The Atheist Blogger

Book of Revelation 13:18

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

Which is why I find this screenshot I took of the forums quite amusing:

No More Mr. Nice Guy has posted the 90th Carnival of the Godless over at his blog, and it’s well worth a look. This is the second time I’ve submitted something to the carnival, and I’m pleased to report that my article proposing an online atheist book club got through.

Speaking of which, we’re still working on the chatroom, and people can still post suggestions in the forums. Voting will be on May 1st.

On a further unrelated note, I won’t be posting as much for the next 3 weeks as I have revision followed by exams. I’ll still write the odd article, and if people want to sent stuff in (even short stuff) I’ll gladly post it for them. Wish me luck :D

Well quite a few people contacted me saying the book club would be a good idea, and so I’ve been busy organising things, and making sure everything can work. I’ve set up a new section of the forums so people can add submissions and discuss whether they would be a good idea to read.

All we need now is some actual book titles!

The updated idea is that anyone can register at the forums, and submit a title for the book club. Then, people can either agree or disagree with the title. If someone has read the book before, they might want to give their opinion on it and either recommend it or say it’s not worth reading. Likewise, if people find that they can’t get access to the book (perhaps it is only published in one country) then they can make their voice heard. The book club is a global group, and we are not going to review books that some people can’t access. Already we have had to “reject” a book that can only be found in Australia.

Rejection isn’t the end for a submission though. The book in question “The Purple Economy: Supernatural Charities, Tax and the State” sounds like an interesting read, and the only reason it’s not going to be in the May 1st vote is because of it’s availability. If you can get hold of it and read it yourself then that’s great. Perhaps you could write a review of it for us anyway!

We are aiming to get the IRC channel (chatroom) up and running on the 1st so people can drop in and talk. I’ll post details on how you can access IRC on the day, but for the non-technical people out there, I will install a Java applet on the site so you can connect easily.

For now though, we have 2 books submitted, and I’d like to have a couple more by the end of the week. Registration is free, and you have no obligation to participate in any book club reading. Everyone will be welcome in the live discussion, so if you haven’t read the book you will get a chance to hear some short reviews of it and you may be prompted to read it yourself.

Friendly Atheist found a blog listing the stuff Christians like, and suggested people start making lists of “stuff atheists like”. So far two blogs have been set up, and they have listed a few things. Instead of setting up a blog to do this, I thought it fair better as a forum thread. That way people can easily suggest things and they can be added to the list.

If the list gets too big I might make a page for it here, but for now it should be quite a fun activity for anyone who wants to join the forums!