Brother Jeff Posted March 24, 2017 Share Posted March 24, 2017 Hey everybody, I haven't participated much around here for quite a while, but I hope you are all doing well. I took a long break from dealing with religion much at all, and I've pretty much given up on finding any sort of spirituality that would work for me. There are beliefs and practices that I find interesting, but I'm generally only interested in it when I'm manic. And as far as being a voice for reason and atheism, I just don't know, but I'd like to give it another shot. The only problem is that I have a mental illness to deal with on a daily basis, and I have periodic manic religious episodes that destroy my credibility with people who don't understand that I have a mental illness and I can't help my religious thoughts and feelings when I'm manic. It's all incredibly REAL when it's going on, and it's easy for me to convince myself that it really is for real and that I've entered into an awesome new way of life that will give me joy every day for the rest of my life. So, while the manic religiosity is going on, it's impossible for me to just stay silent about it because I'm feeling so much love and joy and I want to share it with the whole world, and in the moment it doesn't matter that it's not real and that it's just a product of mental illness. In the moment, I just don't care. It feels REAL and I want it to be real, so while I'm manic I'm also heavily in denial that it's all a product of mental illness. But at any rate, all of that said, I'm feeling reasonably stable now, and I'd like to give doing a website again a shot. I've had nothing but frustration with that for years and I've done a number of dead sites that never did anything but become magnets for tons of comment spam. Even so, I am ready to try again and I feel compelled to put my voice out there, though I know I can't compete with the major atheist bloggers out there who get most of the traffic and interaction. Of course, given time, I'm hoping that my voice can once again be significant and wanted too. I'm going to try a different approach. In the past, my blogs have been a mixture of angry rants and the anti-religious humor I was once known for. I'll probably keep some of the humor around for no other reason than it makes ME laugh, but I'll be dispensing with the angry rants. I'd like to put a calm and reasonable voice out there for atheism in the Bible Belt now that I live in Texas. I do have a site online, though I haven't done much with it for a while. I plan to start posting to it again maybe even today... My site is here: http://www.texanatheist.com I'd really appreciate it if y'all would take a look at it and offer me some feedback. The site is a work in progress, and I know that some of it needs some work. I'm also doing a lot of reading on religion. Lots of atheist stuff, but also lots of liberal Christian stuff and even a couple of books from fundies, you know, those Christian apologist folks. I have a LOT of books and a whole lot of reading to do, which of course will take some time to get done, but as I complete books, I'm planning to review them on my blog. And I'm not talking about angry rants against the Christian authors. I'm planning to do thoughtful, serious reviews that I hope my readers, assuming I have any lol, will value. So... before this post gets too long, I'll stop for now. Thanks for listening... Oh... and I still haven't forgiven myself for taking my original "Religion is Bullshit" site offline way back in 2004. It was very popular, and if I had continued it, I may well be one of those major atheist voices I now envy the popularity of today... Every site I've done since then has bombed and been nothing but a spam magnet.. Sigh... But I'm hoping this time will manage to be different. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MOHO Posted March 24, 2017 Share Posted March 24, 2017 25 minutes ago, Brother Jeff said: I'd really appreciate it if y'all would take a look at it and offer me some feedback. Didn't take you long after your relocation to the Lone Start State to pick up a little twang there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wertbag Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 If you find the strain of running a site and content creation too much another option to consider signing up as a content creator for an existing atheist website. You can be part of the team rather than a one man show. There are also a lot of atheist Youtube channels appearing due to video creation being easy these days. If you can inspire a following with regular interesting videos then you can even go pro. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ellinas Posted March 25, 2017 Share Posted March 25, 2017 May the Lard provide you with guidance in your quest to take the holy piss out of errant religiosity in the spirit of reasonableness and good sense... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voice Posted March 31, 2017 Share Posted March 31, 2017 Are you an atheist, Jeff? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Jeff Posted April 1, 2017 Author Share Posted April 1, 2017 On 3/31/2017 at 1:16 AM, Voice said: Are you an atheist, Jeff? Yes, most of the time. Depends on the phase my bipolar illness is in. I actually find a lot to like in religious mysticism, but I don't believe in God, except maybe as Pure Consciousness. I'm open to that idea... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Jeff Posted April 1, 2017 Author Share Posted April 1, 2017 On 3/25/2017 at 1:11 PM, Wertbag said: If you find the strain of running a site and content creation too much another option to consider signing up as a content creator for an existing atheist website. You can be part of the team rather than a one man show. There are also a lot of atheist Youtube channels appearing due to video creation being easy these days. If you can inspire a following with regular interesting videos then you can even go pro. It's not so much the strain of running the site. I don't mind the work involved. It's getting traffic to my sites that is always the problem. My sites usually just end up as magnets for comment spam, and that's about it. As far as videos go, I would have to learn how to make them... any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brother Jeff Posted April 1, 2017 Author Share Posted April 1, 2017 On 3/24/2017 at 1:58 PM, MOHO said: Didn't take you long after your relocation to the Lone Start State to pick up a little twang there. I was actually born and raised in Lake Jackson, TX. And I've lived several places in Texas as an adult. But I did get to spend 12 years in Anchorage, AK, and it was amazing! Loved it... except for the icy winter roads. Hated those. But overall I loved my time in Alaska! But it is nice to be back in a much warmer climate, though I'm not sure how I'll feel about that when the blazing hot summer hits! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkepticsApprentice Posted April 1, 2017 Share Posted April 1, 2017 Site looks great Jeff! Gonna have to spend some time looking some of this stuff over when I've got the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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