What I Respect About Skeptics and Atheists: Review of the Top Skeptic Blogs

I’ve spent the last 24 hours reviewing the top 25 atheist / skeptic blogs. The list with links is at the bottom of the post.  Here’s what I like and here are the patterns I noted.

First of all, you can find posts / images the beautiful and intriguing things of nature. If I see any potential common bond between atheists and theists (besides the professed love of humanity) it’s the incredible inspiration of the universe.   Check out these sites:  Spirit Sees Phenomenal Martian Vista;  Tonga Erupts;  Guiyu oneiros;  Spanish Shawl;  Cephalod:  Red; More Slugs; Bats in Flight.

We get a healthy dose of science fiction, which I am all in favor of:  Battlestar Galactica Open Thread;   Battlestar Galactica Postmortem;  New (Doctor) Who Revue;  Doctor Who Finale Rumor;  There Hugo Again.

As one would expect, religion is a target.  Catholicism takes it hard on the chin, and the attacks - seemingly more than on any Christian denomination or any other religion  - just from the last week or so - are almost too many to reference:  The Irony is So Bad, I’m Having Seizure;  Needs a Hat (The Pope and Condoms); The Pope is either Stupid, Ignorant or Dim; Yeah, the Catholic Church Has a Real Problem with Gay Priests.  Sure.;  More Catholic Inanity;  Pope Condemned by the Lancet;  Pope Caught Mining Irony in Africa;  How Will This Be Tested? (Melbourne Catholic Church will tests priests to see if they are gay).  One Upside to Pope’s Comments;  A Few More Pope Cartoons;   Out of Touch With Reality; Can Catholics eat Fridays During Lent? Impeaching the Pope (I suppose the atheists see this as turnabout is fair play:  you mess with my business, so I can mess with yours);  Real Catholic TV:  Shame, Shame on You, Notre Dame;  Celibate Catholic Priest with Sex Manual (OK, now THAT’s funny); Lancet Scolds Pope’s Idiocy;  Catholicism Kills;   Richard Dawkins Says Pope is  Stupid Whilst Looking a Bit Mental ; Pope sticks to script in Africa - Dogma More Important Than Lives; Catholic Church’s Hypocrisy Nothing New, But Still Baffles.

We have the usual blogs accusing the supposedly non-existent God of evil and malice: God, Abortionist; a whole series on the God’s killings at Dwindling in Unbelief including “God’s Killings in Genesis ” and “The Terror of God.”

And you expect them to write about the goofy things that “Christians” do: Put Pastor in a Box? (Are you kidding me?  In order to attract visitors to church, a pastor has promised to live in a box for three days?)

Or exult in their failures: Christian Book Expo A Major Disappointment.

Name-calling and mockery - at least on some sites - seems to be THE chief atheistic tactic, substituting for civil discourse. (Oh, yes, plenty of name-calling on the other side, too.  I hope to review those sites soon):  See attacks on the pope (above);  Even Dumber Than Denyse O’Leary? If You Fail an IQ Test in Texas, Do They Automatically Put You in the Legislature? Sarah Palin Couldn’t Find Anybody to Hold Hands to Pray With;  Anjem Choudary:  Islamist Dickhead; Palinspastic:  Introducing “The Geology Word of the Week“; But as P.Z. Meyers asks sarcastically, Is sarcasm ethical?

Based on my review of these blogs, the skeptic seems not so much concerned with truth, but with cultural and political events.   I don’t find much inquiry into theology but I do find a lot of upset over perceived loss of civil rights and whether there are more or less atheists in the world.

So it’s important to put a human face on atheism:  This is What An Atheist Looks Like;  (Hey!  Look!  Angelina Jolie is an atheist!  Way cool, let’s be one too!)

Though ever once in a while I found some reasonable respect for the religious people:  Religious People Aren’t Necessarily Stupid…and Atheists Aren’t Necessarily Smart.

And there are still a number of blogs that are supportive of rational discourse, as evidenced by the blog title:  Does Satan Exist?  No.  Debate Over.  Yeah, I can do facetious too.

A number of blogs thought it was an important enough cultural event to report that Brian the Family Guy dog had announced he was an atheist.  (Wow.  What a shock, especially since atheist Seth MacFarlane is Family Guy’s creator). :  Pharyngula;  The Friendly Atheist; Debunking Christianity; Atheist Media Blog; Atheist Revolution.

There were a number of sites reporting on YouTube’s “banning” of James Randi’s Educational Foundation: Pharyngula;  The Friendly Atheist;  Atheist Media Blog;  Bad Astronomy; Skepchick.

And on John Shimkus’ statement that “The earth will end only when God declares its time to be over“:  Illinois!  You Elected John Shimkus?  What Were You Thinking?;  Why We Don’t Need to Worry About Global Warming; Rep. John Shimkus:  Only God Decides When Earth Will End;  Only God Can Destroy the Earth?  Phew!

The story of the the cult mom in Baltimore that apparently starved a 16-month old to death: Privileging Belief;  Why Is Religion an Excuse for Criminal Behavior? Cult Mom Who Starved Son to Death;

The top story though, aside from Catholic-bashing, was the Texas Board of Education and Florida situations on evolution and creationism: Atheist Billboard Coming to North Texas;  Texas BOE Roundup;  A Little Ol’ Texas Poll;  Texas Confuses Me; Good News for Texas;  Narrow Victory for Science  in Texas;  The Discovery Institute Has No Shame;  Texas Wrapup.  Yup.  Doomed.;   Texas:  From Saved to Doomed in Just 6 Hours;  Science Wins Big in Texas - Barely;   Science Takes a Hit in Texas; TSBE Science Standards:  First Vote Today; Texas Board of Ed Votes for Science;  Texas Science Standards;   Texas Science Standards:  Yup. Doomed (another site);  Academic Freedom in Texas;   Florida Falls Behind Texas in the Crazy Race; Evolution Bill Quietly Filed in State Senate;  Florida:  Jumping Off the Cliff of Reality with Texas; (It’s Negligible Knowledge Base that seems to be covering Tennessee)

There were a few blogs on the Quiverfull Movement, about a little-known movement that encourages families to forego birth control and have as many children as possible:  A New Way of Looking at the Quiverful Movement; Interview with Kathryn Joyce, author of Quiverful; Am I to gather that birth control is an atheist position?

There are blogs (mostly The Friendly Atheist) that seem to be a whole lot of hand-wringing and agonizing over what seems to be the absolutely trivial, but hey, I’m not an atheist:  Have You Ever Been Duped After Agreeing to Speak on a Religious Panel?;   Update: Duped on the Religious Panel Discussion;  Should God Be Capitalized? A New Way to Capitalize gOd;  When Children Become Christians, Should They Proselytize to Their Parents? Should the Atheist Group Be Given Office in Campus “Spiritual Center”? Baseball to Play On Despite Christian Holy Day;  Should Atheists Use Religious Language When Describing Ourselves?

The Top 5

1. Pharyngula
2. Friendly Atheist
3. Cynical-C
4. Debunking Christianity
5. Atheist Media Blog

The Best of the Rest

(in alphabetical order)

1. Atheist Eve
2. Atheist Movies
3. Atheist Revolution
4. Bad Astronomy
5. Bad Science
6. By the Book Comics
7. Daylight Atheism
8. Derren Brown’s Blog
9. Dwindling in Unbelief
10. Edward Current
11. Evangelical Realism
12. Greta Christina’s Blog
13. Julia Sweeney
14. Mid-West Humanists
15. Negligible Knowledge Base
16. Religion Comics
17. Richard Dawkins
18. SkepChick
19. Skeptic Blog
20. Skeptico
21. Slacktivist
22. Panda’s Thumb
23. Primordial Blog
24. Why Won’t God Heal Amputees Blog
25. William Lobdell