David Wood, Continued

In a recent post, I spoke about David Wood's phony conversion story, which had appeared in Shadow To Light.  I made a comment over there, which generated some discussion.  It was probably some of the most interesting discussion that has occurred in that blog in quite some time, because most of the people there simply echo the thoughts of the poster.  But in this case, there was someone presenting an opposing point of view for a change.

To be sure, I was met with hostility from some, but others seemed to be interested in having a conversation about morality from a naturalist perspective.  I was in the middle of this when Mikey, the blog's owner, decided to ban me.  Of course, he had a perfectly good reason to ban me, I suppose: I told him that he made a statement that wasn't true, and I had said this was dishonest in my first comment there (and what he said absolutely was untrue: "When someone becomes an atheist, what sets the stage i[s] the following intuitive insight: There is something very wrong with them; they need to be stopped.").  So much for our conversation about morality. 

Let me say a few things about Mikey and his blog.  If you go to the home page and look at the posts there, you will see that the whole blog is focused almost exclusively on bashing atheists, especially New Atheists (or 'gnus')  That's fine, as far as I'm concerned.  I do my share of bashing, too.  I have written about another of his posts here.  He has every right to express his opinions, and when he lies (as he often does), or when he smears people or defames them, I believe it is my right to call him out on those things.  That's free speech in action.

But Mikey seems to be very thin-skinned.  He apparently can't stand hearing anyone say something about him that is any less friendly than "Great post, Mike! You really nailed that one."  In his blog, you can smear people all day long, provided they're atheists, but don't say anything negative about little Mikey.  He told me, "you pop up on this blog and immediately begin to smear others and myself", (others being David Wood).  And he said "You can now add this blog to the list where your opinions are no longer welcome" (the"list" being Victor's blog).

Now, I don't want to sound like I'm upset about this.  As far as I'm concerned, it's a badge of honor.  Mikey can have his little echo chamber and go on bashing atheists.  It gives me something to write about.  But at least one person there seems to want to continue the conversation we were having.  So let me say to FZM (and anyone else there), you are welcome here, and I would be happy to pick up where we left off.  I promise that I am nowhere near as thin-skinned as Mikey, so go ahead and let me know what you think.  All I ask is that you remain civil.