Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Sarah on September 22, 2008 at 6:33pm

I've done the same thing. Started a new blog when I knew some of my readers weren't going to be happy with the direction I was moving in. I did it when I wanted to blog more about my kids and most of my readers were my single friends. I did it when I wanted to rant about life and I knew people would think I needed therapy. At this point my family doesn't read my blog but since it's established already, if they did stumble on it, that's their problem. I'm not moving again. I've also stopped all of my other blogs and now maintain only two. One on atheist parenting and one on everything else.

Permalink Reply by Buffy on September 22, 2008 at 6:52pm

The content of my blog is why I've not informed my family (with the exception of my father) that I have a blog. My mother and one of my sisters are both devout Christians. Though it's the RRRW Christians I take to task on my blog, I fear my family might not glean that from my writing and take offense. Furthermore as you've seen, it's easier to write if you aren't doing so with the assumption that Mom is going to be reading it.

My father does read from time to time but he's quite laid back so I have no worries about him seeing anything I write.

In your situation I likely would have done the same thing you did.

Permalink Reply by St. Bastard on October 2, 2008 at 4:01pm

Well, it's good to know that there are others out that do the same thing. I'm honestly surprised that there weren't any negative responses. The blog is going well, and I got a surprising amount of hits on the first couple of weeks due to articles on that guy who said his mansion in Britain was haunted. I got 997 hits on the biggest day, though that has now moved down to a more moderate number.

Permalink Reply by Richard J. Collins on October 6, 2008 at 1:31am

Sam Harris advocates conversational intolerance. Over the years, organized religion slowly gained a position of hegemony over our lives. Forcefully challenging them was deemed uncouth, and impolite. Yet as Sam Harris pointed out only religion achieved such a sacrosanct status.

Misplaced idealism has brought us to a point where Christian fascists now have the power to seat a president like George Bush for eight years and force presidential candidate John McCain to accept their candidate for Vice President of the United States, the Alaskan Governor, Sarah Palin. We need to all seriously consider how our deference might be the undoing of our democracy. Looking back to the early days of the countries we find a raucous anything goes public debate via broadsides and newspapers. We need to get back to that spirit.

I think we are late coming to a time when we discard the tender feelings of our family, friends and neighbors who are delusional. There is a facebook group dedicated to the concept of conversational intolerance. Atheists should band together to explore all the creative ways we can employ this tactic.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=11306530867

Permalink Reply by Vic333 on November 12, 2008 at 12:13pm

As a rule of thumb, I don't blog anything that I wouldn't say to someone's face. It may be fun to think, "Those stupid _", but either saying it or blogging it is a bad idea. I try not to use the net as a means of disguise, so that tends to keep out of control venting under control. I also try to be specific when making any critiques. Instead of accusing all Mormons denying gay marriage I'll state that Church of JC of LDS funded Prop 8. It still places blame where it needs to be without blaming some random guy in the street.