The end is nigh
I just wanted to share something with you. I've been thinking for some time of abandoning this blog. Actually, I've been thinking about it since before I even started. I'll explain.
One of the main reasons I wanted to write about religion was to encourage others to give it up. Whilst I don't regret anything I have written on this blog I do recognise that some of my less polite posts piss people off and send them running long before I've had a chance to share some valuable ideas. I have been told and I've considered that some of my posts are too harsh, too rude or just to damn offensive. I've written about this before and I absolutely do reserve the right and agree with the act of insulting religions because I think a service is performed by ridicule. But the styles don't mix very well, or at least the brash style doesn't mix well with the more inviting tone I've found to be more successful using this and other identities commenting on other blogs.
I've been laying the ground work for a new site. I've bought a domain, acquired hosting, developed the database and the application and even written around 100 pages of content for it (mostly coming from the book I threatened to write - and have been writing) and I'm getting close to the point where I think I will launch. I intend to strip some of the content from this blog and rewrite it to some degree for the new site which is a more earnest attempt at reaching out to theists and saying "Hey, let's have a friendly chat and see where that leads". And so it seems to me that the only reasonable thing to do is to shut this one down. I would expect to do this approximately one month from now (it may be a little longer).
I will not be posting any links to the new site and I'd ask you, if you stumble across it and recognise me, not to point out the connection. I really want to make an attempt to connect with theists and change their minds. That will be damaged if they trace me back to here - back to such beauties as my Fuck Islam campaign and the numerous insults I've flung at Muslims, Christians and everyone else with a belief in the stupid.
I'd guess the easiest way to put it is that I've developed a sense of the political, the diplomatic. I've come to realise that if I really want to make a difference instead of just talk to my own crowd that I have to engage with them in a way that doesn't scare them off, piss them off or otherwise cause them to flee before I've had chance to make a few good points.
I'll keep posting until then because I find it hard to go for too long without spilling out some blab about something or other. And you are welcome to email me (choose doubt [at] g mail \.\ com) if you'd like to take some of my posts and repost them on your blog.
I would keep this blog going for the less polite side of things, but since I will reuse some content it seems best to shut it down. So, I'll give one week notice before I delete the lot.
Cheers to you all,
CD
If you enjoyed this article please feel free to digg it down below.
6 comments:
Bummer. I just found your site and I enjoy your style. Maybe you can slip me your new web address on the QT. ;)
I was going to link to your superstition post of a week or so ago. I guess I'll need to do that some other way.
Anyhow, I applaud your decision to create an in-depth content site for theists to explore. It was finding a lot of information online through infidels.org (?) and daylight atheism/ebon musings among others that contributed to my own transition to atheism. It really does have a significant impact, at least on some segment of the population.
(May I suggest black type on white pages? Those of us who spend too much of our lives reading don't see so well.)
Best of luck to you. Seems a rather futile effort though. Theists don't believe because of reasoning, they believe in spite of reasoning.
Sacred Slut,
I'll pass you the link and there'll be a lot more on superstition on the new site. I'm also glad to get your approval. I've been lurking on your blog and I've learned a few things.
Anonymous, thanks. I'm not so sure it is futile. I've had quite a few successes IRL. I deconverted my mother amongst others and my personal favourite was the deconversion of a Muslim who was so furious at first that he was screaming about beheading me and he and his friends grabbed me in a dark alley one night for a little "debate". From that he's now moved onto admitting that there almost certainly is no god and the koran is nonsense. Persistence with reason works - it just takes time. People have their whole lives of certainty to overcome and some of the concepts involved, like critical thinking and logic, are completely new to most people. The problem is that you don't get time on a blog if your visitors are insulted immediately and never return. You need to keep with them long enough for them to realise that you're a pretty decent person and after that leave time for arguments to accumulate and sink in. No one wants to listen to an enemy. I'll give a change of tactics a try.
Although it's standard wisdom that theists believe in spite of reasoning, I'm not sure that's true. At least that was not exactly my own experience. I think I just didn't apply reason at all in the case of religion. Once I started to actually study the religion and think about it at any length, then I began to think rationally. I began to analyze what I was being told and that was the beginning of the end.
"grabbed you in a dark alley?" Yeow!
Hi,
Very happy to hear about your deconversions!
Personally I have no experience in that area. I work with a Pentacostal. To me he seems insane. Whenever the topic is broached he just leaves the room.
Learning from your work,
Mitchbert
NO!! I found your site today and I like it. Can you please email me your new URL? Please, please, please, pleeease? :p
Send it to: aanvo07@gmail.com
Post a Comment