THE FOLLOWING IS SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION:

If you're trying to be a professional writer, you have to blog. Period.

Hey Greta, I didn't think you atheist types were into the guilt thing :) But I appreciate the advice. My first novel is slated for release on April 1, 2009 (yes, I see the humor). Ebon got me thinking of blogging with the last two posts, but based on your mandate, I guess I'll be forced to try. Naturally, y'all will be welcome.

Ebon, sorry if that's not what you had in mind; I just assumed that's what you meant.

Comment #3 by: MS Quixote | November 22, 2008, 6:37 pm

Well, I'll take the plunge. However, the caveat is simply that I am nowhere near in the same league as Ebon here. I may someday actively aspire to blog like Ebon, but for now that's like saying someday I may aspire to write like Hunter S. Thompson.

Anyway... Prior to taking up Ebon's good advice on how to blog well, this is what my blog looks like. We'll have to see how things change from here on out, but unless I stop commuting so far and working so freakin' much there's not a lot of hope for there being immediate results.

What you can expect: a mishmash of ideas and happenstance, from Firefox add-on reviews to rants against religion, from the personal to the impersonal.

Feel free to comment (critique or kudos, s'up to you) or just say hello. Thanks.

Comment #5 by: Moody834 | November 22, 2008, 7:02 pm

Thought I wouldn't?

I'm cl, some of you know me, others not as much so. My blog is called The Warfare Is Mental. I write about as many things as possible. I write about religion, atheism, being a human, drinking too much, whatever I might be feeling. As far as telling a little bit about me, well... by trade I'm a writer. Which lately has mostly entailed running a small niche publishing and distribution firm I founded, a few published books, too many embarrassing newspaper and magazine articles. I am also a creative writer and member of WGA, having written screenplays and produced television scripts. I also freelance in the web and print design worlds.

I would say I've been studying this stuff semi-seriously in formal and independent settings for about 17 years now. There's likely much on my blog that needs my attention, but I offer the following as solid samples of recent work and your comments are more than welcomed. I love the debates and I thank you all for participating!

And thank you Ebonmuse for giving me a chance. I think in time you'll find I'm not ignorant, irrational, credulous, mockworthy, or shameworthy at all - just another guy trying to make sense of it all.

False Argument #12: Atheism Is Scientifically Tenable

On Begging The Question And The Futility Of Circular Argumentation

An Important Point In My Religious History

The Biblical Distinction Between Soul And Spirit: or, My Response To 'A Ghost In The Machine' - Part I

The Biblical Doctrine of Salvation, or, My Response To 'A Ghost In The Machine' - Part II

Comment #7 by: cl | November 22, 2008, 7:41 pm

Since I’m shameless by nature, I don’t know how I can resist an opportunity for self-promotion…

I’m a liberal atheist, and my blogging comes from that vantage point. I’ve been blogging (pseudonymously) at cognitive dissident for a few years, about a wide variety of subjects: politics, religion, media criticism, LGBT issues, and general geekery…really, whatever either makes me think, pisses me off, or stirs my sense of wonder.

I’m a junkie for the written word, so books and magazine articles are common fodder for my ramblings—as are many (too many!) other blogs. My other vices are comic books, music (mostly jazz and classical), and the dwindling conceit that my blogging will ever lead to writing a book.

Feel free to stop by and throw some comments—or darts, if you’re so inclined—at whatever catches your attention. I love conversing about this stuff, but get few opportunities IRL.

Comment #9 by: cognitive dissident | November 22, 2008, 8:02 pm

Here's mine: scary reasoner.

It's made of atheistic rants (not even close to as polite as what's found at Daylight Atheism), art I'm working on, thoughts about programming computers, politics, making wine, and food.

Comment #11 by: SteveC | November 22, 2008, 8:23 pm

My blog, Anthroslug the Much Put-Upon is a blog about both the day-to-day working life of a professional archaeologist, as well as my take on the lack of critical thinking that goes on surrounding both religion and politics.

I occassionaly write about breaking research, but mostly I write about the various things that a professional (non-academic) archaeologist has to contend with - oddball clients, weird regulations, chaos at regulatory agencies, having ot explain archaeology to people who don't want to get it but have to for their project to move forward, and so on. I also frequently write about whatever irrationality happens ot have my dander up at any given moment.

Comment #13 by: Anthroslug | November 22, 2008, 8:36 pm

Shameless self-promotion? You bet!

Greta Christina's Blog. "Sex, atheism, politics, dreams, and whatever. Thinking out loud since 2005." I sometimes think of myself as the place where the atheist blogosphere and the sex blogosphere collide. My atheist writing veers between polite- but- firm criticism of religion and explorations of positive atheist philosophy, and I'm especially interested in godless philosophies about death. My sex writing... okay, I have no idea how to summarize my approach to sex, except to say that I'm generally in favor of it.

I usually write with a chatty, conversational tone, and I care more about being clear than I do about conforming to Strunk and White. A recent post that I'm especially proud of: A Safe Place to Land: Making Atheism Friendly for The Deconverting. Come by and say howdy!

Comment #15 by: Greta Christina | November 22, 2008, 9:25 pm

I started two blogs a few years ago, after thinking about it for a long time and reading a lot of blogs, realizing independently most of the same things Ebon talks about. My two blogs are
David Moisan's Blog, an IT blog, and A Salem Blog, a local blog.

My first blog was technical; I wanted to post all the hard problems I solved in my work life, the ones I would google and only find items like "Oh, I have that problem too!" It's moderately successful by my standards. I hate the echo chamber of a lot of tech blogs that just repeat the same stories over and over so I try not to do that unless I have actual hard experience to add such stories.

My second blog is very local. It focuses on Salem, Massachusetts. I got to make it a photo blog, which is great. Did I say it was local? That's one of the best hooks for a blog. Why join the crowd bleating and whining about Limbaugh, Pelosi, Bush, etc etc etc? It has opinion, but also some news since I sit on a town commission and get most of my blog ideas from meetings.

Comment #17 by: David Moisan | November 22, 2008, 11:00 pm

Well, definitely not in the same league as a lot of other blogs I tend to blog about women and children's issues with religion and religious men :) I also put some of my art stuff on the blog and have been known to rant a little about something that really annoys me or sparks my interest- I don't blog regularly enough to have an audience but come on over so I can get to know you and your blog :)

Comment #19 by: psychodiva | November 23, 2008, 5:27 am

Last Spring I realised that I had more to say than was reasonable to leave in comments on other atheist, agnostic or religious blogs. So I set up BridgingSchisms.org where I investigate other people's beliefs, from the mainstream to the colourful and exotic.

I try to give even the most unlikely sounding beliefs a fair hearing, but in order to take them seriously in the long run they need to provide some decent evidence. I'm far more interested in understanding why people believe what they do, rather than simply having a laugh at their expense. Mine is a blog for curious skeptics.

Against my expectations my most popular post has been about "Orbs" - out of focus specks of dust which appear in photos and get superstitious types excited because they think it's some kind of spirit visitor. I've also recently discussed alleged miracle healing and atheist/humanist evangelism. I post about once a week and welcome comments.

Comment #21 by: Eshu | November 23, 2008, 7:37 am

Okay, I'll play. I think you are going for the longest comment thread ever here, so I don't want to be left out!

If I'm known for anything in the atheist blogosphere, it would be for my blog, Atheist Revolution. It has been going strong for a couple years and deals mostly with breaking free from irrational belief and opposing Christian extremism in America. I also have a decidedly progressive political focus that will be evident from time-to-time.

As an atheist living in Mississippi, I also do my part to help my fellow bible belt atheists realize that they are not alone. Thus, Mississippi Atheists is my most recent effort, a team blog written by Mississippi atheists to help other atheists in our state connect with each other and learn about what is going on in our region.

Comment #23 by: vjack | November 23, 2008, 10:41 am

Well, I'm British, actually, and we don't do shameless, but let's have a go at the self-promotion bit and see how we go, eh?

I started Effing the Ineffable (it's a Douglas Adams reference; check the About page for details) over a year ago, but due to work and personal circumstances (blah, blah, blah...) I've not had the chance to update it as often as I'd like - though a dozen or so drafts are yet waiting to be polished and launched upon an unsuspecting public.

The object of the exercise - mostly - is to present a positive alternative to religion - suggestions as to how we can live without religious belief and with a rational, naturalistic outlook while still living good, moral lives and having a damn good time. However, religious wingnuts being the constant source of amusement, irritation and general apoplectic marvel that they are, I must confess I sometimes let my tendency to sneer get the better of me.

Do pop over and take a look. I commend to you in particular - well, all of it, obviously, though my most popular post is apparently "It's a sign", which is about an alternative to RD's Scarlet A, featured in Ebon's sidebar over there on the right.

For some reason, many of my search engine references seem to come from people searching for "asexual"...

Hmm. Looking back over this, it occurs to me that we British don't seem to do self-promotion either. Or is it just me? Never mind, do come and visit anyway. The leap in stats caused by Ebon's legions of readers will gladden my heart through a traumatic house move and a doubtless lonely and depressing Christmas. I promise to post more regularly in the new year.

Toodle-pip!

Comment #25 by: Peter Magellan | November 23, 2008, 9:21 pm

It does feel a bit shameless for me to make my first post on the site in this particular thread, but oh well...

I started to maintain a weblog as an outgrowth of a personal website four years ago; partially to vent my thoughts, partially to get my mind off the 2004 election results, and partially just to see if I could create a reasonable facsimile of an interface with only static pages and a text editor. Since I have multiple interests, the subject matter has admittedly veered to the eclectic side: It started off with a general mix of geeky stuff, local observations, rants about college, and so on. I eventually moved beyond college; dipped into music, hobbies, and other topics as well, and I've been in a political mood for the last two months.

Incidentally, I stumbled across Daylight Atheism a winter ago when looking for information on the outcome of this case. I promptly spent a pair of days reading over the entire site, and I've been lurking regularly ever since!

Although I am an atheist, I've written very little explicitly about that topic so far. I thank Adam/Ebonmuse for taking up the slack on that note: He's someone that I see almost perfectly eye to eye with, and his posts never fail to be interesting to read.

Comment #27 by: Andrew T. | November 24, 2008, 2:56 am

Dear .... do you accept promotion of Chinese sites here ?? :-)

Comment #29 by: Virginia | November 25, 2008, 1:40 am

Right To Think is the place to visit if you want to peruse my rants, reviews and (very) occasional philosophical gems - it's also the home of the Non-Believing Literati book group.

Comment #31 by: yunshui | November 25, 2008, 7:42 am

Wow, just came across this, so here's some shameful self-promotion, coming in a tad late. I do not consider myself near as good a writer as EbonMuse or many of the others, but I make what little contributions I can find time to squeeze out at at The Liquid Thinker. There's a variety of topics I try to hit, pretty much based on what catches my interest, but the underlying themes include atheism (including its positive aspects), science (my background), technology, and a humanist approach towards living.

On the atheism front, I used to be a Christian many years ago, and one of the ways in which many try to bring me back in the fold is pointing how many prophecies Jesus fulfilled. So, I have a kind of ongoing series I get to now and then on debunking those. The last one was here, so if you're interested, feel free to check it out.

Comment #34 by: LiquidThinker | November 25, 2008, 8:05 pm

Also, I write on a wiki because I can edit after posting. Unlike here. There are some words in my previous post that I really, really want to change. Editing is my heroin and words are...also my heroin.

Comment #36 by: Modusoperandi | November 25, 2008, 9:12 pm

Thanks, but no. I'd just end up sending you another email later changing the changes. Wiki contributions truly are the digital path to OCD ("...must make it perfect...must make it perfect...must make it perfect...").

Comment #39 by: Modusoperandi | November 25, 2008, 11:35 pm

My site is called hkatheist.blogspot.com

I usually blog in Chinese, sharing various things. The latest subjects are about a set of videos in YouTube in debunking Creationist lies

Comment #41 by: Virginia | November 26, 2008, 3:47 am

"Masks of Eris: a blog about random things."

"Er, that wasn't very informative, was it?"

"Well, I'm hoping the mystery will draw ---"

"Bollocks! Why not say it's a mishmash of atheism, humor of varying degrees of badness, and attempts to explain Finland to outsiders?"

"Because it sounds so trivial. And what about faith-based mathematics and the gerbil jokes?"

"What gerbil jokes?"

"I did a post --- no, two posts! --- about gerbils a year ago."

"Oh, you mean the naked mole rats!"

"No, the gerbils! Gerbil apology part 2, remember?"

"Never mind. You're never going to get any visitors by flaunting one-off gerbil jokes."

"What about cow jokes? Creeping cows?"

"Never mind. Let's not advertise ourselves --- wait, what ourselves? Why am I arguing with myself again? And why am I losing?"

Comment #43 by: Masks of Eris | November 27, 2008, 5:48 am

This is a general invitation to visit

http://www.burgy.50megs.com

which is my site. It has been up for about 5 years.

I am a committed Christian who spends a good deal of time in combat with the "religious right," Rush Limbaugh, "Young Earthers," and the like. They are an embarassment to my faith.

This is an interesting blog.

Burgy

Comment #45 by: John Burgeson | November 28, 2008, 4:56 pm

Hey everyone,

I'm late for this open thread because I've been bombarded with schoolwork (and am currently procrastinating by being on DA), but I'm ecstatic for the chance to promote my blog.

I only have a few entries so far, but after finals next week, I'll be completely up and running with it.

I've started this blog primarily because I'm embarrassed I have not taken action on behalf of all atheists. We can't let ourselves be trampled over, and the only way that can happen is if we DO something rather than sit back and wait for someone else to do it.

My blog is http://the-now-life.livejournal.com/

Please visit, read my entry on why I'm writing, and comment if you will. I'd greatly appreciate knowing I've reached someone, as a couple people have already assured me. It feels amazing every time someone comments or promises to read, for I know my blog will affect someone.

Thank you very much.

~Sam

Comment #47 by: Sam | November 29, 2008, 6:50 pm