I suspect you can see where this is going.

The death of my grandfather, combined with some medical problems among the rest of my family, mean that I’m going to have to take some time off to deal with family matters. I’m not likely to be near a computer for the next week.

If the silence gets too much, you can use the time to write a guest post of your own. You can submit your posts to: vorjack.unreasonablefaith@gmail.com

Thanks folks. Back in a week or so.

Vorjack

Bart Ehrman has just started a blog titled Christianity in Antiquity. Good stuff, but there’s a hitch: some of the content is behind a pay wall. But the money generated by the blog with go to charities that fight hunger, poverty and homelessness.

Interesting idea. I’m always ambivalent about pay walls, but it helps to know that the money is going to those who need it. But given the spendthrift nature of the blogosphere, I don’t know if it will work. Why pay for opinions that you can get for free on countless other blogs? And it will hamper the inevitable back-and-forth of blog arguments if you can’t link to something that’s members only.

Out of curiosity, would you be more likely to use a site that has a pay wall over a site that has as many ads as Patheos? Just to be clear, I have no way of arranging such a thing, I’m just asking.

I imagine that everyone has noticed the changes in the Patheos design and layout. This is a site wide change that has impacted everyone.

I’ve heard some grumbling. Now that you’ve had a couple days to get used to it, what do you think of it? Is there anything you particularly like or dislike?

The Patheos collective continues to grow. I’m really happy to see that Libby Anne from Love, Joy and Feminism has joined in. She’s even brought a parasite along with her. Thanks, Libby. If it bursts out of your chest and starts killing off the rest of us one at a time, I’m gonna have to remove you from the blogroll.

Also adding to the agnostic/atheist wing of the collective is Greg Epstein at Good Without God. Well, maybe. In his last post he comments, “I’m exhausted and wondering how the hell bloggers do it.” One thing we do is self-indulgent administrative posts where we try to send traffic to everyone else. Hope that helps.

While it’s not an atheist/agnostic blog, we now have a group blog titled Science on Religion which looks extremely promising.

And of course, the biggest news: Bristol Palin! Yes indeed, over at Bristol’s Blog … eh, I’m sorry, my fingers will rebel if I try to type a glowing review. Star Foster decided to make a silk purse out of this: 13 Reasons I’m Glad Bristol Palin Is At Patheos.

6. The Atheists Are Ignoring Her
Which cracks me up. Not a peep out of them this week about her. They are hardly a reticent bunch, and shy and retiring aren’t among their attributes. I love that they are in their own little world far away from all us “religious nuts.”

*cough* Yeah, we’re not really venturing far out of our happy place, are we? I’ll cop to not being “shy and retiring,” but can I plead “clueless and socially inept” instead?

Plus, at the moment Palin is focusing her blog on Trig, which isn’t something to get worked up about unless you’re Andrew Sullivan.

Kind of embarrassing that I didn’t know about it until a link in the sidebar of Exploding our Cakemix sent me to Star’s post. So the atheist blogger found out about the conservative evangelical blog from a liberal Christian blog and a pagan blog. That pretty much sums up Patheos, I think.