Carnival of the Godless #147

The Carnival of the Godless #147 is up at Infallible Failure.

The next Carnival of the Godless

I'll be hosting the next (146th) Carnival of the Godless on August 15. You can submit entries using the submission form. The previous carnival can be found at Cubik's Rube.

The link to the submission guidelines is broken: from memory the guidelines are that articles from theists and nontheists alike are welcome, but articles should be about atheism, agnosticism or nontheism, and/or be of interest to a predominantly atheist/agnostic/nontheist audience. I can't speak for other hosts, but I myself will silently reject articles that don't meet these broad criteria, and think a few black thoughts about submitters who inconsiderately waste my editorial time with articles and spam of interest only to the religious.

Carnival of the Godless, No. 145

The Carnival of the Godly is up at Cubic's Rube, but it doesn't seem very godly to me.

Carnival of the Godless, No. 136 - Revolutionary Communist Edition!

Welcome to the 136th edition of Carnival of the Godless! I'm your host, Larry, militant atheist and (gasp!) revolutionary communist. Of course, atheists span the entire spectrum of political and economic beliefs and theories; we are united only in our rejection of religious bullshit, our humanistic values and our dedication to critical, rational examination of beliefs about reality. To my mind nothing could help communism and the liberation of all humanity more than critical, rational thought. We must subject all of our beliefs and preferences to the cold light of reason and the warm glow of humanism: concern for well-being of all humanity, indeed the well-being of the web of all life on Earth in which we are ineluctably embedded.

Guiding us in our exploration today will be our many and varied contributors. But first, a round of applause for our previous host Naon Tiotami of Homologous Legs. (Yay!) And not just a round but a sphere of applause for the guy who does all the dirty organizational work: J. Reed Braden, a.k.a. the Gaytheist! (Hip hip!)

Mel presents Growing Up Jewish - Sabbath Edition posted at BroadSnark. Mel describes the absurdity that results when an ordinary and useful practice (taking a day off) becomes irrationally fetishized and dogmatized.

Andrew Bernardin presents God Follows Morality posted at The Evolving Mind. Andrew discusses the relationship between God and morality and finds that morality created God, not the other way around, and argues in Unscientific Science that "spirituality" is too vague to be suitable for good scientific practice.

Arizona Atheist presents Christian Apologists Just Don't Understand Morality, Parts 1 & 2 posted at ARIZONA ATHEIST. Arizona Atheist presents "arguments against Christian apologists and their morality argument," and defends his claim as to the superiority of secular morality. (Part 2 is also available.)

Lamb presents Woman's Day Magazine Irks Me posted at Lamb Around. Lamb objects to bible verses in Women's Day magazine and offers a shocking suggestion about... lemons!

Melliferax presents Why I'm Not Agnostic posted at Melliferax. Melliferax refutes some arguments for why one should call oneself agnostic rather than atheist.

Cubik's Rube presents Why? posted at Cubik's Rube. Cubik talks about how the religious address the question of "Why?"

vjack presents Imposing Religion on Children is Abusive posted at Atheist Revolution. The title is pretty much self-explanatory.

DBB presents Raising Atheist Children in a Christian Nation - There are no Sunday Schools for Atheists posted at Disgusted Beyond Belief. DBB looks at the atheist side the child-raising question.

JesusFetusFajitaFishsticks presents Booger Eater posted at JesusFetusFajitaFishsticks. JFFF channels William S. Burroughs (or perhaps Hunter S. Thompson) in a surreal and entertaining dialog with a hypothetical religious believer.

Xauri'EL Zwaan presents The Lord is a Shepherd posted at After the Crash. Xauri'EL examines the sinister connotations of the eponymous concept.

marc presents How Many Gods? posted at desertscope. Marc challenges the premise that atheism is non-belief in "God", and explores the polytheism underlying supposed "monotheism".

Mathew Wilder presents Stand Up for Biblical Morality (TM)! posted at Protostellar Clouds. Mathew takes a satirical shot promoting morality based on the Bible.

Our next two entries, apparently from Christians, point us to new resources for Bible study on handheld devices. Many atheists are very interested in the Bible, and there is no shortage of not only professional but also very talented amateur atheist scholars of the Bible.

John Laugherton presents 25 Ways to Use the Kindle for Bible Study posted at bible college. "Why not lighten your load and use a Kindle for Bible studies? You can take notes, highlight passages, search for words and phrases and interact with scriptural text on a Kindle just as you would with a book or with your Bible."

Jasmine Smith presents 25 Essential Android Apps for Bible Study posted at Accredited Online Bible Colleges. Jasmine suggests that, "If you haven’t made Android your major mobile device, perhaps the following Bible study apps for may convince you to go that route."

DagoodS presents Women at Empty Tomb posted at Thoughts from a Sandwich. Dagood engages in a tour de force of biblical scholarship, identifying the literary technique of role-reversals pervasive in the Gospel of Mark (and incidentally blowing William Lane Craig's "argument from embarrassment" into next Tuesday). He also adds a defense of "militant" atheism contra philosopher Julian Baggini.

Romeo Vitelli presents Making a Prophet (Part 1) posted at Providentia Romeo starts a 3-part series on famous and not-so-famous prophets of history. (Part 2 is also available.)

Martin Rundkvist presents Pray and Get Rich posted at Aardvarchaeology. Martin uses "a really funny Chinese Buddha statue" as a springboard to criticize the Prosperity Gospel movement.

Ron Britton presents I Was Warned About the Catholic Church! posted at Bay of Fundie. How can you go wrong with Catholics and velociraptors!? Ron was warned, now you are too!

Tod presents Who Does Your Thinking? posted at A Blog by Tod. Tod asks, "Who Does Your Thinking?" and challenges you to examine your beliefs in many areas of life where the common wisdom prevails, including religion. (And perhaps capitalism and the myth of the "free market" as well?)

Mariana Ashley presents 100 Amazing Scientists You Should Follow on Twitter posted at AccreditedOnlineColleges.org. Yes indeed: 100 scientists, all amazing. Chemistry, biology, astronomy, neuroscience, environmental science, earth science, medicine and microbiology, and general Science, are represented here.

Jason presents 1619: Lucilio Vanini, aka Giulio Cesare posted at Executed Today. Jason describes the torture and execution of a 17th century freethinker.

That concludes this edition. Thanks for joining us, and many thanks to all of the contributors for making this the Best. Edition. Ever. of Carnival of the Godless (until the next one!).

Stay tuned for the next edition, scheduled for March 14, 2010, hosted by Melliferax, "a beekeeper, an atheist, an oxymoronically opinionated Swede, and a biology geek. Among other things."

You can submit your blog article to the next edition of carnival of the godless using our carnival submission form.

Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

carnival of the godless, blog carnival.

Submissions for Carnival of the Godless

I will be hosting the Carnival of the Godless #136 on February 28th. The previous edition is up at Homologous Legs.

If any of my readers are not aware of this carnival (I haven't participated in a while), it's a great place to get your writing in front of a large audience of atheists, agnostics, skeptics, secularists and even some religious believers.

I would like to strongly encourage my readers to consider making a submission. You don't even have to be an atheist; according to the guidelines,

There are plenty of theists who blog from a godless perspective. We welcome their posts. We will even consider posts criticizing godlessness in general, or atheism in particular. We recognize that there are some damned interesting theists out there who will have written relevant posts.

I'd like to make this the Best. Edition. Ever.

Carnival of the elitist bastards

Carnival of the Elitist Bastards, Act I, Scene iv

I'm enjoying this carnival more and more.

Carnival of the Godless #99

Carnival of the Godless #99

Carnival of the Godless #98

Although I'm no longer submitting posts, I'm still promoting it: the 98th Carnival of the Godless is up at Letters from a broad...

Carnival of the Godless #97

The 97th Carnival of the Godless is up at Kieran’s Commentary.

And I have to harrumph a bit. It's the first time I've submitted a post and had it rejected. Apparently CotG is developing actual standards, which is not good news for me.

Carnival of the Godless #96

The 96th Carnival of the Godless is up at Sean the Blogonaut.

Carnival of the Godless #95

The 95th Carnival of the Godless is up at The Atheist Blogger.

Carnival of the Godless #94

The 94th Carnival of the Godless is up at Earthman’s Notebook.

Carnivals

I ordinarily submit an article to each Carnival of the Godless. I don't presently submit any of my work to other carnivals. If you think any of my articles would be appropriate for some carnival, please feel free to submit it without further permission. It would be nice if you posted a comment on the article so I can have the pleasure of seeing my work published.

The Atheist Thirteen

I've been tagged by Chicken Girl and Friar Zero. I also just installed Windows Live Writer, so we'll see how that goes.

Q1. How would you define “atheism”?

An atheist is someone who does not believe that any god, i.e. a being with supernatural attributes exists in reality. Many religious people seem to say that they do not believe that god "exists", but this interpretation seems usually to turn on a very restrictive interpretation of "exists".

Q2. Was your upbringing religious? If so, what tradition?

I was raised more-or-less as a Quaker. There's very little to distinguish how Quakers view "god" from the way rational people view their own personal conscience. Other than shared notions of nonviolence, pacifism and universal humanism, Quakers -- at least those I've met -- require no other endorsements of belief or faith.

Q3. How would you describe “Intelligent Design”, using only one word?

Stupid.

Q4. What scientific endeavor really excites you?

Artificial Intelligence.

Q5. If you could change one thing about the “atheist community”, what would it be and why?

Nothing. The atheist community is completely self-selected, and each person brings his or her individual judgment and conscience to the table, whether or not I personally agree with that judgment.

Q6. If your child came up to you and said “I’m joining the clergy”, what would be your first response?

"I hope that works out well for you."

Q7. What’s your favorite theistic argument, and how do you usually refute it?

Fine Tuning. The refutation requires a non-trivial understanding of the metaphysics of probability. I love this sort of esoteric shit.

Q8. What’s your most “controversial” (as far as general attitudes amongst other atheists goes) viewpoint?

I'm very critical of even the smallest sort of appeasement of the religious. I'm also becoming interested in communism and socialism. And Randians and Libertarians annoy the shit out of me.

Q9. Of the “Four Horsemen” (Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris) who is your favourite, and why?

Dennett. He's one of the few philosophers who is not only not a complete doofus, but actually very intelligent and clear-minded, and he writes clearly and succinctly.

Q10. If you could convince just one theistic person to abandon their beliefs, who would it be?

It's not my job to convince other people. I just say what I think. If you're convinced or not convinced, that's your issue, not mine.

Now name three other atheist blogs that you’d like to see take up the Atheist Thirteen gauntlet:

• The Apostate
• James F. Elliott
• Saoirse

P.S. Windows Live Writer appears to be working well.

Back-tagging: Bacchus Veritas and Geoff Arnold

Carnival of the Godless #93

The 93^rd Carnival of the Godless is up at Disillusioned Words.

Philosophers’ Carnival #70

Apparently, someone submitted my article on modal logic to the 70th edition of the Philosophers’ Carnival at Big Ideas.

Carnival of the Godless #92

Carnival of the Godless #92 is up at Jyunri Kankei.

Carnival of the Godless #91

Carnival of the Godless #91 is up at State of Protest.

Carnival of the Godless #90

Oh, and Carnival of the Godless #90 is up at No More Mr. Nice Guy.

Carnival of the Godless #89

Carnival of the Godless #89 is up at Rational Response Squad.