Freedom Of, Freedom From, Freedom To
//I have decided to go in a new direction for this site. I may still revive the podcast. If I do, the episodes will be shorter since I have had some technical difficulties and may not be able to record phone calls. I would also like to have a space to talk about other stuff that does not relate to my job/industry, like, say, religion, politics and science. I may have something new in the next few days.
//I updated the Blogs page here on Everyday Freethought. It is a list of agnostic/atheist/skeptical blogs written by people in the state of Illinois. I became aware of these thanks to Skeptic Money, a blog run by my guest from Episode 2.
Recently there was a debate at UIUC between John Loftus And Dinesh D’sousa. A lot of people in the atheosphere thought D’sousa did better. Loftus seemed sick, and so his speaking voice was not very good. A lot of people also thought that D’sousa made a few whoppers (I think First Cause and the Ontological Argument were his favorites) and Loftus just let them go repeatedly. One of the attendees is a local atheist who recorded it and has a blog called Le Café Witteveen. I left a comment on his blog and gave him a link to my Groups page, and he signed up for a few of the Meetup groups. So far he has only been interacting with other atheists online, but says he may start coming to the groups. I think he “crossed over” recently.
Skeptic Money also had a post about a lawsuit by Rob Sherman against the State Of Illinois because there are appropriations to churches, including some appropriations to churches with connections to lawmakers and/or their relatives. Not only is it unconstitutional, but it is bad budgeting as well as a lot of conflicts of interest.
In case you have not heard, a lot of states are not doing well. Recently, the Pew Center On the States released a report about the finances of all fifty states in the USA. I have not read the actual report, but I have read about it in the media, downloaded their PDF files, and read a few of them. A lot of states have not funded their state employee pensions, in addition to having trouble funding their day to day operations. Illinois is one of the states in the worst condition. The $2 billion that Sherman is challenging is not as large as the budget gap (which may be from $8 billion to $12 billion), but every bit helps.
Rob Sherman was on Dogma Free America recently to talk about his lawsuit.
On a few of his posts Rob Sherman has Paypal links, as well as an address to which you could send checks. If you live in Illinois, I think you should send him some money. He says that even $20 would help. I will send him a few dollars.
//I added a link on this site to my profile on Atheist Nexus. Atheist Nexus is a social networking site for non-theists using the Ning platform.
//I added a link on the Groups page to the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago (which is actually in Skokie). According to their site, they are “a democratic fellowship and spiritual home for those who seek a rational, compassionate philosophy of life without regard to belief or nonbelief in a supreme being.” The Chicago Branch of the Center For Inquiry will have their February lecture there on February 28.
//In addition to the Meetup Group, there is now a Chicago Skeptics website. I added it to the Groups page.
//I added a couple of blogs by people in the state of Illinois on the Blogs page: The Bollingbrook Babbler and The Skeptical Teacher.
//I added a disclaimer to the website. It is probably overkill, but better safe than sorry. I have an interview with a guest in the can, and at one point he stated that the views he was expressing were his own and not his employer. Plus my guest on Episode 2 also threw in a disclaimer during the interview. He also has a few on his website, and states that no rational person would make important decisions based on a blog post. But if people were always rational, there would be no need for disclaimers at all.
I got mine from Our Disclaimer dot com. It’s just a long-winded way of saying you are on your own. Any actions taken by you as a result of this disclaimer are not the responsibility of Everyday Freethought.
//I added a link to Skeptic Money on the Blogs page. It is a site about atheism/skepticism and finance run by the guest on Episode 2.
The Blogs page is a page with links to blogs run by people in the atheist/skeptic/freethought movement based in Illinois and/or who are guests on the podcast.
//Everyday Freethought is now on iTunes. The link is here.
//The intent behind the Other States page is to have links to groups in other states that are state-wide. I had to change the entry for Arizona. There was a site called Arizona Atheists that was an actual site run by atheists. It is now run by a Christian. Either somebody changed their mind, or someone lost the domain and it now has a new owner.
It is now run by a guy who says he “used to be an atheist”. Whenever a Christian says they used to be an atheist, a red flag goes up in my head. Usually they have opinions about atheists and atheism that I do not have and other atheists I have met do not have.
This may sound like the “No True Scotsman” fallacy, but I think a lot of these “former atheists” were not really atheists. I think they were just undeclared. They never made a stance one way or the other. I think that after they become Christians, they look back and think, “I wasn’t a Christian before, so I must have been an atheist!” Not necessarily.