Because I Am An Atheist

My contribution to Crommunist’s wonderful series, “Because I am an atheist”.

Because I am an atheist
The world is mine to fix.
No god prevents the plunderers,
The hypocrites, the dicks.
No god rewards the good we do
Or punishes the bad;
No afterlife awaits us,
Just the single life we’ve had.

Because I am an atheist
It’s up to me to change.
The world is what we make it,
Not some god’s to rearrange—
To recognize a problem, means
To seek solutions, too;
Because I am an atheist
I’m watching out for you.

Because I am an atheist
I cannot simply pray.
I cannot wish a problem gone
And make it go away.
God’s promise of protection
Is just one of many lies;
Because I am an atheist
I cannot close my eyes.

Enough verse. Because I am an atheist, I teach a course aimed at applying the best tools of my science toward making the world a better place. Because I am an atheist, I donate blood instead of praying for sick friends or relatives. Because I am an atheist (and an “out” atheist), I try to live as a counterexample to the “evil atheist” stereotype, and serve as a resource for others who are leaving a faith community and unsure of what might lie ahead.

That’s what I do in meatspace. Online, I write silly verses. Because I am an atheist, they tend to be from a different perspective than, say, Hallmark.

Search Terms Puzzle

So today, I had a visit to my blog from someone using the search term “a person has severed her finger what do you do first”.

My question is, what conceivable circumstance under which you are searching for that phrase, would you see “The Digital Cuttlefish” in your results and decide I think I’ll click this one!”.

(Oddly enough, when I search for “a person has severed her finger what do you do first” on Google, one of my posts does show up on page one. So at least our intrepid searcher did not waste time looking beyond there.)

I do hope that among the top three things that were done were A) apply pressure to the wound to minimize bleeding, B) find the severed digit and put it on ice, and C) call 911 (ok, in truth that originally read “dial 911”, which simply shows that I am old). This is not advice–this is my list of at least three things I would do before hopping onto Google and asking. I could be wrong.

I genuinely hope all is well with whoever is the reason for that particular search. I do feel just a bit horrible that my blog might conceivably have been a distraction along the way.

Oh, and if anyone knows the actual real answer to “what do you do first”, consider posting it here, and I’ll happily add it to this post, just for future searchers.

Happy Birthday, Freethought Blogs!

That’s right, one year ago today, we went live. And promptly crashed. And soon overloaded our server, and were frustratingly slow… and replaced equipment, and got better.

And got bigger. From an initial five bloggers, we now have some 36 blogs, some with multiple contributors or guest bloggers. I’ve found more new must-reads than I have time to read, and my world has expanded, in terms of topics, in terms of issues, in terms of geographic and political boundaries. I thank all of my fellow bloggers, and wish all of us much continued success.

And I just noticed. I have averaged just under one new verse of some sort a day. Some days with none (or with a re-run), but some days with two or three. I don’t have time at the moment, but now I have to go see which were my favorites.

So thank you, all of you, my readers, commenters, fellow bloggers, and especially Ed and PZ. And many happy returns!

One Year At Freethought Blogs

Today marks The Digital Cuttlefish’s one year anniversary here at Freethought Blogs–my first post here went up July 21st of 2011, a few days before the network went public. Thanks, Ed and PZ, for creating this space and populating it with these people. And thank you, readers and commenters, for the reactions that keep me addicted to writing here.

From one year ago: [Read more…]