First, a lot of it isn't even secularist or secular humanist or atheist on ethics or other things. It's generic US librul, with a dash from across the pond.
Second, within that, in its repeated writings on the Russia-Ukraine War, it's very very much US/NATO Nat-sec Nutsack librul. And with that, let's dive in.
OnlySky Media was founded by the atheist contingent formerly at Patheos after Patheos essentially said, they say, that they had to be nice to theists.
So, they formed their own sandbox. And, to be honest, there's a fair amount not to like.
First, when I decided, hey, since I missed out on Patheos atheists' rise to fame, and a few bucks, and then got blocked from commenting by not-a-bible-scholar Gnu Atheist Neil Carter (one of the OnlySky gang), let's see if I can't hook up there, especially since they say they're open for contributors. (More on individual contributors getting shite wrong below.)
In their request for submissions, they say:
New columnists are added continually based not only on quality but on whether the proposed column fills an unmet need. We already have religious criticism pretty well covered.
Uhh, no, as I note below, in follow-up to what I noted originally, as well as things outside religion.
First, inside religion?
Jonathan M.S. Pearce, as already documented here in giving a guest poster space trying to defend Bart Ehrman's most recent book, or directly here, as linked there, cutting blank checks to Jesus mythicists, has gotten issues of biblical criticism wrong. And, I mean, easily identifiable as wrong. I identify him as being a semi-Gnu, like Croft. Within religion, his piece claiming circumcision is a mark of slavery is full of holes on issues such as his ignoring acts of religion as cost-paying signaling. Add in that Hector Avalos, whom he cites, is a Jesus mythicist fellow-traveler. (Being a self-proclaimed agnostic on both the historic Jesus as well as mythicism makes you a mythicist fellow traveler. As is Pearce himself IMO.)
Then there's Paul Golin, not previously critiqued, talking about why an atheist Jew celebrates Hanukkah. First, as far as being historical? The events afterward didn't play out exactly as presented in 1 Maccabees. I've blogged about that before. I blogged about that more at my main blog. He also ignores, contra Shlomo Sand and many others, as I have also discussed, that Hanukkah is originally pagan. Since the menorah ran dry, since Hanukkah has pagan roots and since, per Yonathan Adler, the Torah in general wasn't widely observed until AFTER the Maccabean revolt, if Golin is intellectually honest in act as well as thought, he's just doing a Jewish-tinged solstice event.
As for having other things covered? Phil Zuckerman supposedly writes the Secular Symphony, but his vertical had nothing about classical music one year ago. Today? His 10 most recent posts have ONE about music and it's not about classical music.
Then, back to Pearce, re the Russia-Ukraine war? In writing about things like "Putin's Russian sacrifice at the Chinese altar," too cute by half, he's himself decided to sacrifice at the US-NATO altar of abomination of desolation.
And, do I really need a secular humanist, let alone a librul as compared to a leftist, a traditional conservative or a libertarian, to tell me that AI isn't all it cracks itself up to be?
Note: I misspelled Pearce's name originally. That's been corrected. As for his claim I'm wrong otherwise?
You've substantively shown precisely nowhere where we have got things wrong, but merely that you disagree with certain stances. This is an assertion-as-opinion piece at most.
— Jonathan MS Pearce (@ATipplingPhilo) April 20, 2023
Nope, Jonathan:
The "assertion as opinion piece at most"? That covers Pearce himself, REPEATEDLY during his time at Patheos. That's why I've got the receipts. Specifically, contra the Tippling (Tippled too much) Philosopher? At Patheos, I pointed out specific wrongs where he went down the Nazareth didn't exist in Jesus' time road of mythicism, cited non-academic mythicists and more. ... As also noted, you're even wronger on the political.
There you are.
And no, I don't expect OnlySky in general, or Pearce in particular, to get any better in the next year. And, he's just as tetchy as he was two or more years ago.
And, yes, the political bothers me as does the Gnu or semi-Gnu Atheism. Especially given, per one of my previous blog posts, with this link, Pearce is already a documented Islamophobe. As does the fusion of secular humanism and atheism I noted a year ago. None of that is likely to change. (Sadly, Patheos totally 86-ed all atheist blogs when chasing away said bloggers; the Wayback Machine may have them, but maybe not.)
Spanky has since told me all about his separate "channel" for geopolitics and talked about a genocidal dictator. I trumped him with the 2014 Odessa genocide, which he didn't directly refute, the Amnesty International report on Ukrainian war crimes, reading Ivan Katchanovski and more.
He came back with a shitload of shit. After again saying watch my videos (like History for Atheists with his podcasts?) he came on with smears. Said I was being a Putin apologist. Called Katchanovski a "Kremlin apologist," and cited this blog with his name on it, full of post-Maidan smears and half truths, plus the Bulwark, as proof. Claimed, contra his OnlySky piece, that he does actual complexity on this issue. Said the AI piece was controversial.
I called him out on the straight smears. Called him out on his "complexity" claims being hypocritical. Said I knew AI had been called controversial and knew by who and why. Muted and exited Twitter convo.
But not before letting him know that he's really "The Self-Besotted Philosopher."
And, on the misspelling of his name originally? I apologized, said I would correct it, and did. Never a thank-you back. Self-Besotted Philosopher, or Asshole.
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