secularism carnival supplement!!!

First of all, be sure to check out the Humanist Symposium -- Lynet has written it up as an interlocking ruba'iyat!!!

I'd like to add one more link to an article that presents a view similar to what I said in my secularism post (found via friendly atheist): the director of Camp Quest has written a great article here explaining why (like me!) she'd prefer to talk to religious people about subjects like separation of church and state rather than re-hash familiar god/no-god arguments with people who have made up their minds. (BTW, they have a Camp Quest in Minnesota, and I am sooooo sending my kids there when they're older and spending a full Summer at the grandparents' house... :D )

At the same time, it looks like humanists are basically in favor of Dawkins and Hitchens...

I think the resolution/explanation was best expressed by Greta Christina, who asks "Why is this even a fight at all?": Good cop, bad cop. This is a truly excellent article that explains why it's not useful to expect the whole movement to adopt a single, uniform strategy. I'd actually been kind of thinking of the "new atheism" controversy in terms of of good-cop/bad-cop, but I hesitated to embrace that model because it makes the "good cop" look, I dunno, kinda insincere (as in "Well of course P.Z. Myers thinks you're a moron, but don't worry -- I don't think you're a moron..." *snicker*). But Greta does a good job of explaining how hardliners and moderates working together can be a legitimate political strategy and not just a manipulative interrogation technique.

On a completely unrelated note, I'm in From Around the Net, however, I haven't gotten into the Carnival of the Veil lately (can't seem to find the submission form for that one...) but some fun newer exmo blogs are there.

Plus, if you're curious for more details on the connection between my novel and the work of Judy Blume, I've written about it here: Not Quite Forever...