The Blogs We Read July 4, 2008

The Blogs We Read

By Guest Contributor
July 4, 2008

A new paper (PDF) has this to say about the blogs we read:

Left wingers read left wing blogs, right wingers read right wing blogs, and very few people read both left wing and right wing blogs. Those few people who read both left wing and right wing blogs are considerably more likely to be left wing themselves; interpret this as you like. Furthermore, blog readers are politically very polarized. They tend to clump around either the ‘strong liberal’ or the ‘strong conservative’ pole; there aren’t many blog readers in the center.

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It got me wondering:

  • How many Christian blogs do you read? Which ones?

  • If you have an atheist blog, how many Christians are visiting it? Commenting on it?

(via The Daily Dish)


[tags]atheism[/tags]

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  • The Thinking Theist

    Well, I’m a Christian and I frequent this blog and the Spanish Inquistor’s blog quite a bit. However, I rarely visit Christian blogs because my major is Christianity and Youth Ministry, so I know quite a bit about Christianity.

    The main reason that I frequent your blog is so I can learn more about what atheists believe (or don’t believe) and to try to explain any misconceptions that other bloggers may have about Christianity.

  • Andrew

    I read Ray Comfort’s blog, and “The Lawman Chronicles” (Tony Milano’s blog) which the former links to.
    I’d be open to reading more, I just haven’t sought them out.

    Does anyone know of anything like Friendly Atheist, but for Christians? I’d love to see sane Christian’s views for once.

    Just for the sake of data, this is the only “atheist blog” I read. I do read a few skeptic blogs, however (Skepchick, Pharyngula, Bad Astronomer) and those obviously have a very atheistic bent.

  • i’m subscribed to ray comfort’s soapbox. it helps me start the day with a chuckle.

  • Christian here….I really enjoy this blog, and many others from the blogroll here, both Christian and Atheist, as they contribute to a better understanding/living among each other.

    I also have a list of blogs/sites I find interesting posted on the side column of my own blog. That’s about the extent of my “blogosphere”.

  • I have been an atheist since childhood. When I used “technorati” to find intriguing looking blog posts on atheism or evolution, I looked at some Christian/conservative blogs as well as atheist blogs. I like to know how the other “half” thinks — not so much what they think, but how they think.

    Now, I rarely read blogs. However, when I do look for intriguing posts, I find them through “Planet Atheism”. . . and here I landed.

  • Erp

    Atheistic here.

    I look at SBCOutpost (Southern Baptist, a very different mindset), The Lead (liberal Episcopalian), Zach Alexander (not sure how to categorize a non-theistic Quaker [they don’t appear to be too uncommon]) among others. However two of these are ‘leftish’ even if religious.

  • Richard Wade

    To The Thinking Theist,

    The main reason that I frequent your blog is so I can learn more about what atheists believe (or don’t believe) and to try to explain any misconceptions that other bloggers may have about Christianity.

    I hope when you get to your ministry you’ll use what you learn here to also explain the misconceptions your youths have about atheism.

  • How would I know if I have Xian readers unless they comment?

    I suspect I have no subscribers who are Christian.

    Judging from the google searches that bring people in, I get found by a lot of Xians, but they’re also the hits where the viewing time is 2 seconds…

    My old “Faith based mathematics” cartoon gets a lot of hits, and also some posts where I talk about stuff where people say something along the lines of “I know it in my heart”.

    Sitemeter doesn’t record the shrieks and wails of the poor Christian homeschoolers who want their algebra with a hefty dose of Jesus and find my pages.

    How would that go, anyway?

    “A Pharisee leaves Galilee heading south at 30 cubits per second, and a Sadducee leaves Jerusalem heading east at 10 parasot per day…”

  • The Thinking Theist

    To Richard Wade,

    I hope when you get to your ministry you’ll use what you learn here to also explain the misconceptions your youths have about atheism.

    I will do my best to explain to my youths any misconceptions that may have about atheism.

    My hope for working with youth is to help them figure out what they believe, whether that is Christianity or not. The church left a lot to be desired in my spiritual life and it wasn’t until I got to college that I begun to understand the bias that are often implanted against other religions and “world-views.”

  • Arlen

    I’m a theist and this is the only “religious” blog that I read.

  • I read one Christian blog (Ray Comforts) mainly for a daily dose of laughs. According to a poll I made on my website a few months back, around 13% of readers are theists. I think much less actually bother to comment.

  • scott

    I visit Rabbi boteach’s website often, a religious man who believes that atheists who are charitable and kind are more useful and more likely to be rewarded in the afterlife than selfish greedy religious people is ok in my book

  • scott

    forgot to link website http://www.shmuley.com/home.php

  • I don’t go to religious sites because they either a) angry up my blood, or b) talk about things that don’t interest me.

    However, I get a fair share of fundie commenters trying to “steer [me] toward the right path.” *rolls eyes*

  • I read Stuff Christians Like. Ray Comfort makes me laugh/want to punch things. And most of the personal blogs I read are written by religious people.

    I don’t think I have enough readers to determine that.

  • That study has got to be 20 years old. Corporate News Network and Katie Couric are all lib-ruhl?

    As to lib-ruhls being left-wing, hey, Republicans, we got some stuff out here that will turn your bowels to water.

  • I can’t help but read Ray Comfort’s blog, which is like watching a car wreck unfold in bullet-time. I also subscribe to Worldview Weekend (a cornucopia of misguided theology and completely bent political theory), OneNewsNow, and my current favorite, the unicorn-believing bozos at Answers in Genesis. Oh my lack of god are they funny. And Townhall.com does its fair share of proselytizing, if that is how the word is spelled. The last ones I don’t read for pleasure, exactly. It is best to know the tunes that the devil is piping.

    I almost never get visits by religiously inclined folks, but I was referred to by AiG once since I am sponsoring a contest for someone to publish a joke paper in their research journal. Heheh. I amuse me. Bastards didn’t even give me a link.

    HJ

  • I’m an atheist blogger with a small Christian readership. (I sure wouldn’t mind a few atheist subscribers too!). I frequent this blog, Pharyngula and Atheist Experience. I haven’t found a Christian blog that is terribly interesting to me. After reading these comments though, I may have to start reading Ray Comfort’s blog. Thanks for the tips, guys!

  • I’m often surprised by the number of Christians that come to my blog and comment there. And it’s always amusing to get evangelistic comments and emails of people trying to “win me back to the faith.”

    The only Christian blog I read is more than 95 theses (which is written by a Christian professor and writer, but isn’t too religious). I read a few others only because they are friends. I used to read dozens more, but I’ve paired down since becoming an unbeliever.

    And thanks to the comments, I’ve subscribed to the Comfortmiester’s blog, because I always need good, funny material.

  • I’m a Christian and this is probably the only “atheist” blog I read. I read a lot of homechooling blogs by atheists parents however. A few by Christian parents as well but mostly atheist.

    When it comes to forums I also hit the atheist ones. I’m a long time poster at IIDB and recently joined the Richard Dawkins forum.

  • efrique said:

    How would I know if I have Xian readers unless they comment?

    I suspect I have no subscribers who are Christian.

    You just got one! I don’t understand half of what you’re talking about (Riemann Hypothesis??) but hell, it’s still interesting. And you have promised a post on SG-1 as well. 😀

  • I don’t read many Christian blogs (just the two in my sidebar, one of which is a personal friend who hardly ever posts about religion). But I read the Mormon blogs (the Bloggernacle) religiously. 😉

    I subscribe to about twenty blogs by/for believing Mormons, and I comment. I also know that there are a number of believing Mormons who read my blog (and comment occasionally), but obviously I don’t know precisely how many.

  • By and large, I also read mostly posts with views I agree with.

    However, I do also read “God’s Politics” (Jim Wallis and the Sojourners folks) “Threads from Henry’s Web” (Henry Neufeld’s blog) and “Monkey Trials” (Scott Hatfield).

    These are the exceptions that prove the rule. They are all Christian blogs, but presenting a liberal style view I find congenial.

  • I’ve got a co-blogger (alas, inactive now) who’s an observant orthodox Jew. I love his articles, which are mostly secular, but he may not like mine so much. After you’ve been friends for so long, you learn to put up with each other. I also had a young LDS woman who discussed things regularly.

    An who’s that ex-Mormon woman who lives in France? I loved her blog.

    Thank all you folks for suggesting blogs. Some are on my blogroll now, thanks to you.

  • I just read Ray Comfort’s blog, thanks to you, and what to my bleeding eyeballs should appear?

    The truth is that the Christian is like a doctor, who is working with a patient who has psychological problems. He has been well-trained to recognize that his client will suffer from delusional paranoia

    Well-trained?

  • Hi, Teen Atheist. You’re on my blogroll. Thx.

    The Facebook Atheist, Agnostic and Non-Religious group is sometimes good. It’s uneven. And wear your nomex underwear. And that’s from the regulars. The LJ atheist and skeptic blogs are kinda sleepy. I’ve given up RupertSpace for Lent.

  • I used to have more Christian commenters back when I actually wrote about religion, I get one every now and then these days. Subscribers? Probably zero. Again, I don’t write about religion (or atheism/non-theism) very much any more because I’ve found other areas more fascinating. Like all the crap I’ve been writing about what’s going on in Florida and Boca Raton, environmentalism-wise. I still write about religion here and there but not much.

  • An who’s that ex-Mormon woman who lives in France? I loved her blog.

    That was me! And it shouldn’t be loved past tense — you should love it still! Even though I moved to Switzerland. 😉

  • C.L!!!!

    Blogrollum meum reparavi

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