The Non-Existent Freethought Blogs Mission Statement

John Loftus, who briefly had a blog here at FTB before leaving and then commencing a series of whiny and passive aggressive attacks on those of us who blog here, has gone from complaining about the mythical hive mind among the bloggers here to complaining that we disagree too much. Yes, I’m serious.

I’m not picking a fight with the FtB but I would really like to know what the mission statement of the mammoth skeptical Freethought Blog is. What unites them? What is it? Most organizations have a mission statement. I think the FtB’s should come together to produce one. I would really be interested beyond the fact that they are non-believers. I’m not talking about what they agree about, since they are united about non-belief and the need for diversity, but rather what their agendas are, their goals for being there. However, my guess is that if they produced one it would be so broad of a statement that it would end up being equivalent to something like this:

We at FtB have come together as a diverse group of atheists who have a diverse set of atheist agendas in order to have a bigger voice than we would normally have if we were not here.

As the founder and owner of this network, I suppose I’m the right person to answer his question. And the answer is simple: Freethought Blogs does not have a mission statement. It will never have a mission statement. We simply aren’t that kind of “organization” (and please note the use of this incredibly vague word, as though all “organizations” were of the same type and should all have mission statements). And we do not have a collective goal or agenda in writing our own blogs or in joining this particular group of bloggers. Each of us has our own motivations, goals and reasons for both of those things. In fact, John seems to understand that:

Now that’s okay if so, and if the people there are happy with having a bigger voice. But if this is what it amounts to then even though they have a bigger voice for being at FtB they are drowning out each other’s voice when they disagree. Some say they are against prostitution and pornography while others are for them both. Some call for the resignation of DJ Grothe while others support him. Some are against the hiring of an ex-Bush White House adviser as an Executive Director for the Secular Coalition of America while others disagree. Some want more activists invited to the FtB while others like Richard Carrier want credentialed women philosophers (and he’s proven that they exist). So individual FtB’s should consider how their goals are being achieved by being there, when their voices are being drowned out by other FtB’s. Why are they there? It’s a simple question, a respectful one. Some of the bloggers don’t even blog much at all in their area of expertise, like my good friend Mano Singham who is a theoretical physicist (sorry Mano). One of them characterized a different blogger by saying: “We even have a drunken chef.” Why is he there at all then? If so, that’s wasted space.

So what is the mission statement of the Freethought Blog? For all many of us can tell, it looks like it only highlights that atheists cannot agree on much more than non-belief, and that seems counter-productive to atheist causes. My opinion is that because the FtB does not have a mission statement it’s becoming more and more like a loose cannon on deck, at least on some issues. Because they lack one they invite diverse voices who drown each other out. All other people have to do is sit back and let them self-destruct. And it also gives some FtB’s a bigger voice among atheist circles than they would otherwise have had, who in turn use that bigger voice to blast other atheists who don’t have such a big voice.

First of all, let me note that it isn’t even a requirement that one be an atheist to blog here. If the late Martin Gardner, who was a deist, were still alive and interested in blogging here, do you think we would turn him down? Not a chance. Few people have contributed as much to the cause of skepticism as Gardner did for decades and we would be foolish to not welcome him to the fold. There are others that I imagine would be welcomed here as well who are believers, like Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State or Ken Miller.

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