I was reading PZ Myers’s blog today, and I found out that he has been nominated for several blog awards. One of those awards is for the Best Religion Blog, and he seems a bit confused about that. He says:
I’ve been nominated for what?
OK, what is this thing? I’ve been nominated for Best Blog About Stuff, which is OK, but then…Best Celebrity Blogger? Somebody has a very slack definition of “celebrity”. Then there’s Best Religion Blogger — this is an atheist blog…
I am not sure why PZ is confused. He seems to think that his blog shouldn’t be characterized as a “religious” blog because he happens to be an atheist. This, of course, is nonsense. While I know some atheists who are not religious, PZ is most certainly a very, very religious man. Thus, I am not surprised that he has been nominated for the honor of Best Religion Blogger.
There is an excellent post on David Sloan Wilson’s blog called “Atheism as a Stealth Religion.” The author, Erin Johnson (an atheist), demonstrates quite clearly that while many atheists might not be religious, the “New Atheists” most certainly are. As he states so eloquently:
How about the new atheism of our day? I wish I could report otherwise, but it has all the hallmarks of a stealth religion, including a polarized belief system that represents everything as good, good, good or bad, bad, bad (“how religion poisons everything”), the unquestioned authority of its leaders, and even the portrayal of bad ideas as like demons (parasitic memes) that need to be cast out (“breaking the spell”).
All you have to do is read PZ’s website to see how aptly this describes him. In his view, any kind of religion is just bad, bad, bad. Indeed, he even takes other atheists to task for making the rather simple claim that atheists should be nice to religious people. That kind of black-and-white thinking is exactly the thinking employed by religious fundamentalists, and it is one of the reasons I enjoy reading his blog. He continually reveals the parallels between the “New Atheists” and the Christian fundamentalists they hate so much.
So PZ’s blog certainly belongs on a list of religion blogs, and I am glad to have found it there. I was also glad that PZ posted the link, because it led me to a very interesting blog of which I was unaware: The Curt Jester. The author of this blog is, like myself, an atheist-turned-Christian. His posts are humorous and insightful. Even though I am not a Roman Catholic, I expect I will be visiting his blog from time to time.
Speaking of Roman Catholics, the leading blog right now is WDTPRS, and the author describes it as “Slavishly accurate liturgical translations & frank commentary on Catholic issues.” Interestingly enough, as of 2:16 PM Eastern today, four of the top ten blogs were those of Roman Catholics. Even though no Protestant blogs were in the top ten (I guess we just aren’t very interesting!), this made Christianity the most-represent religion in the top ten. While I don’t think that means anything in particular, I found it interesting.
So in the end, the top ten Religion Bloggers at 2:16 PM Eastern were composed of:
4 Roman Catholics
2 Atheists
1 follower of Bhagwan Sri Sathya Baba
1 follower of Shirdi Sai Baba
1 Gay Mormon (wow!)
1 orthodox Jew
Now that’s a really interesting mix! Isn’t the internet a wonderful thing?
Rather than agree with an inane post stating atheists are religious (and what exactly does that prove?), shouldn’t you be strongly disagreeing with the characterization of religion:
“a polarized belief system that represents everything as good, good, good or bad, bad, bad, the unquestioned authority of its leaders, and even the portrayal of bad ideas as like demons that need to be cast out.”
I mean do you think anybody really cares that you call Dawkins et al. the High Priests of whatever? If anything, it shows how lowly you regard actual priests (or pastors).
BTW, PZ has an entire category of Pointless Polls. Blowing up a poll even has a verb: pharyngulate. It simply a common joke on the site to ruin web polls because his reading audience is enormous.
PS, I ended a recent post of my own with the exact same sentiment as you. At the asterisk. Different topic, however.
Once again, Shooter, you need to actually read what you comment on. I specifically DID NOT say that atheists are religious, and the article I linked to also said no such thing. In fact, we both say (because the evidence supports the fact) that SOME atheists are religious. Other atheists are not.
>shouldn’t you be strongly disagreeing with the characterization of religion
No. Actually, it is an accurate characterization of religion.
>I mean do you think anybody really cares that you call Dawkins et al.
>the High Priests of whatever?
You clearly do. It seems to bug the heck out of you. In any event, I call them like I see them, regardless of what people think.
>If anything, it shows how lowly you regard actual priests (or pastors).
Once again, you need to actually think about the things you write. This says nothing about how I regard priests or pastors. It says everything about what I think of people who rely on the argument from authority. A “high priest” might always say things that are 100% true. That “high priest” would be admirable, indeed. However, even if everything he says is always true, to believe in what he says simply because he says it is the height of intellectual laziness. Thus, it is not the “high priests” who I think are useless. The useless people are those who follow what the “high priests” say without investigating things for themselves.
>BTW, PZ has an entire category of Pointless Polls. Blowing
>up a poll even has a verb: pharyngulate. It simply a
>common joke on the site to ruin web polls because
>his reading audience is enormous.
Do you think I don’t know that? I am a regular reader of his. My point has nothing to do with whether or not a poll is reliable. It has to do with PZ not being able to think clearly enough to understand that he is the epitome of a religious person.
>PS, I ended a recent post of my own with the exact same sentiment as you.
Actually, you did not. Like usual, you think something is wonderful when you agree with it, and you think it is terrible when you disagree with it. Thus, your “What a wonderful world wide web!” really just says, “See! I can find things that agree with me! That makes me feel good!” My sentiment was just the opposite. I disagree to some extent with all the blogs listed, and I disagree with most of them an enormous amount. Thus, the internet is wonderful specifically because it has diverse opinions, many of which I disagree with. That’s not at all what you were saying, but then again, I wouldn’t expect you to say anything that reasonable.