…and this is a 
Lusty atheism
Category: Godlessness
Posted on: February 18, 2008 7:13 AM, by PZ Myers
Greta Christina hosts the Carnival of the Godless this week, which means the atheism is laced with sex. This is an avenue for recruiting people to the atheist cause that has not been adequately pursued.
Although there is something to be said for goddesses: the Sunday Sermonette is a hymn from Janis. Whoa, but she could sing. We also learn that the Reveres were young doctors in 1969, had a chance to go to Woodstock, and skipped it because it was going to rain. I missed it, too, but my excuse is a little better: I was 12 years old and on the opposite side of the country. I was a fan of Janis at that time, though, and I swear, that woman accelerated the onset of puberty for me by at least two years.
Comments
Re: "This is an avenue for recruiting people to the atheist cause that has not been adequately pursued."
Exactly. It's just as I was saying the other day -- this is one of our selling points. It compensates for not offering whole imaginary pie-in-the-sky thing. ;)
Posted by: C. L. Hanson | February 18, 2008 7:49 AM
Over at onegoodmove there is a link from a poster to a series on philosophers by Alain de Botton who wrote "The Consolations of Philosophy". So far I have watched the episodes on Epicurus and Nietzsche.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2975222748330605245
These are a good complement to the book.
Posted by: bernarda | February 18, 2008 7:59 AM
At any mention of Janis, I feel obligated as a public service to point out Dana Fuchs, who almost makes me want to believe in reincarnation. ;) (Almost. There's only one Janis, but I think Dana is as close as we're ever gonna get to another one. Although Janis never compared religion with masturbation...)
Posted by: Joshua | February 18, 2008 8:03 AM
Wow. I had never heard of Dana Fuchs before, but I think you just sold an album or two.
Posted by: PZ Myers | February 18, 2008 8:32 AM
"This is an avenue for recruiting people to the atheist cause that has not been adequately pursued."
There seems to be two camps--the "I'm a prude because I will not lend credence to those base desires," and the "I'm a prude because I'm still attached to my former religion's moral code."
When we approach things that way, we are inevitably criticized and marginalized by atheists and theists for being shallow, immature, crude, sexist, immoral heathens who give atheists everywhere a bad name.That's what prompted two of my blog posts; one about porn and one about atheist divisiveness.
Watch out--if people see you advocating the use of sex as a recruiting tool for atheism, even if tongue-in-cheek, people will think that atheists have sex and might even like it!! That would just confirm their preconceived notions of our inherent immorality and debauchery. Ultimately, you'll set atheism back 3000 years. /sarcasm
Posted by: Kelly O'Connor | February 18, 2008 11:11 AM
PZ: If you get only one, I recommend Live in NYC. It's more raw than her studio album, which really works for her style. (And that album includes two encore tracks, including "Helter Skelter" and the almost-equally-awesome song "Bad Seed".)
Of course, why settle for one when you can get two, right? ;)
Posted by: Joshua | February 18, 2008 12:22 PM
Too bad you were only 12 PZ. You missed a good one!
Dana Fuchs? You'd think I would know about her since that's my last name. Will have to check up on her.
Posted by: Greg | February 18, 2008 1:29 PM
>>This is an avenue for recruiting people to the atheist cause that has not been adequately pursued.
PZ, it's call "mactivism" and it also works for vegetarianism and other progressive causes. :-)
Hillary
Posted by: Hillary Rettig / The Lifelong Activist | February 18, 2008 1:31 PM
Pie on earth! ;P
Posted by: Azkyroth | February 18, 2008 5:09 PM
This is an avenue for recruiting people to the atheist cause that has not been adequately pursued.
Don't speak so fast. I have been vigorously pursuing this avenue of recruitment with a charming and highly intelligent young liberal Christian lady of my acquaintance. Amusingly, she has one other carnal entanglement, and it is with the one person in my circle of friends who matches me in stridency of atheism.
Manifestly her beliefs permit her a great deal of freedom in this area - it turns out that God doesn't mind nearly as much as people say, who knew - so it's not directly a selling point for atheism, but it affords the opportunity for many an interesting conversation.
Posted by: Paul Crowley | February 19, 2008 3:36 AM