I always liked this song from an atheist band – XTC
“The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead“
Peter Pumpkinhead came to town
Spreading wisdom and cash around
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This Is NOT An April Fools Post
Seems like a lot of bloggers are posting April Fools Jokes today, because April Fools Day is one of the sacred holidays of Atheism, having no reference whatsoever to the divine, supernatural or religious (even though this year it falls on Palm Sunday). It’s a completely secular holiday. Most of the posts on Freethought Blogs are of the “my fellow atheist blogger X has decided to hang it up, and stop blogging ” variety. I have to think this was a planned strategy. (D’uh).
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# 475
Every once in awhile I check under the old WordPress dashboard to see what I’ve been doing. This here post is number 475, and falls a bit shy of the end of my fifth year of blogging. By the time I get to that particular anniversary (April 18), I hope to have received about 450,000 visits to the blog. I think that’s a lot, but in comparison to others, maybe not so much. Considering that about 425,000 are probably visits from Gideon, maybe I shouldn’t be so proud. 
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I’m Not An Atheist
Well, technically, that’s not true. What I’m trying to say is that atheism is just one small component of what I am, what describes my worldview, my personal philosophy, my attitude towards life and how I now choose to live it. A better word, one more encompassing, though a bit verbose, would be ASUPERNATURALIST. I don’t believe in the idea, the concept of the supernatural.
Why?
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Required Headgear
I spent so many years thinking all these silly vestments, and hats, and rituals, and incense and ringing bells and holy days all meant something. But it’s all just a way to make the flock feel like there is some significance to the equally silly pretensions underlying all religion. It’s just an elaborate smokescreen to paint a veneer of respectability over a much more insidious process happening outside our view.
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I Get Searches
Every once in awhile I dig beneath the Dashboard of this blog to see what kind of interests the people have who show up here. March 9 was the day I checked for this post. Below is a list of all the searches that link to this blog.
Now some of them I can understand. All the searches for variations on the “atheist billboard” theme are explained by my last two posts. And of course anything with “spanish” (even if spelled incorrectly – go go Google!) or “inquisitor” in the search would show a link to this location. The “venus fly trap” inquiries are also obvious.
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A Response
I wrote a response to this comment on my last post, but it got so long, I thought it would make better sense to make a separate post out of it. SG suggested I read the comments on this post at Pharyngula, so I did.
_____________________♥
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A Broad Spectrum Of Disbelief
Here’s something that’s been bugging me, so allow me a little rant.
It seems like every time an atheist makes a comment about some aspect of religion that bugs them, they are quite forcefully and specifically told to shut up. Religion is not a topic one is supposed to discuss in polite company (along with politics and sex, and we know how often that rule is broken). Atheists are made to feel like every time they criticize theism, they are stepping over some boundary of propriety. Due to my upbringing, I often find myself gauging the sensibilities of my listener to see if I might offend them, but I notice that never does a Christian (I don’t have much contacts with Hindus, Muslims and members of other religions) stop and think before they “thank god” or “god bless me” or otherwise inject their religious beliefs into a conversation.
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For Shits And Giggles
Best Freudian slip ever.
although, in all fairness, this is what was intended. Continue reading
A Difference Of Degree?
You may or may not be aware of the recent clashes the Taliban influenced populace of Afghanistan has had with authorities over the inadvertent and unintentional disposal of a few Qu’rans, resulting in daily protests, suicide bombings and other violence. All over some janitor burning a few books that were probably in the way. I often wonder how this actually can seem to be so horrendous to the protestors that they would resort to such extreme measures to voice their discontent. I can’t imagine getting that upset over the loss of a book.
