Canadian Atheist
Athée Canadien
Observing Reddit and Embracing Uranus
Jan 4th
Just thought I’d do a recap of the recent “fun” on reddit, for those who may have missed out on the festivities. The atheist blogosphere has had another feminist apocalypse. (Oh come on, lighten up, those two words are fun together)
So what happened? Going to try and make this newsy, staying away from editorializing. (Ok… I’ll try, anyway) People seem to have done that to death already anyway.
Reddit.com, for those who don’t know is a social media site, where people can post links to pictures, and news items, and then other users can comment on them, much in the same way you might comment on a blog. They also have a voting system so commenters can vote the stuff they like ‘up’ so that it is more prominent on the site.
There is a section of the site devoted to atheism and recently a 15 year old girl posted a picture of herself holding a book she recieved from her religious mother. The book in question was Carl Sagan’s: ‘Demon haunted World’ (sounds like reddit, actually).
It was intended as feel-good story, but things took a turn for the worse, quickly.
One of the commenters posted this:
“Brace yourself, the compliments are coming.”
Its fairly common on reddit for women posting photos to get awkward compliments, as one might expect on a somewhat nerd dominated forum. The girl’s response was equally congenial… but still, reading it made me cringe…
“bracin’ mah anus”
Now, its somewhat clear from the context, she was making an ‘asskissing’ comment, but as happens elsewhere on the internet, things tend to reduce to the lowest common denominator, and so the seedier members of the group(I guess in line with the less than impressive online-gamer mentality of using rape jokes like: owning your ass, when they win against an opponent) translated this into a rape joke. What followed wasn’t pretty.
To be fair to atheist group, the way reddit works, posts are not limited to the atheist group. If they get enough ‘up votes’ they can end up on the main page of reddit, which means a much wider audience, and of course there are plenty of trolls, as in any unmoderated online forum. But still… ugh.
Bad enough? But wait, it gets worse.
Rebecca Watson, from Skepchick, waded into the fray and posted this on the skepchick blog: Reddit makes me hate atheists. If you read it, she backpedals a bit on the ‘hating atheists’ part, but with a title like that… well, many people were less than pleased with her.
Basically it was like pouring gasoline on a fire, and resulted in things like this.
As to the original girl in question, she appears to have handled it all fairly well, rising above the nastiness, and with the exception of her ‘anus’ comment seems more mature than many older people, who should really know better.
“I’m sorry I didn’t realize I should have to wear a burka on r/atheism.”
Excellent.
Awww, how embarrassing for you.
Dec 26th
The following photo was posted by @LoveGod50. He’s been one of two people (the other is @GodsWordIsLaw) who have been openly harassing Ricky Gervais on twitter. More >
Angels
Dec 25th
A recent post by Jerry Coyne at Why Evolution Is True discusses the results of an Associated Press-GfK poll that reveals “77% of Americans believe in angels.” What a coincidence! Yesterday I was directed to a blog owned by a “Canadian Catholic Writer” who calls herself “Seraphic.” A quick check with Oxford Dictionaries Online confirmed my suspicion that seraphic is an adjective which means, “characteristic of or resembling a seraph or seraphim; angelic” and provides a link to the word seraph:
an angelic being, regarded in traditional Christian angelology as belonging to the highest order of the ninefold celestial hierarchy, associated with light, ardour, and purity.
However, there is nothing angelic about Seraphic’s post on Christopher Hitchens or her coining a new word for atheists. voidist:
Update 2: By the way, I don’t know why atheists (or voidists, since so many supposed atheists nevertheless seem to believe in continued identity after death) think “facing the void” is so much braver than facing the choice between an eternity of love and of damnation.
I am trying to get my head around the word voidist and create an appropriate response to Seraphic. Please help; send your response to the word voidist to Seraphic or post it below.
PS My initial response to Seraphic is
May the bird of the paradise you believe in fly up your nose.*
*My apologies to Dickens Little Jimmy for distorting his song: “May the Bird of Paradise Fly up Your Nose.”
Christmas Rhapsody
Dec 22nd
Greta Christina thinks this song is the “the Best Christmas Song Parody Ever”
Holiday music from The Doubtful Palace
Help Make a List of Reasonable Goals!
Dec 21st
So, if you read my latest post, A Personal Story (or Ramble) to the end, I posed the question about making a list of goals.
Please respond here, More >
A Personal Story (or Ramble)
Dec 21st
Even before I begin, I feel this one will not be easy to write. There seems to be a lot at stake, and I may not want to face the conclusions I draw. The short of it is this: there is someone I am extremely close to – we see each other and speak daily – who has strong opposing views. It pains me because I honestly do care what she thinks of me; and this is aside from any desire I may have to be correct or to win an argument. More >
CFI Canada: New Associate Members
Dec 21st
Larry Moran at Sandwalk has posted the letter he received in response to his application for Associate Membership. Larry’s application was refused.
Larry would like you to
Post a comment [on his blog] if your application was also rejected. That way we might be able to figure out what the Board of Directors is thinking when it comes to appointing new Associate Members. I’ll let the Board know about this posting so they can comment, or at least see your comments.
“Ex-bishop ‘a societal pariah’: Lawyer”
Dec 20th
An article from the Toronto Sun online, “Ex-bishop ‘a societal pariah’: Lawyer,” is similar, if not identical, to an article I read in the Peterborough Examiner today. I was furious, not so much by the headline but by the article itself. If ex-bishop Raymond Lahey “has, in effect, become a societal pariah,” he deserves to be. Lahey’s lawyer, Michael Edelson, wants a light sentence for the priest who pleaded guilty to importing child porn:
Lahey, who hammered out a multi-million dollar settlement for victims of sexual abuse in the Catholic church, lived a “life of great deeds, good work and immense erudition, education and good character,” Edelson said.
Now, “he wears the scarlet letter,” Edelson said.
Raymond Lahey deserves to wear a scarlet letter even if forensic psychiatrist Dr. John Bradford says that Lahey is no worse, no different than any other man:
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. John Bradford testified Lahey is into sado-masochism — the submissive side.
Submissives, among other things, enjoy humiliation, he said, noting it “is relatively common.”
Bradford was unshaken on a number of critical issues while on the stand: Lahey is not a pedophile, he is not a risk to the community, and he doesn’t need treatment.
Bradford said the ex-bishop of Antigonish, N.S., did exhibit an interest in male youths aged about 14 to 18, as well as in men.
But Bradford warned a tendency towards this so-called “hebephilia” isn’t a formal diagnosis.
“A lot of normal people show (an interest in adolescents),” he said.
So hebephilic men are normal? Isn’t it a failure in logic to say because a lot of normal people show an interest in adolescents, hebephilic men are normal?
The definition for the word hebephilia is not in the Oxford Dictionary on-line; however, Wikipedia says, “Hebephilia refers to the sexual preference for individuals in the early years of puberty,” yet Dr. Bradford claims Raymond Lahey “is not a risk to the community, and he doesn’t need treatment.”
Lahey should receive the 18- to 22-month jail sentence and probation that the Crown prosecutor David Elhadad is seeking. This will send a message to Catholic priests, the Catholic Church and Catholic apologists that a sexual interest in children or adolescents is unacceptable.
Now the Catholics care about children’s safety?
Dec 19th
Wi-Fi hysteria is one of those issues that really grinds me.
There must be a checklist that pseudoscience journalists (because no one pays for real science journalists anymore) have when discussing the issue:
- Quote parents with irrational fears
- Interview Magda Havas, lead Wi-Fi fear monger
- Provide a token quote from real scientist to provide balance
- Cite the WHO’s reclassification of electromagnetic radiation as “possibly carcinogenic”
- School administrators who don’t understand science and preach the precautionary principle
An article in todays Vancouver Sun hits all of these marks.
But I’m not posting today to complain about bad science journalism, that’s a dime a dozen. Today, I want to highlight the irony at the end of the article.
Comments