The Hottest New Carnival: GOD or NOT

[Cross-posted on AmbivaBlog]

What could be hotter? GOD or NOT will be a duel and dialogue of posts on specific topics between atheists and believers (monthly at first, more often as it heats up), with hosts from alternating camps. Fierce debate will be encouraged; there will be zero tolerance for vilification and abuse.

Chris Hallquist, of The Uncredible Hallq, alerted me to this, saying, "Not sure where a self-described spiritual nomad would fit in if you decide to participate."

Here's what I wrote back to him:

COOL!!!! Great idea.

I guess where I would fit in is on the "or"! :)

To get these folks talking to each other, or at least beside each other, civilly (comments should be enabled after the posts!) is a brilliant idea. They may agree to disagree, or they may find out they have more in common than they knew because it was being obscured by issues of language, or they may have marvelous fights in a demarcated ring, or they may generate a third way, but it is definitely a place (as between New Orleans' poor and the rest of the world) where there needs to be more actual contact and de-demonization.

The first GOD or NOT carnival will be at Skeptic Rant, whose blog epigraph is "A man without GOD is like a fish without a bicycle," and the first topic is Original Sin. (An inspired mismatch right there!) Read the rules here. I am very much for this dialogue (in a way, it's been going on in my own comments section for quite a while, between Karen and Sleipner and Michael and all), and I hope to help the carnival founders find what they need most right now -- more believers volunteering to host. My beloved commenter Karen Bathalon doesn't have a blog (she has a dairy farm and four kids, for Chrissake), but as a conservative pro-life Catholic struggling to stay open to people she adamantly disagrees with, she exemplifies the kind of courage I hope believing bloggers will show in charging into this fray.