New year, new fun stuff online

Sure, the new year should begin around December 21, but the meaninglessly arbitrary January 1 will just have to do. Whatever the date, it's sure exciting to celebrate this celestial milestone that's only happened... what, about 6000 times before, right?

Starting the new solar go-round with some randomly-spotted items of note:

Commit blasphemy on your tabletop!

While there may be even more fun ways to blaspheme atop the dining room table, the Blasphemy board game and "Jesus smack down" by Pinstripe Publishing seems ready to offend any true believer. It's unfortunate that the $99 price tag (presumably a matter of low production runs) will keep the game out of many hands.

Atheists and Anger

One of my pet fundie whines is, "If you don't think God is real, why do you rail against Him?" We don't; we rail against foolish and harmful belief in unproven ideas, a human failing that is real. Along those lines, the article Atheists and Anger is excellent read for anyone, atheist or not. 

Backward evolution?

Blogger The Raving Atheist has decided to become The Raving Theist, according to a Jesus-embracing post that offers no reason for the change of faith. Is this meant to be a real conversion, a la novelist Anne Rice's turn to a different kind of undead? Or is it a big, if not particularly clever, Poe?

I suspect the latter. In any case, while the post doesn't offer anything of substance, the comments debate raged mightily. I enjoyed many of the remarks, such as these:

Bobby Johnson on "personal relationships" with God: "Pray tell, just how does one have a personal  relationship with an invisible, intangible, weightless, soundless, and scentless  critter devoid of any heat signature detectable by NASA?"

Jason Failes on "I see evidence of God in trees and stars": "...and why is it always trees and stars?  Why does no one ever say "malaria, AIDS, genetic disorders, birth defects,cometary impacts, polio, and bot flies"?"