Shit, I missed my own anniversary, #3 to be exact, and but one shy of 400 posts, Holy Moly!!!! 400?? Talk about your writing practice. Each post averages around 1,000 words (a few are nearly book chapter in length at 5,000 words) so three years of research and writing produced in the neighborhood of over 400,000 words. The first book “The Arrogance of Religious Thought” (TART) ran a bit over 85,000 words, much of it new and reworked material, so one can see how 90% of what was penned here never made it to publication. So its practice, and learning, and hopefully informing my regular readers and a few more who may have bumped into my blogposts now and again.
Well, if you want to get good at anything, I guess you have to work at it, a lot. You gotta practice your craft and I must admit I learned SO much researching all the topics I covered:
Anti-theism (113)
Comedy (16)
Evolution (32)
History (24)
Humanism (74)
Music (5)
Neuroscience (7)
Nonbelief (108)
Paleoarchaeology (5)
Philosophy (15)
Politics (37)
Psychology (18)
Religion (276)
Science (129)
Secularism (200)
Skepticism (145)
Over 50 posts are on Islam alone! I realized fully when I started this blog in the Fall of 2013, that I’d barely read much on Islam. In the intervening 3 years, I’ve read over 20 books on the subject, (many of them mentioned in the various blogs here), viewed dozens of YouTube videos by ex-Muslims and Muslims, historians and religious commentators, and read countless articles and blogs. It certainly makes me no expert, but I definitely know a bit more about the religion than I once did. I’ve always said, one of the best ways to learn about something is try to explain it, teach it to someone else. Summarizing and rewriting information in your own words makes you go that extra step beyond just reading, even studying material in assimilating information. It takes one’s learning and remembering up another notch. It is a lot of fun as well. I enjoy writing so much. Now to build a bigger audience.
How in the hell did I miss the 3rd anniversary of my very owns blog on Oct 21st? Oh yeah, TART was pubbed and finally available for sale that same week:
Looking back I realize that along with teaching 7 courses this semester, I’ve been painting the house trim on the weekends, and building a stair railing (finally) on the steps leading up to my cozy little study, all which kept me more than a little occupied this fall. No complaints tho, as all that work was in preparation to applying for a home equity loan to payoff the loan for the the 1st book (among other things) and fund the year-long promotional activities that I have planned to get myself known outside of the Chicagoland/Northern Illinois secular community as an author and speaker and get “The Arrogance of Religious Thought” out in the bookstores. All that along with supporting my continued weekly writing efforts here on “Dispatches…” and the followup book well in progress now, entitled:
“End Religion Now: The Promise of the New Enlightenment”
I hope I have enlightened a few people with the information and perspectives on religions that I have tried to convey here over the years. It been a great run so far. No complaints.
I learned a lot.
THANKS!
Thnx to any and all that have read my work. I hope you feel my writing was worth your time and you learned something of import as well. Exchange of information is what keeps us from groveling in the mud, and will one day completely remove the tyranny of religious thought as well.
waz
11/26/16
end religion now
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