I’ve been tagged by other atheist bloggers at least 3 times now (one for the PA blog, two for this one), so, just so you all don’t think I’m ignoring you (since these things can actually be fun), I’m going to write my “8 random facts” tomorrow, OK? 
Tag Archive for 'way of the mind (site)'
I’ve just added two plugins to WotM, which provide the following new features:
- Edit your comments: for 30 minutes after posting a comment, you can edit it as you will. This allows you to correct typos or any other mistakes you notice immediately after posting, or to add something you remembered when you were re-reading what you just posted. The 30-minute limit is so that users can’t cowardly pretend that they didn’t say something way back in the discussion.
- Subscribe to comments: below the comment text box, there is a checkbox labeled
Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. By checking it when posting a comment, you can be warned of replies to that discussion by email (of course, you’ll have to include a real email address in the “email” field for it to work; that email is never shown to other readers, though). Every email includes a working “unsubscribe” link, in case you change your mind later.
Any problems, please let me know.
No, I’m not saying that all my posts will be shorter from now on. What I mean is that I’m thinking of creating a new category on Way of the Mind, with (yes) shorter posts, which, unlike the “normal” ones, will simply suggest an idea, a point, a thought… without being followed by any kind of opinion or conclusion from me. They’ll be “short” precisely because of that.
Obviously, any comments on those posts (and, indeed, on any post) will be welcome.
Hopefully, the first one will appear tomorrow; I already know what it’ll be about. But don’t worry, the “normal” posts will still be written from time to time.
The good news is that Planet Atheism now has 5 (*) blogs. Not bad for 12 hours. I’ve already started to send some invitations to candidate blogs, but I’m doing it slowly, so don’t feel offended if you haven’t been invited yet. Still, there’s no reason to wait; if you’re interested, let me know (details here).
The bad news is that the server where this blog was hosted, apparently, couldn’t cope with the StumbleUpon effect of so many hits per second. Who’d guess that my 16 Common Myths about Atheists post would get so popular again? Therefore, I had to temporarily move Way of the Mind to my old server, located at my home in Portugal. Bandwidth may be worse (though it should still be OK), but the server itself is much more powerful, and it laughs at the StumbleUpon effect. 
I’ve contacted the hosting people for a server upgrade, and in a couple of days (hopefully) this blog should be physically in the U.S. again. Other sites such as the forum and Planet Atheism are still in the American server.
Is it too obvious that I’m a sysadmin as well as a blogger?
(*) 7 now.
Note: this one is big (note the “Continue reading…” link, if you’re on the blog’s front page), and is kind of a rant. It will also, probably, make some of you leave this blog for good, though that’s not my goal.
Since August 2006, this blog has been mostly about atheism and what’s wrong with religion. I’ve been criticized for that, and lost some of my previous regular readers, though I also gained some new ones. But it’s what I’ve wanted to write about… I’m still allowed to do that, right?
And, yet, every time a post of mine, criticizing religious belief, is more popular than usual, I get the same kinds of criticism - sometimes, “trolling” would even be a better word. Many commenters don’t even read what I write; they simply think “atheist… enemy!”. You can see, for instance, that most of the replies on my 16 Common Myths about Atheists post weren’t about the myths themselves, or about whether they existed or not, or about whether atheists were like that or not. No, most were about whether God existed or not (and almost everyone said he did, of course). And a lot of replies called me - and atheists in general - “arrogant” - again, not because of what I wrote, but simply because I, like other atheists, have the nerve to say that there is almost certainly no god, and that millions of believers are, therefore, wrong. Because, again, it’s not arrogant to believe without evidence, but it is arrogant to disbelieve due to that lack of evidence, apparently…
It is not in my nature to deliberately offend. It is, however, in my nature to be as honest as I can, and to say what I believe to be true. And, yet, with so many accusations such as the ones I’ve read in several months of comments, I have found that I have been more “careful not to offend” than, I, perhaps, should have been. Because people who get offended when I say that they have no real evidence for the existence of God, and, therefore, are guilty of wishful thinking, are usually the same ones who say that atheists are pure monsters living on earth, putting their “faith” in science, being too “arrogant” to believe in God, and disbelieve (or say they do) simply because they don’t want any rules of morality above them.
That, dear readers, is a much greater insult than saying “you are wrong”. Even than saying “you are deluded”, or “you are refusing to think”. And yet, it is I who have been, perhaps, saying less than I should, who have been censoring myself.
Continue reading ‘Self-censorship, and the fear of offending’
Since every other blog seems to be doing it…
Sorted by number of visits, in ascending order:
10 - The problem of Agnosticism, part 2 - it’s a “part 2″ (see below for part 1), but it’s perfectly readable on its own. Discusses the contradiction of being “agnostic” about Yahweh, but “atheistic” about every other made-up deity.
9 - Christian myths about Atheism: discussion - there were so many comments for the “16 Common Myths about Atheism” post (see below) that I had to close that thread and open a new one, or my web server would have been very, very angry at me.
8 - The problem of Agnosticism - explores why agnostics are agnostic, and what’s wrong, in my opinion, with it.
7 - How I’ve become an atheist - one of the oldest posts on Way of the Mind, this tells of my own “deconversion”, and links to a brilliant Douglas Adams interview
6 - Why Atheism is not a religion - oddly enough, many people seem to think that it is - in other words, that it requires as much “faith” as theism. This post shows why that is not the case.
5 - Are the myths about atheists real or not? - after the popular “common myths” post, many people said I was creating “straw men” - in other words, the myths didn’t really exist. A simple search on Google News proved otherwise.
4 - “Closed minds” - disputes the common (and unfortunate) belief that “being sure of something is closed-minded” (also known as “reality is fluid”).
3 - Deism and Pantheism - a latecomer, this post describes those two not-very-well-known beliefs, whose proponents included many of the U.S. Founding Fathers, and Albert Einstein.
2 - Atheism: arrogance? - discusses why believing that 2+2 will still be 4 tomorrow isn’t “arrogant”.
1 - 16 Common Myths about Atheists - a list of what many theists believe — wrongly — about atheists in general. No, we don’t sacrifice babies. We don’t even boil young goats in their mothers’ milk.
I’ve asked readers before to update their bookmarks so that they access this site using its new address.
However, there’s a second thing I’d like to ask you: if you have any links to this site on your own site or blog, please update them as well. Whether it’s a link to the main page, or to a particular post. I’d really appreciate it. 
Thanks in advance.
EDIT: a link to the Way of the Mind Forum would also be nice.
Since a short while ago, this blog has moved to www.wayofthemind.org, instead of wayofthemind.dehumanizer.com.
The old address will redirect to this one, with a warning. If you try to access an old post directly, you will also be taken to the same post on the new address.
However, to spare my poor home server and save bandwidth, please update your bookmark(s), and, from now on, use the new address. I appreciate it.
Meanwhile, the new forum is up, right here: Way of the Mind Forum! I hope you register and participate. It’s still somewhat empty (naturally…), but I hope that that changes in the near future, with your help. I, myself, will use it (and keep writing in the blog, which I hope you keep commenting on as well). The main point of the forum is that you people can start your own threads.
Any problems with it, please let me know. There are still few categories, but more will be created when necessary.
This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while now: the creation of a Way of the Mind forum.
While I love to write here, and to read and reply to comments, I also find that, quite often, people end up talking about something different. It’s a very small community, here, so far, but it’s there… and maybe it should be encouraged.
I don’t know when I’ll launch the forum; maybe in a month or so. My plans are for it to have several sub-forums (christianity, other religions, atheism, politics, society, individualism, maybe others), and anyone can start new threads, as long as they’re appropriate for the sub-forum.
The forum will be described as being for atheists, humanists, individualists, libertarians, objectivists and such; it will not be restricted to those, of course, and intelligent posts by Christians (for instance) will be welcome. Insults, threats of eternal damnation and similar, however, will not be welcome at all.
So… do you think this is a good idea? Do you see yourself participating in that forum (while still reading and commenting on this blog, of course :))?
As I said, it won’t be up for a month or so, I think.
EDIT: change of plans. It may actually be up sooner than I thought - probably in less than a week. Naturally, I’ll announce it here when it happens.
This blog has, recently, been described as having an ”anti-religion bias”.
While I disagree that “bias” is the correct term, I feel I must address this.
The dictionary definition of “bias” is: “a particular tendency or inclination, esp. one that prevents unprejudiced consideration of a question; prejudice.”
Is that the case here? I think not.
Yes, I’m an atheist. And not just because I felt like it, or because I wanted to “rebel”, or anything like that. I’m an atheist because I thought about it. Both atheism and religion are subjects that interest me, so it’s natural that I write a lot about them. Some commenters have, indeed, complained that this site has turned into “all atheism, all the time”. I’ve tried to write some posts about other subjects, but I can’t be condemned for writing, most of the time, about what I currently want to write about.
About the “bias” thing, let’s consider a different situation. Instead of being a Portuguese blogger in 2006, imagine I was an American writer for a newspaper, in 1800. Slavery, then, was still considered accepted and “normal”. I, however, was repulsed by it, and while the newspaper I wrote for wasn’t about slavery, most of my articles were. It was a subject that concerned me, and I wrote about how wrong it was, often. I denounced several particular situations I observed, argued about why slavery was wrong, and refuted pro-slavery arguments.
It’s quite likely, in that situation, that I, as a writer, would be accused of an “anti-slavery bias“. But how is such a “bias” different from having an opinion, a strong, considered one, and sticking to it? Should I be writing some pro-slavery articles as well, to maintain the “balance”? I don’t think so. Slavery was wrong, even if society didn’t see it; slaves are as human as myself or anyone else, and have the same capacity for both suffering and joy. Treating them as cattle, as property, as pieces of equipment is wrong - and I’d say it, even if it annoyed people. After all, anyone who though slavery was a good thing could always just read another newspaper.
I think the situation here, concerning religion, is similar. And, yes, I hope that some day religion will go the way of slavery, though I don’t expect it to happen in my lifetime.
Am I “biased”? No. I simply have a strong opinion about the matter, and my writing reflects it. I won’t do any kind of self-censorship. If my anti-religion posts annoy you, you can always stop reading and move on to the next post as soon as you see the “atheism“, “religion” or “christianity” categories.
Because I won’t stop speaking my mind. Sorry.
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