The Atheist Blogger

Firstly, let me apologize for yet another absense on the blog. I’ve only just worked out how to post-date articles so it shouldn’t happen again in the future. During the past 2 weeks I’ve finished university (first year anyway), passed all my exams (yay!), gone on holiday, got badly sunburnt, and then had to pack my entire room into a transit van and move back home.

Onto the topic of this article. I was contacted a week ago by a muslim named “Abu” who opened his email like so:

right in this moment in time I’d love to lose my rag bang the computer and
scream infernally! But I’d like to alter your skewed views on life and the
pointless, deity-less movement that is atheism. Why verily only the arrogant,
proud, the incessently stupid believe in atheism…

He outlined what he thought were good arguments against atheism, including the “There are no atheists in foxholes” argument and Pascal’s wager (both easily refutable). The ongoing discussion has covered about 6 emails now and they are a pain to read all at once, so I’ve chosen the best bits for you:

Read the rest of this entry »

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On 30th May 2008 at 23:00 GMT we will hold the first book club discussion of the chosen book this month: “Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design“.

There are quite a few sites for working out your timezone compared to GMT, but I have found an easy and accurate one: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html

The discussion will take place on MSGPlus, in the temporary channel #atheist-book-club. If you already know how to use IRC, you will need to enter the following details into your IRC client:

Server: irc.msgplus.net

Port: 6667

Channel: #atheist-book-club

If you have never used IRC before, I have set up a Java Applet on the forums. It requires you to have Java installed on your computer (most people do) and for JavaScript to be enabled in your web browser.

You can either register / log into the forums or join the chat as a guest. It’s open to all.

http://atheistblogger.com/forums/chat.php

After the discussion, I will create a forum thread so that other people who couldn’t make the IRC chat can voice their opinions of the book. Speaking of which, I’d better get it finished!

Thanks to everyone who voted for the book club this month! If everything went right, this means we should have 7 people to discuss the book at the end of May. Of course if more people want to read it and discuss, please be my guest.

The book chosen is Why Darwin Matters: The Case Against Intelligent Design by Michael Shermer.

It can be found in both hardback and paperback at Amazon, although currently it is actually cheaper to buy in hardback (a special deal).

Thanks to all who are participating, and I hope you enjoy the book!