Al Stefanelli of A Voice of Reason says some flattering (and totally true) stuff about my book, Red Neck, Blue Collar, Atheist: Simple Thoughts About Reason, Gods & Faith. Packed into twenty-five chapters is the wisdom of a lifetime and proves you do not have to be a great thinker to think great things. The foreword begins not with a treatise on astrophysics, molecular biology or archaeology. It starts with, “My dog died,” and flows into life in the Eastern Sierra’s of California, … [Read more...]
Interview With The Blue Collar Atheist
May 4, 2012 By 6 Comments
Sometimes you read something you wrote or said sometime back, and you go "Damn! That was me? This is some really good stuff!" That was my reaction to this post on my old site, shortly after the publication of my book. Anyway, I'm reposting it. ------------------------------ What’s the book about? … [Read more...]
Never Too Late for a Good Review!
February 20, 2012 By 4 Comments
Adam Lee of Daylight Atheism reviewed my book! His review post is from Feb. 1, but I only just found it. In this book, he definitively puts to rest the oft-heard stereotype that atheism is a worldview solely for egghead ivory-tower intellectuals, not for heartland salt-of-the-earth folks. As he writes in the intro, "I've been a ranch hand, mule packer, wilderness guide, carpenter, truck driver, meat cutter, roofer, and a lot of other stuff besides... This is how I see the world." [ ... ] There … [Read more...]
Get Real: Losing the Love of God
January 21, 2012 By 12 Comments
Note for new readers: I lost my Dad, Dan Farris, a few months back. I’ve been thinking a lot about that, and what it’s doing to me. I keep a digital recorder with me all the time, and I record thoughts and impressions about the process and the milestones. Here is one such thought. I relate it for the same reason I wrote my book, Red Neck, Blue Collar, Atheist — we have plenty of books and speakers to tell us about the WHY of atheism, but very few to tell us about the HOW. Yes, getting … [Read more...]
Two New Book Reviews!
December 26, 2011 By 8 Comments
There are a couple of new reviews of my book Red Neck, Blue Collar, Atheist: Simple Thoughts About Reason, Gods & Faith up at Amazon. Being busy this month, I hadn't noticed them. I keep expecting there will be a ripping Christian reviewer show up sooner or later, so I always brace myself when I find new reviews. But ... these were pretty good. I especially liked this bit from Jim Curtis: … [Read more...]
Blue Collar Atheist: Three Posts
October 18, 2011 By 2 Comments
What follows (below, in posts time-stamped earlier than this one so they’re stacked 1, 2, 3 down the page) is two chapters of my book, Red Neck, Blue Collar, Atheist: Simple Thoughts About Reason, Gods & Faith. I’m posting this lead-in and these two chapters so you’ll have a better idea of the tone and something of the content. Yes, I’m selling them, and yes, I hope you’ll buy one. Just below is the first chapter, Introduction: Who Is This Guy? — which is of course about me, … [Read more...]
Blue Collar Atheist: Introduction — Who is this guy?
October 18, 2011 By 5 Comments
I grew up in Texas with a bunch of rodeo cowboys. I wanted to become a veterinarian, a horse doctor, but it didn’t pan out. Instead, I ended up working as a carpenter, driving a dump truck and then a soda delivery truck, being foreman of a roofing company, and a lot of other stuff in that same vein. I moved away to the mountains in the west when I was about 21 and got a job at a pack station (a ranch, sort of) on the edge of the wilderness, where I worked with horses and mules. I was also a … [Read more...]
Blue Collar Atheist: Foreword — Saying Goodbye To Gods
October 18, 2011 By 4 Comments
My dog died. Don’t sweat it – it was more than a decade ago now, and I’m (mostly) over it. Can’t tell you how much I loved the old beast. His official name was Woodacres Ranger, and he was from a line of champion German shepherd show dogs. But I never even bothered to register him. To me, he was Ranger the Valiant Warrior, my best friend for more than 12 years, and we romped through the heart of the world together. For most of his life, we lived in California’s Eastern Sierra, in a … [Read more...]
Who’s Up for Burning Some Bibles?
September 24, 2011 By 39 Comments
Mulling several recent stories about burning or defacing "holy" books: So why aren't we atheists burning more Bibles? I mean, really, it would make the point that these books are non-holy, and the second point that we (and others) certainly have the freedom to do it. . … [Read more...]
From the Book: “Kind Words”
September 5, 2011 By 8 Comments
Quite a lot of what I think about when I think about atheism is non-religious morality. This is a piece that bears on the subject,a short chapter from my book. It grew out of an essay on an older blog, and it’s titled simply “Kind Words.” Like so many things, the subject has nothing at all to do with religion, but far too many people think it DOES, and find it impossible to imagine it any other way. It's obvious to me that the minute you take up believing in gods, you become less able to … [Read more...]
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