Hello to anyone who's clicked over from Pharyngula

It seems we've been mentioned rather disapprovingly on PZ Myers's blog, and we expect that skeptics who are interested in studying the evidence before drawing their own conclusions will be clicking over here to see what the fuss is about.

So, hello and welcome.

To address the issue: two things have happened which connect you to us directly to us. Somebody posting under the name 'PZ Myers' made a couple of comments linking to Dr Myers's old site; a bit suspicious, we e-mailed Dr Myers to find out if someone was spoofing his name. We haven't heard back, so we cannot make the presumption that this commenter was actually Dr. Myers absent any data to verify that hypothesis. Second, Dr Myers made a critical comment about us on his own blog:

At least since Fred turned his blog with its unique voice into a hostel for simpering accommodationists and incompetent fools, that’s [the allegation that we are hypocrites] true.

I used to read it regularly — at least a few times a week — but completely tuned out as those other weirdos turned it into a halfway house for confused blitherers.

We hope that if you read the blog here, you will come to a different conclusion.

We do not consider our position to be confused or weird. It is simply this: we believe that it is important to maintain bonds of friendship, communication and respect between people of different philosophical and metaphysical positions. (It's worth pointing out, for instance, that our administration team consists of one atheist, one Christian and one agnostic.) We are not a 'safe space' for any one group; instead we aim to be a 'safe-ish space' where the only major rule is that people do not fall below a basic level of courtesy to one another. We enjoy being a pluralistic place where we can hear worldviews that do not match our own because we feel that even if we disagree with those worldviews, it's best to hear about them from people who actually hold them. We like to learn from each other.

You could, if you like, call this accommodationist, but we do not think we're confused.

Of course we no longer have a unique voice: we no longer have a single blogger. This is now a community blog with a multiplicity of voices. We do, however, feel that we have preserved the spirit of Fred's original blog. Fred was notable for criticising what he saw as bad behaviour within his own group. The article that kicked off this fuss - a piece in which an atheist was strongly critical of atheist activist Greta Christina's stated goals of the atheist movement - was, we believed, in the same spirit. It was strongly worded, but Fred's pieces were often strongly worded as well; we did not necessarily agree with its position, but we don't refuse to publish articles just because we don't agree with them. We saw it as an article that fell just on the right side of the civility line that deserved to be put out there for debate, and which could be balanced out by other articles stating a contrary position if people chose to write them.

Well, debate happened, and attention has been called. We'll be publishing many other articles in future that express completely different worldviews. If you'd like to stick around and are prepared to abide by the community standards of 'don't be a jerk', you will be most welcome.

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The Board Administration Team
(hapax, Kit Whitfield and mmy)



Comments

[kisekileia]

@Mmy: Oh, that's interesting that your alumni association has coverage! I wonder if mine does. I think probably not--I most likely would have heard about it if I did--but it's worth looking into.

I'm glad you feel that my prescription costs should be covered. I'm borderline unemployable (incapable of being on time for anything, and my body thinks bedtime is about 6 am) without my $235/month med, and the other meds are pretty necessary too. I currently have limited health insurance under a plan that you can get right after coming off a group insurance plan without a medical questionnaire, but the yearly limit on prescription drugs is only about half what I need, and the dental coverage isn't really extensive.

It's really irritating how I seem to get whatever dental problems can't be prevented with good oral hygiene. I hardly ever have cavities, and I don't have gum disease per se, but I've had issues with receding gums and with TMJ disorder through no fault of my own. The TMJ disorder has gotten bad enough that I now need Percocet on a daily basis for the pain, so I don't really feel that not getting the $3800 worth of dental appliances that I need to fix it is an option. Plus, I need surgery for receding gums, and I know (from the previous time I had this surgery) that if the TMJ issues aren't at least partially sorted out beforehand, I will have horrendous jaw pain afterwards. I hope my parents feel the same way about this being a necessary expense.

[Mmy]

@kisekileia: Oh, that's interesting that your alumni association has coverage! I wonder if mine does. I think probably not--I most likely would have heard about it if I did--but it's worth looking into.

In all honesty I didn't realize that mine did until someone who works on retirement planning told me about it. Then I had to look around the site quite a bit and then I found that the "no medical questionnaire dental/prescription with a life-time limit" plan was available for far, far, far less than you are paying a month.

Did you go to U of T? Their alumni association has a website and if they are like mine -- I found a telephone number, called, said "HELP!!!!!!!!!!" and someone spent about an hour on the phone walking me through the options.

[The Board Administration Team]

Comments to this post will be closed in 49 minutes.

[Timothy (TRiG)]

Will you leave a link here to the thread where discussion on this topic will remain open?

TRiG.

[The Board Administration Team]

General moderated discussions can continue at Special Weekend Open Thread and unmoderated discussions are continuing at Managing the discussion.