Writing about religion is more than a little frustrating, having to reiterate the same old arguments and put up with trolls and hit-and-run fundie commenters. Also, I got all the metaphysical stuff out of the way early on, leaving me to have to follow the news if I wanted to write anything of interest - something that I don't consistently bother with (plenty of other people do that job rather better than me).
There is still an interest in the site though, so I'm not planning to get rid of what's already here whether I continue writing or not. I still get hundreds - sometimes thousands - of visitors a day. People still comment on old posts and I receive a large number of responses to the Christianity Questionnaire (I haven't posted any of the responses recently as they are all just variations of the same theme).
I have been told that sites like this are pointless as I'm either preaching to the converted or winding up fundies who are beyond any form of reasoning. This may be partially true, but I'd guess that at least a few of the more intelligent religious people who have found their way here have gone away questioning their beliefs to some extent. Also, anything that promotes atheism is a good thing. While it may be several centuries since anyone was burnt at the stake for heresy, it's only fairly recently that atheism has become socially acceptable. The atheist bus thing is a good example of this - I don't imagine that even a few years ago it would have happened. The response from religious groups was fairly feeble and not really taken seriously (although the hypocrisy of Christians and the special treatment still given them for no reason other than they have a "belief" was evident when a Christian bus driver refused to drive one of the busses displaying the advert - somehow I can't imagine an atheist bus driver being allowed to refuse to drive a bus displaying an advert for the alpha course).
On the subject of the advert, I do think that the wording could have been stronger:
(Thanks to the bus slogan generator, via b3ta)
Anyway, this site is more than just a blog. Since writing last I have put back the articles from the original version of this site and re-done the front page (just an introduction, but contains the important - and much talked about it would seem - disclaimer). Any other updates will be added below.
In the meantime, buy my stuff!
UPDATES:
23/02/09 - added a response to a Christian's view of atheism