Posted by johnnykaje on January 26, 2012 at 9:49 pm
You can adopt an atheist too! For just a measly $14.50 an hour!
Bill Donahue, spurred on by David Silverman’s Skepticon talk, has an idea to win potential Christians aware from the freethought base- the Adopt an Atheist campaign.
Here’s what our campaign entails. We are asking everyone to contact the American Atheist affiliate in his area [click here], letting them know of your interest in “adopting” one of them. All it
takes is an e-mail. Let them know of your sincere interest in working with them to uncover their inner self. They may be resistant at first, but eventually they may come to understand that they were Christian all along.
I don’t know if he expected atheists to call his bluff, but we sure did. JT Eberhard has even provided contact information and has offered himself for adoption.
I propose that those of us Joplin Freethinkers who are interested, join in and do the same. I’m crafting an ad right now.
ADOPT ME
This is Karley. She’s a 25-year-old unspayed Redheaded Feminazi/Atheist mix. Housebroken, energetic, not good with small children.
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Posted by johnnykaje on December 7, 2011 at 8:50 am
(Crossposted at Kajed Heat)
This is an embarrassing comic, and not just because of the shitty Photoshop filters. It also exposes a nasty little secret of mine. I hastily drew this when I was in college to convey what social anxiety is like. It’s basically like every moment of your life, with few exceptions, is a job interview where the potential employer, receptionist and janitor are giving you the stinkeye the whole time. Also you’re onstage at the Apollo. The whole time.
“Interesting, if TMI disclosure about your mental illness. Now what does this have to do with Skepticon?”, you ask.
Yeah, I’m not going to do slides of my trip to Skepticville after all. Sorry. Just going to talk about feelings and such.
I attended Skepticon for the creation museum field trip on Friday, and the first day of talks. And I had personal goals to accomplish:
- Give out business cards (say, have you visited my store? It’s ace, and skeptic friendly!)
- Make friends and don’t be an avoidant dope. I refer to this constantly as “schmoozing,” to make it sound less like a basic skill most normal people have and more like X-treme Advanced Socializing for the Master Social Engineer. Please bear with me. It’s my insecurity talking.
There were many high points, schmoozing-wise, at Skepticon, such as getting the nerve to chat with Joe Nickell and sending him on a wild Strafford chupacabra hunt (I hope it went well). I even got on that little video I posted previously. But you can’t force your brain to rewire, otherwise ex-gay therapy would work.
The hardest part was when I got myself invited to a secret dinner with some of the headliners. (Long story, but the short version: I just happened to have a car with empty seats at the right time). I drove some people to the location, and we were all gunning to go to this place, and we arrive and get some drinks…
And my brain completely shuts down. I should divulge my typical reaction to meeting up with someone I know peripherally.
Me: Oh hey! I know you! You’re that person I know off the internet!
Person I Know Off the Internet: Oh, hello!
Me: *CATASTROPHIC SOFTWARE FAILURE*
I then resort to pathetic attempts at tedious small talk, and hover around in the hopes that they will learn to love me via osmosis. This reaction I have doesn’t just apply to e-celebrities, but also anyone that I have met on Facebook or Twitter or e-mail. I want to leave, but I can’t. I just shut down and stew in an effort not to cry.
What’s ironic is that at this dinner I was sitting next to JT Eberhard. If only I had known. But his speech is Sunday evening. I go home Saturday.
—————–
On Thanksgiving night after Skepticon, I have a breakdown. It’s not unusual, but this is the first one I’ve had in front of my boyfriend. I didn’t want him to ever see this, but it was inevitable. That may be part of the reason I’ve never had a significant other until a few years after college.
I just goofed up big at my onstage-at-the-Apollo job interview. Here it comes, whatever “it” is.
It doesn’t come. One of the perks of having an awesome boyfriend is that he doesn’t tell you “you need to just get out more.” Don’t have to stew in silence anymore on that front.
Afterwards I notice JT’s talk is up on the internet. Me and the BF watch it together.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UI-YvrHZVvk]
I tell the BF. “I’m crazy.”
I hear something I didn’t expect. “I’m crazy too.”
More crying, only it’s happy crying now. The imaginary Apollo audience goes “awwwww,” the imaginary receptionist averts her eyes and looks ashamed.
Skeptics know more than most how the human brain can betray you. They should take up JT’s word and start championing understanding of mental illness. Next year, I will not try to stew in silence. Who knows who else is trying to do the same thing you are.
I have social anxiety disorder.
I’m crazy. You might be crazy too.
And that’s OK.
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Posted by Doubting on November 22, 2011 at 1:27 pm
There’s no question that Skepticon 4 was worth attending. As with Skepticon 3, we had the pleasure of hearing talks by Dan Barker, Greta Christina, PZ Myers, Sam Singleton, Joe Nickell, David Fitzgerald, and others. My two favorites this year were Dan Barker and Greta Christina. Christina’s talk on why atheists are so angry was so good that it would make for an excellent video night presentation for the group. I, for one, would love to see it again. It’s one of those speeches with so much packed into it that you can’t remember half of it, but you know it was all good. Of course, any of the other talks would be suitable for a group viewing as well, but in my humble opinion, Greta’s was top-notch.
Singleton, I feel, is also worthy of honorable mention. His sermon on “Giving Thanks” was both timely as Thanksgiving was fast approaching, and right. As he pointed out in his message, any gratitude on the part of Jesus is sorely lacking in the Gospels. I must confess, I had not noticed that before. Despite being an atheist evangelist who is primarily a comedian, he delivered a genuine message in his sermon.
Those who know me, and who attended this year, will not be surprised to learn that I could not disagree more with David Silverman, whom I consider to be very dogmatic and unenlightened. In his talk,
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Posted by Doubting on July 28, 2011 at 12:08 am
Begging the question is a fallacy of reasoning in which the proponent of a claim presents an argument for that claim, but implicit throughout the argument is the assumption of the claim itself. In short, to beg the question is to assume what one is trying to prove. But a mere assumption by itself is not a legitimate argument, let alone a proof. Question-begging can be very hard to spot, the longer and more complex an argument is. But the principle is the same. It occurs when an argument justifies a particular claim on the basis of reason A, which is justified on the basis of reason B, which is justified on the basis of reason C, and so on, . . . , which is justified on the basis of reason X, which is justified on the basis of the original claim. For this reason, question-begging is also sometimes called circular reasoning.
1. The Bible is the infallible word of God.
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Posted by Doubting on July 22, 2011 at 2:50 pm
An ad hominem (“to the man”) attack is a fallacy of reasoning in which a proponent tries to support one side of an issue by criticizing his/her opponent for something having nothing to do with the issue at hand. It is sort of the opposite of an appeal to authority. The appeal to authority fallacy involves accepting a claim made by someone simply because he/she is deemed praiseworthy for reasons unrelated to the claim. An ad hominem attack involves rejecting a claim made by someone simply because he/she is deemed untrustworthy for reasons unrelated to the claim. Because these reasons are unrelated to the claim, the ad hominem attack has no bearing on the issue at hand, and is rightly considered a fallacy.
Example: “I am so disgusted with the NRA and all the other gun rights supporters. They’re all just a bunch of
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Posted by Doubting on July 7, 2011 at 12:00 am
Appeal to majority is a common fallacy of reasoning in which the proponent of a claim tries to justify it by pointing out that the claim is commonly believed or is popular. It is also known as the bandwagon fallacy. The faulty assumption is that if the majority of people favor something, then it must be true, or likely to be true, or rational to accept, or worth supporting, etc. However, none of this follows from the popularity of an opinion.
The appeal to majority is very common in
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Posted by Doubting on June 23, 2011 at 9:19 pm
Appeal to authority is a logical fallacy in which the proponent argues for a claim by pointing out that a particular person of prominent status endorses it. The reason this is a fallacy is that there is no guarantee, and often no real probability, that the person in question is right.
In its most extreme form, the appeal to
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Posted by Doubting on June 16, 2011 at 10:35 pm
In algebra, letters are used to stand for numbers. In logic, letters are used to stand for propositions (statements) which have truth values, that is, are either true or false. P and Q are conventional letters to use. So we’ll use them to stand for any (true or false) statements we like.
A conditional is an “If, then” statement. It is any statement of the form, “If P, then Q.” Here are some examples:
If Pierre is in Paris, then Pierre is in France.
If it is raining, then the ground is wet.
If my car battery is dead, then my car won’t start.
All the above statements are conditionals, because they have the same form,
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