a forum discussion will be put up where people can post their views. I hope one day to bring back the live discussion, but I think we need more dedicated members for that.

For now, the live discussion will be reserved for books in which I can contact the author.

UPDATE: Guy P. Harrison says he would love to do a live discussion of his book. We will confirm a date nearer the time.

This month’s book is “Biblical Nonsense” by Dr. Jason Long, and I’m thinking about scrapping the live discussion. It is fun when you get to invite the author along (as with Hemant Mehta) but otherwise it usually ends up with 2 people discussing the book for about 5 minutes, and then turning onto something else.

So the discussion for this book will simply take place over in the forums.

We need to start choosing a book for October.

Do not vote unless you wish to read the book or take part in the discussion!

I’d also like to know who out of my readership is interested in the book club, so please make a comment if you think you’ll be able to subscribe to it regularly. I’d also love some feedback on it.

Sorry for the late announcement, but I’ll have to postpone the online discussion of Carl Sagan’s book “The Demon Haunted World” until Tuesday 2nd September. That gives everyone an extra 3 days with the book in case they need to finish the final chapter!

I need to get up early tomorrow as I am attending my dad’s wedding, and so I won’t be online to oversee the book club meeting tonight. I’ll be back in action on the 2nd, and if I get access to a computer before then I will update everyone with information. Hopefully I’ll be able to set up a vote for October’s book on the 1st.

This is my first blog post since the “Digg Effect” effectively made my site slower than the inner workings of Ray Comfort’s brain. I managed to get over 3,400 votes on Digg, which I think is pretty impressive given the content, and I really must thank everyone who took the time to read the quotes, vote, and leave a nice comment. According to FeedBurner, the people who handle my RSS feeds, I have 622 subscribers now. Hello whoever you are!

If you are new here, you might wish to read the interview that I did for The Atheist Spot. It will at least tell you who I am, why I’m blogging, and what I do when I’m not being caught off-guard by a Digg Effect at 4am.

I didn’t really have much planned to write about today other than on the subject of forums. The blog has its own forum which handles general chat as well as our book club. If you wish to join our book club then you should find all the information on that page. At the start of each month, we vote for a book we want to read the next month (giving people a load of time to get the book). We then discuss the book in an IRC channel, followed by a forum discussion for those who couldn’t make the live discussion.

The book for September is “Biblical Nonsense” by Dr. Jason Long.

I have also just re-launched an atheist orientated forum after some initial mess-ups with the ownership of its predecessor. The new forums has started off well since most of the users of the old one were behind the move. These forums can be found at: http://atheistforums.org

Anyway, now that I have a larger audience I’d better start thinking of stuff to write. Damn you Digg! Making me do some actual work for once! Grrrr….

Edit: Oh yes, and I now have Twitter. You can follow me at: http://twitter.com/AtheistBlogger