The Atheist Blogger

As I noted in a previous post, The Atheist Spot are currently interviewing atheist bloggers with a variety of questions. The latest interview posted is with none other than myself, so go read it! I’ve never really answered many questions about atheism in relation to England, so hopefully a few people might come up with a few more.

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I previously wrote about why I left Atheist Nexus, for reasons that I believed saw the site turning into a more commercial business than a friendly social networking site. I have left the controversial article up, but let me make one thing very clear:

I was wrong.

The article was written as a response / inquiry to the donations listed on the Atheist Nexus website. People have accused me of being impolite by posting “private” donation targets in the public domain. I stand by my actions of posting the amounts, not because I wanted to be impolite, but because the same donation amounts are easily accessible by any member of the public. All you have to do is register (for free) on Atheist Nexus and click the donations link. Is this private? I don’t believe it is. Just because you have to type in a few letters and give your email address doesn’t mean that somehow you have crossed from the public world to a private one, especially when the action requires no payment and little trouble for the end user.

I have also been accused of writing an accusatory article without first consulting Brother Richard on the matter, or anyone at Atheist Nexus. I admit I should have contacted someone official before writing the article, but my previous attempts at contacting anyone at Atheist Nexus have not resulted in any emails other than those explaining that they have received so many emails and are currently going through them all. I could have posted the article in the forums, but how would this have been any different? The forums are public (I can read them when logged out), so what is the difference between posting the article on my website (which I know is read by some Atheist Nexus members) than on the forums. In the end, a subscriber (vjack) linked my article in a thread on Atheist Nexus specifically about the donations.

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This article does not display my current opinions on the subject in hand, and has only been kept up for archive purposes. For my true opinions and explanations, please read this article.

Amongst all the trouble the site suffered during its conception I didn’t think it could get any worse. Power was transferred from the relatively new atheist “Thor” to Brother Richard, an atheist blogger.  Brother Richard asked for volunteers for web design, lawyers, graphic designers, representatives, moderators, and a host of other roles. He also asked for “donators” since the site wasn’t going to pay for itself. I remain slightly skeptical of this part. The site is hosted on Ning.com, a free social networking engine that expects high server usage, so where exactly does Richard need the money? The issue of lawyers seems a little strange as well, seeing as the site isn’t corporate and is in fact governed by Ning.com (who I assume have lawyers).

I was recently invited by vjack to join his new group on Atheist Nexus; a group dedicated to stamping down on atheist discrimination. It’s a great idea, and I support it even if I have now left Atheist Nexus. I suggest anyone still on the site joins the group straight away.

Once I got the email inviting me to join the group, I went straight to Atheist Nexus and did indeed join it. However, I noticed a link at the top of the page saying something about “Phase 1″ of fund raising. Intrigued, I went to the page and read.

Brother Richard starts by commenting on the wonderful transformation the site has gone, becoming one of the fastest growing atheist sites on the web. He also tells how he recently sold his business and is in a state of “semi-retirement”. He wants to spend the rest of the year (which he claims does not need that much income) helping with the site. However, he states:

Of course, it is our hope that the site will continue to grow and provide a comfortable income for our family and the staff that has been working with us, but only time will tell.

What? Excuse me? Since when did Atheist Nexus, a free site, hosted by a free organisation (Ning) for FREE become a platform for earning money? So now we see the corporate nature of Brother Richards ideas. Instead of simply relying on volunteers he decides to earn some money for doing what most people would call a “hobby”. The site doesn’t need that much tending. All the admin is done by Ning, as are the server upgrades and anything else that might take time. What was wrong with keeping volunteers to do the work? I’d already gladly volunteered to help redesign and possibly remake the entire site (FOR FREE) but I never got a response.

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According to the BBC, Birmingham City Council have decided to ban websites about atheism, witchcraft, the paranormal, sexual deviancy, and criminal activity. Every other site is allowed (especially Christian, Islamic, Hindu sites) but the new system has effectively outlawed any sites relating to satanism or the occult, which apparently now includes atheism. Strangely there is one section of the Birmingham Councils software description that stands out.

or any other form of mysticism

Hold on a sec. Mysticism is defined as “a direct, intimate union of the soul with God through contemplation or ecstasy”^[1], and as “the pursuit of achieving communion, identity with, or conscious awareness of ultimate reality, the Other, divinity, spiritual truth, or God through direct experience, intuition, or insight”.^[2]

It seems that every single religion practices this. Prayer, whether it is Christian or Muslim, is a “pursuit” of some form of communication between God / Allah and the believer. So already all Christian and Islamic websites which advocate prayer should be out of the loop. So should all evangelical websites that call for believers to have a “personal relationship” with Jesus. The last time I checked, a personal relationship is a union of sorts, but is definitely a direct experience. Indeed, many Christian denominations have a mystical theology called theosis, and the Muslims have a similar one known as Irfan.

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Regular visitors to the blog will have noticed that a few weeks ago I added a random quote generator to the top of the site, which serves an atheist quote every time the page is loaded. The quotes were originally from one of my first blog posts “101 Atheist Quotes“, with the occasional one added in when I find it.

I’ve also recently purchased the book “The Quotable Atheist” which is full of quotes about atheism / religion from popular people, so a few more should be added when I flick through it and find great ones.

The thing is, anyone can make atheist quotes. The popular ones are made by well-known people since they have a massive advantage of getting the quote out in the public domain. Some other popular ones are marked as “anonymous” but logic confirms they must have had some kind of origin. Why should atheist quotes be confined to anonymous people or popular philosophers / thinkers?

Back in May, I asked my forum members to come up with their own atheist quotes, which would be added to the random quote generator on the forums. Now that we’ve got a few I can fulfill my promise, but I’m also going to put them on the main site, and make the thread known to anyone who reads this post. So if anyone can think up any atheist quotes that are original (or witty modifications) please either join the forums and post, or post them in the comments to this article. They will *eventually* be added to the random quote generator with your name (if you give it) or your alias you use here. If you want your name linked to your website, please make it known!

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