TWIM On The Atheist Blogroll?
Posted in Blogosphere on | 3 minutes | 6 Comments →Yep, you saw that right. First I somehow won a shared award for "Best Atheist / Skeptic Site of 2009", and now this. The other day, I emailed Mojoey from Deep Thoughts and said:
Hey, quick question: I think your Atheist Blogroll is an excellent service. I'm not an atheist, but certainly consider myself a rationalist / skeptic / freethinker, and was wondering if I could get added to your blogroll? Technically, I consider myself an agnostic theist. I believe, but will not know until I die… I make a distinction between belief and knowledge… [I later elaborated] I don't know that God exists, but I sure do believe it. So in that sense it's understood by many of my readers that I'm somewhat agnostic. I hope that makes sense. I usually try not to call myself anything, preferring for others to make their own assumptions, as we know they will.
A few days went by, and I figured Mojoey had just wiped his ass with my question and gotten a good laugh. Then this showed up in my inbox:
Well, it would be a first but I am not opposed to it. Our position runs from full on atheist to agnostic, so as long as you call yourself an agnostic blogger… In return, I ask that you help promote the Atheist community by making a small post promoting the blogroll on your blog.
I couldn't believe it. I stated clearly that I'm not an atheist, and that I believe in God. I had to read the emails several times before it sank in. So, that explains the addition of the Atheist Blogroll logo in TWIM's "about" statement, top left. Honestly, this seems like one of those things that might be too good to be true. I can easily see more than one of my detractors who are listed on the Atheist Blogroll giving Mojoey grief for his decision. I'm hoping it will bring more people to the discussion.
I've never had a problem supporting the atheist community, or any other community for that matter. There are decent people everywhere, as there are also not-so-decent people everywhere. In many ways, I tend to identify more with atheists than believers. I feel that most Western believers have been swept away by what's been called churchianity, to the point it completely voids their God-given intellect. Mental passivity may be good for meditation or prayer, but when allowed to run unchecked it will destroy one's life and reduce one to a rigid and loveless automaton.
I've been quite discouraged lately by what I've termed "old-world thinking" in the freethought community, and the analogy is to be found in Israel and Palestine. For now, it seems we've all got one world to live in, doesn't it?
Thank you, Mojoey, for your new-world spirit of cooperation, and giving me a chance.
John Morales
says...Congratulations.
I’m surprised you’re surprised at the less censorious nature of the freethinking community, though. :)
Mike aka MonolithTMA
says...Damned theists, infiltrating our organization. Oh, wait. ;-)
It will be interesting to see if this brings in more readers.
Congrats!
By the way, I appreciate you embracing the agnostic nature of theism. I made a comment to a fundamentalist Christian on Facebook this morning that despite their certainty they would not know for certain if they were right until they died and proceeded to meet their maker or just cease to exist.
cl
says...John Morales,
Don’t be. Atheists with authoritarian tendencies ban, curtail and censor as do their theist counterparts, plain and simple. I don’t expect that you’d experience it, because you’re not a believer discussing things with atheists.
Mike aka MonolithTMA,
Well, for the most part I agree with you, although I do believe a person can “taste” the truth of the final reality on this side of death. That doesn’t necessarily entail that the person’s belief system is correct as they interpret it, either. I just look at it like, a person has to be honest. We don’t know what it’s like to drive until we actually get behind the wheel, right?
cl
says...John Morales,
Don’t be. Atheists with authoritarian tendencies ban, curtail and censor as do their theist counterparts, plain and simple. I don’t expect that you’d experience it, because you’re not a believer discussing things with atheists.
Mike aka MonolithTMA,
Well, for the most part I agree with you, although I do believe a person can “taste” the truth of the final reality on this side of death. That doesn’t necessarily entail that the person’s belief system is correct as they interpret it, either. I just look at it like, a person has to be honest. We don’t know what it’s like to drive until we actually get behind the wheel, right?
John Morales
says...cl, don’t confuse atheists with freethinkers.
The only thing the former have in common is lack of belief in gods, the latter have open-mindedness in common.
Grouping people by a single disbelief is pretty useless at predicting much about them, whilst grouping them by a belief is somewhat useful.
The only two blogs I have ever been disbarred from were Randian Objectivists; most assuredly atheists, and also assuredly not freethinkers. They’re de-facto religious and (ahem) dogmatic.
cl
says...John Morales,
I’m not, and I haven’t, so don’t assume. I realize a “freethinker” is not the same as an atheist. However, the “freethinking” community is primarily atheist and all the atheist blogs I’ve been censored or banned from also claim to be freethinking blogs. Also, some atheists seem to mistakenly believe that freethinkers can’t be theists.
So, my surprise at the ironically censorious nature of the atheist / freethinking community is warranted.