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| Carnival of the Godless #26 . Welcome! |
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| Saturday, October 29, 2005 |
 It is a honor and a pleasure to host the 26th edition of the Carnival of the Godless. The Common Man passed the baton, and I didn't drop it (whew). As always, thank you Brent at UTI for providing a meeting place where we heathens can hang out and not freeze our butts off (or roast for eternity).
For my regular visitors: I hope the halloween colors caused a bit of cognitive dissonace. But seriously, do I look good in black? Does the orange clash with my eyes? Am I really a 'summer' who looks better in burgundy? Enough seriousness, let's get on with the show...
Our first submission comes from the Dust-off-the-old-philosopher department at The Lippard Blog. Here Einzige shares with us the views of Max Stirner, (aka Johann Caspar Schmidt). Stirner, an early 19th century skeptic, lowers the idea of God (or just about anything we "believe in") to spook with a cranky notion that controls us. Hmm, spooks on Halloween, now that's a twist.
Our next entry from the Woes-of-business-travel department is truly terrifying. Have you ever been seated in the middle seat on an airplane between two really obese people and had a toddler kicking the back of your seat? Well if you think that's bad, check out our friend HBR's story at Braving The Elements. He had to sit next to, gasp, a Prostelytizer Proselytizer. Fortunately, the plane crashed (just kidding about the plane crash). Actually he got to change seats but not before raising some eybrows and doubts. Way to go HBR. She was expecting "treat" and you gave her "trick."
I got shivers down my spine from our next contributor, Francois Tremblay at Goosing The Antithesis. Francois asks, Is christian morality harmonius? Once he gets through the rather dense beginning (at least to this slow mind), he makes a good case that "Christian Morality" is an oxymoron.
And now for something completly different and don't worry, you can uncover the kids' eyes. From the funny-science-writers department we get THE BESTEST, MOST KICK ASS, HUMAN GENOME PROJECT. While nothing to do with god and only a cameo appearence by Jesus near the end, David Ng at The Science Creative Quarterly gives a whole new meaning to the phrase, "sequencing of the stars."
From the Where-are-the-intelligent-in-intelligent-design department, comes a post from The Bad Astronomy Blog. You know the old saying, "you can't please all of the people all of the time?" Phil Plait does. Phil had a recent visitor get a bit miffed over his words on ID. Phil defends himself quite deftly.
More on ID. David Cowen over at Who Has Time for This, takes on ID and the non-secular nature of the press these days with his article, The United States of Almighty God David points out, among other things, that the press"...seemingly legitimizes the "school of thought" behind the "science" of intelligent design. This is precisely what churches love to see--Christian fable elevated to the same level of credibility as hard-earned scientifically proven theories." Speaking of costumes, Patrick Smith at Tiberius and Gaius Speaking... Dresses up for us this Halloween as a Strawman. Actually, he tears apart a common strawman presented by those who deny religion's role in war. Read it to the tune of, "If I only had a 'rational' Brain (In case this reference was too vague, in Wizard of Oz the straw man/scarecrow sings this song.)"
Admit it. How many of you were scared by the movie ET? My kids still won't watch it and they are young teens. But now I know why. Turns out Aliens are Irrational. The folks at Skeptico cite a recent report that suggests aliens believe in Jesus. Now how the heck did they learn that? Was it during near-death, out-of-body, alien abduction?
What do you do when the reaper comes to the door? Give him a Reeses Peanut Butter Cup and send him to the next house. (Insert rim shot here). The famous atheist Woody Allen said, "I don't mind dying. I just don't want to be there when it happens." I AM at The Evangelical Atheist echoes Woody's sentiments in his, Don't Fear the Reaper. Faced with a life threatening condition, I AM discusses dying in his usual high-quality prose. I'd offer to pray for I AM but I know it won't do any good (see point #5 after following this link). (Is it ok for me, an atheist to say, "I AM, I worship the blog you write on?")
From the new-idea-for-a-costume department, Kill the Afterlife's, Aaron Kinney gets a Christian Apologist all tied up in his underware. Read Christian apologist inadvertently supports my arguments. What do you call someone who has to apologize for an apologist? (I wish I had a good punchline for that question...)
Hank Fox at er.. um.. Hankfox.com draws a convincing analogy between soccer mobs (football for the purist) and fundamentalists. His piece, The Mob: I've always been curious, gets you to wonder what happens to rationality when the mob mentality kicks in.
Our final entry for the Halloweend halls of the COTG is not scary at all. In fact, it's fun. Fun that is if you're into poetry. Danieru at The Huge Entity introduces us to the Japanese word Mu and Mu Haiku. Haiku is a form of Japanese Poetry noted for its brevity and simplicity. The goal here is to come up with blasphemic (Is that a word?) haiku. I'm not much of a poet, but I took a shot at my own Mu Haiku. Poet laureate, here I come.
I found your god and Elvis drunk on tequila In a Vegas bar Submit your own Mu Haiku in the comments below. Just remember 3 lines, 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. The winning entrant will be exempted from hell fire.
As I turn off the porch light let's recap our visitors. Forgotten philosophers, business travelers, unintelligent designers, strawmen, jesus loving aliens, deathophobes, Christians in knotted underware, soccer mobs, and if those aren't strange enough, comical scientists, and burn-in-hell poets. Whew. I wish I could have given more but I ran out of candy. (Duh! That's why the porch light is off.)
Happy Halloween, don't eat the kids candy until after they go to bed, Thanks for visiting, and see you in two weeks at Pharyngula.
ARBooooo |
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| 12 Comments: |
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You are too kind.
Nice job with the carnival, by the way.
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Yes, excellent job with the carnival. Maybe one of these days I'll actually remember to submit material before the deadline!
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Let's look at the contributors for CotG:
Brent - guy
Einzige - guy
HBR - girl
Francois - guy
Phil Plait - guy
David - guy
Skeptico - guy (probably)
Aaron - guy
Daniel - guy
do you see anything wrong with this picture?
Is the imbalance due to the blogosphere, or due to something particular about atheism? If it's the former, fine. But what if it's the latter? What does it mean that we have lots of guys and few girls. Does this have anything to do with how we atheists are a tiny percentage of americans? Are we doomed to a small market share, or are we just doing something wrong? I'm going to cross post this at Pharyngula, because of the large audience size there, btw. If no one can convince me it's the former, I'll write this up into a broad essay about the problem, and possible solutions.
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What about eating the kids? May we eat them?
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Sorry Steve, hbr is a guy!
Real name Mark; gender is male; father of two girls (whom I do mention occasionally in posts).
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Oops, it was anonymous who left that message on gender. My apologies to Steve.
~Mark...hbr...who am I?
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All around me, faith.
And me without a single
Stinking bit of it.
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Here for perusal,
a selection of haikus.
Sadly, none are good.
I think the word is
blasphemous: spitting in god’s
face, if there was one.
This Haiku I wrote
makes much more sense to me than
anything by god.
For reason and truth,
read any of these haikus,
instead of scriptures.
When looking for gods,
pick the sun over the Son,
it is really bright.
A little bit of
sacrilege and blasphemy
can raise your spirits.
God can keep his gifts
and his glorious bounty,
except for the wine.
Son hangs on the cross,
a bloodthirsty Father cheers.
This is a good thing?
Writing these haikus
is so much fun, I can’t stop.
But work must be done.
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The word "prophet" means
"poet" if translated right
go write haiku my prophets.
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I am astounded. I am no religious, but I am not this way. It is the first time in my life that I have encountered such beings. I wonder where their destination is after living their lives here on earth.
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Haha that poem is "different"
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Links to my reviews.
You are too kind.
Nice job with the carnival, by the way.