2010: best posts, and personal reflections
Here are what I think are my best posts of 2010:
- The bad arguments series: theist guff about worldviews (including the “atheism is a religion” line which seems to have cropped up a lot lately), atheists’ embarrassing errors about the Bible and gays or “Why President Bartlet was wrong”, and theist guff about science. I realised I promised more on science at the end of the last one, and some day I may get round to writing it.
- The Special Edition of Bishops Gone Wild, when the Lords Spiritual got their way with the Equality Bill.
- My post on Georges Rey’s Meta-atheism: Religious Avowal as Self-Deception drew together some previous thoughts on how much believers actually believe.
- Is the Creator good? drew together Hume, William Lane Craig and Ptolemy the Gnostic to show that, even if there are such things as personal Creators, we don’t seem to have much reason to call them good. No-one commented on the article, but I assume that was because my argument was so devastating as to admit no rebuttal.
- Bigots, Brown, Justice, Laws is mostly about the ruling on Gary McFarlane, a relationship counsellor who was sacked by Relate for refusing to give therapy to homosexual couples.
- Q: When is a person like a rock? A: When there’s no God got the most comments this year, although all of them were either by me or Comrade. If you can’t be bothered to read the entire lot, I think my summary is a reasonable one.
- Reform and the Interminable Anglican Sex Kerfuffle, in which the Guardian‘s Andrew Brown discovers complementarianism. Contains a picture of me dressed as a bishop, if that’s your thing.
- A great cloud of witlessness: the Not Ashamed campaign criticises people who think they’re living in a Frank Peretti novel.
As I hinted at in that last post of mine, this has been a difficult year for me, culminating in my ongoing divorce proceedings after my then wife unexpectedly told me that she considered that whole “forsaking all others” thing as less of a solemn vow and more of a guideline. I’ve taken a long look at my priorities as a result, and resolved to spent less time arguing with idiots on the Internet (so, if you see me back on the Premier Christian Radio forums, remind me of my resolution) and more time going out dancing. There’ll probably be fewer posts of substance from me in 2011; however, I’m perfectly happy to argue with sane and sensible people, and I doubt I’ll be able to resist that urge entirely.
Thanks to my friends and family for all their support, and to the strangers who wrote to ask where I’d gone during the hiatus in my postings. May 2011 be a better year for us all.