Atheist Digest is rumbling to the finish line. It has been a very interesting ride, and there are still a couple more bumps along the way. I wanted to drop a quick diary to let people know the reasons why two scheduled diaries (Tuesday and Today) were not posted, as well as inform everyone to expect the conclusion diary on Saturday Evening.
First off, Tuesday was scheduled to be the post date to a diary that was missed earlier in the series. Something the Dog Said was to write a diary on the history of religion from the Atheist perspective, emphasizing the sociology of organized religion. After a discussion with the Dog, we decided to scrap the diary because it was determined that, no matter how well written, it was likely to be seen as inflammatory by some, and counter to the tone we have tried to establish for this series.
Today’s diary, which was to be a post of Chicagoa’s missed diary on Cosmology, was missed due to a personal time deficit by the diarist but will be posted sometime in the near future. As soon as he can find time to post and stick around the diary Chicago will surprise you with this diary as a post script to the series. Keep your eyes out for it.
I’m working on an ambitious list of content for the series conclusion diary, which I plan to post around 7 PM PST this Saturday (August 29th). For anyone out there that has been a fairly regular participant of this series (commenters and diarists alike) I would love to have a little blurb from you about why you choose to engage in the series and what you have personally enjoyed the most about it. Please email me in the next couple days if you would like to have a small personal statement put into the finale.
Saturday’s diary will hopefully include:
A full list including links to all the diaries in the series save perhaps Chicagoa’s last diary.
Links to some of the better comment threads (as judged by me or suggested by series regulars)
My final thoughts on each diary that was published
Some stats about commenters (kind of like ‘Mojo Friday’ post game) (though I may not have time for this)
And of course I will write a little bit about the diary topic "Why We Care so Much" including a discussion about why I set out to create the series and why I think it’s important.
Here's a review of the schedule as it stands:
Sunday Aug 2nd – Introduction by your MC: (XNeeOhCon)(reposted by Chicagoa due to technical difficulties)
About the series, a schedule of events, and a topic overview for each coming diary. We discussed the idea of ‘militant’ atheism vs. ‘live and let live’ atheism, in the context of a discussion about the reason for the diary series (That being informative and entertaining, not proselytizing).
Tuesday August 4th – Topic 1 – Semantics – (Chicagoa)
We need to establish that without common definitions of key terms these conversations can spiral out of control with long tangent threads of people flaming each other the meaning of just one word. That is what we hope to accomplish in this diary. We need to have everyone understand the definitions we are working with, why we define these things in that way, and that it’s okay to disagree with our definitions, but everyone needs to understand them if they are to focus on the nuts and bolts of the debate. (Some may feel that semantics ARE the nuts and bolts, but that would be semantics ;-)
Key words defined in this section:
*Atheist/Theist (fun with prefixes ‘A-’ and ‘Anti-’)
*Agnostic/Gnostic
*Spirituality vs. religion
*Scientific Method/Science
Thursday August 6th – Topic 2 – Belief– (Something the dog said)
We need to discuss the fallacy that Atheism is a belief that requires faith. Several of us have tried to tackle this one, and it is most certainly daunting, but we need to focus just on the frames people view the debate from, and how they shape their opinions in this debate. This picks up where our discussion of semantics leaves off.
Sunday August 9th – Topic 3 – Science, and Scientific Method - (Rfall)
There are a lot of people misinformed about this. Scientific method is often spoken of as something people have ‘faith’ in (again, a clever attempt to draw false equivalence between science and religion). We will attempt to clearly establish that science is a method and not a belief. Science is always in search of new information to expand and refine existing knowledge, as opposed to the religious impulse to prove that knowledge is finite so we therefore must rely on faith in some version of the unknowable to fulfill us.
Thursday August 13th – Topic 4 – Evolution – (Rfall)
We probably won’t get a lot of arguments about the validity of evolution from the Daily Kos community. However we need to discuss evolution in the context of scientific method, emphasizing the consensus between different fields of science, and the real meaning of the word ‘theory.’ Also, we’ll add a little about creationism in schools, the Kitzmiller v. Dover school board controversy in ’05, and the creationist museum.
Sunday August 16th – Topic 5 – Common Arguments and Misconceptions about Atheists - (Superbowl XX)
We run into some of these pretty frequently. A big one we need to discuss is "morality comes from religion." Another we must tackle is the "U.S. was founded by Christians/based on Christian principles" myth. We are reassuring Christians that we are not out to ‘get’ them and eat their babies, and discussing why we even need to reassure them. We will address irrational fears that Christianity is somehow being oppressed by ‘militant secularists’ and the gays.
Thursday August 20th – Topic 6 – The Other Side of the Fence: Faith and Spirituality, (Rebuttal?) - (Colorado is the Shiznit)
Colorado is the Shiznit will lead the charge on this one, because the rest of us aren’t really qualified. We would like to have some discussion on what benefits many feel they get from faith and/or spirituality, and why they hold these beliefs. We would also like to get some kind of survey of religion/spiritual people’s perspective of Atheism/Atheists.
Sunday August 23rd - Topic 7 - Growing up Atheist - (WarrenS)
WarrenS talks about growing up in a family of atheists (all right, grandparents on one side were churchgoers, but that's it). How did his parents (both scientists) teach morality and ethics? How did growing up atheist affect his relationships with religions and religious organizations? How did it affect his relationships with religious people? Now that he has a child of his own, how will he approach these questions? Expect lots of stories and thought-provoking digressions in this one.
Saturday August 29th - Conclusion: ‘Why We Care So Much’ - (XNeeOhCon, with input from all)
This one is pretty simple, but needs more attention. We need to make everyone see why we are so ‘obsessed’ with religion and what it really means to be Atheist in the United States. Within this section we will restate why we felt like participating in this series, and what we hoped to accomplish. We’ll try to tie up as many loose ends as possible and we will get some brief concluding statements from any of those who participated that would like to submit them.
Date and Time TBD – Topic 8 – Creation, Cosmology, Deism, and the Space-Time Continuum. - (Chicagoa)
Chicagoa: This will be "a diary on cosmology - physics, logic, and theory - to explain to the haughty deists why we don't accept their First Cause or Kalam Cosmological arguments for the existence of a non-interventionist designer deity." This will possibly include a discussion of the philosophy of infinite/finite time and space, and explore the common misperceptions of Einstein’s and Hawking’s views of "God."