Category Archives: Activity

WATCH: 3 Reasons To Avoid The Christmas Shoebox Appeal

OCC

I decided to make a video detailing the reasons why you shouldn’t support the Christmas Shoebox Appeal organised by The Samaritan’s Purse. Please share it and send it the way of those who may not be aware of this information.

Relevant Links and Resources:

Article ‘The Christmas Shoebox Appeal Is A Manipulative Indoctrination Campaign’

Article ‘Why Parents Shouldn’t Support ‘Operation Christmas Child’

Secular Alternatives To The Shoebox Appeal

Download – Letter Template To Send To Schools To Request The Cease Support Of ‘Operation Christmas Child’

Stephen Knight is host of The #GSPodcast. You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

An Open Letter To @Hallcyon Regarding His Craig Hicks Comments

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Galen Hallcyon’ is a video blogger. I’m not familiar with this individual, or their output. However, a post they made on Facebook has come to my attention. The post is dated 22 October 2015, and its author ‘Hallcyon’ appears to claim that he had a conversation with Craig Hicks prior to The Chapel Hill Shootings:

‘I even have conversed with him on these positions. I thought the fellow was highly dangerous and my talks with him even kept me up at night. I was highly disappointed in not being able to reach him as he seemed persuaded by the inflammatory rhetoric of many vloggers. ‘

Further details are unfortunately lacking. This claim is now being used by a number of the usual suspects to confirm that this atrocity is an anti-Muslim hate crime, even before any attempts to substantiate these claims have been made. I reached out to ‘Hallcyon’ on Twitter and in a private email1 in the hope he would clarify a few things. Even though he has remained active on social media in the days following my attempts to communicate, I’m yet to receive a response. Given the potential importance of this information to the official investigation, I’ve posted my email below in the hope that it may prompt a response. I encourage you to share it far and wide.

Given the potential value this information could have to the current Police investigation, I feel I have a responsibility to make them aware of it too – so I will also be forwarding this on to The Chapel Hill Police Department in case they are not already aware.

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  1. I sent my email to the email address listed on ‘Hallcyon’s’ YouTube page

Statement From Michael Wilson (@GodlessAtheist) on ‘God Is Incredible’ Film.

Michael Wilson – Facebook Cover Photo From Jan 2015

I recently blogged a piece about Michael Wilson’s crowdfunded documentary ‘God Is Incredible’. Funds of nearly $12,000 were received by Wilson back in June 2012 thanks to the generosity of 152 backers.

In the years following, promised release and preview dates came and went without being fulfilled and updates became sparse until they ceased altogether in January 2014. I set out investigating this with the hope of getting some information for those who are wondering how their money has been spent. In the process of writing my blog piece I reached out to Wilson for comment. His statement is reproduced below, verbatim – with permission:

 

Hello,

I have been terrible at providing updates and I apologize for this. I have been delayed for several reasons including major surgery,  change  if employment that made things difficult, the near arrival1 of my first child but mostly being overwelmed with the massive task that I was completely underprepared for. I wanted to have something to show before I made another update but this kept drifting later and later as I kept second guessing what I was producing. 

I know I have disappointed a lot of people.  My plan going forward is to release a short of each interview on a monthly basis with the final feature out towards the of the year.

I am committed to this project still and have taken on an editor and an animator to help me out. I know this feels like waiting for the second coming but it will be happening and you will start to see fruits soon.
 
Thanks for your support
 
Michael

 

My suggestion would be to remain charitable in your judgement, but questions still remain as to how exactly the $10,000 (and additional $1500)2 has been spent, and why updates ceased on a project that is now 2 years overdue.  I will follow-up this piece later on in the year.  Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
UPDATE 01 June 2015 – Michael once again failed to fulfill the promises outlined above. Further updates (and promises) can be read here

You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

  1. I think this may have been intended as ‘new arrival’.  I am waiting on a response from Wilson to clarify
  2. A funder was asked to wire $2,000 NZD ($1,500 USD at 2012 conversion rates) to Wilson’s wife’s business account.  This amount does not appear to be accounted for in the list of funders on the INDIEGOGO campaign page, meaning it’s possible this $1,500 is in addition to the $10,000 raised. 03 June 2015 Note – I originally reported this additional amount in US Dollars, until the contributor informed me it was actually a New Zealand Dollar amount, meaning a now amended difference of -$500 USD to the total amount. The total amount of funds, in US dollars now stands at just over $11,500

Michael Wilson (@GodlessAtheist) Crowdsources Nearly $12,000 for a documentary then disappears

Indiegogoiimage

Update 17 Feb 2015: I have now received a statement from Michael Wilson via email – you can read it here.

In 2012, when I first decided to dip my toe into the sea of anti-atheist (or athiest) sentiment on Twitter, it was a surprise to note how few people had taken on a similar hobby. Happily, that’s changed over the years – but at the time certain atheist Twitter accounts stood out for their ubiquity and high follower count.
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Twitter reinstates my account: A huge thank you

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I recently blogged an open letter to Twitter after they informed me that my Twitter account @GSpellchecker would be ‘permanently suspended’.  This produced a flurry of interest and support on a scale far greater than I had anticipated nor experienced for anything else I’ve been involved with before. It seems my fellow Twitter compadres have a potent dislike for injustice.

Well, today my Twitter account was reinstated in record time and I received an apology email from Twitter.  Hurrah!

Although the email (pictured above) is generic and unrevealing, it is the desired and correct decision from Twitter.  Below is my brief reply to it:

Hi,

Thank you for your prompt and positive response.

I would please urge you to review and investigate the individual, or individuals responsible for these bogus reports – and review any other suspensions they’ve caused as I’m aware I’m not their only victim.

Thanks again,

It does appear to confirm my suspicions however – individuals (or an individual) are making bogus reports of ‘abuse or harassment’ to silence criticism, or people they simply do not like.  This is clear given the ‘review’ carried out by Twitter deemed the initial reports against me were not substantive enough to warrant the suspension or banning.

It’s amusing to note just how much this attempt to shut me down has backfired; indeed as a result, my blog visits have hit record numbers and downloads of my podcast have spiked.  Not to mention my Twitter ‘followers’ have now crossed a 50,000 milestone.  I’ve also had media enquiries and received my first new Patreon supporter in weeks.  So, I suppose this is a thank you to those responsible for my suspension too.

As before, I will continue to use my voice to critique bad ideas and their ideologues, with civility – but without abuse or dilution.

I will always oppose abuse and harassment in all its forms, but it’s equally important that those who wish to stifle legitimate criticism, satire and dissent via disingenuous tactics be exposed and held to account for their behaviour also.  I hope Twitter takes a good look at the responsible parties in this instance and revokes the privileges that allow them to influence automatic suspensions and bans.

I want to say a HUGE thank you to those of you who’ve shared my open letter, contacted Twitter on my behalf and sent messages of support my way.  For the first time since joining Twitter I’ve actually been unable to cope with the sheer volume of tweets coming my way, so I apologise if I’ve not replied to your well-wishes, but please know it’s appreciated and has not gone unnoticed.  It’s overwhelming, thank you.

You can listen to The Godless Spellchecker Podcast here, and support it by becoming a patron here.

Permanent Suspension: An Open letter to Twitter #09914411

Image Source: http://fnrrfygmschnish.deviantart.com/art/Stop-Sign-Graveyard-2-333610090

Image Source: http://fnrrfygmschnish.deviantart.com/art/Stop-Sign-Graveyard-2-333610090

Update 06/12/2015- My main account has been fully restored. A HUGE thank you to everyone who shared this page and asked questions on my behalf. It means a lot. Reason has prevailed!

After several suspensions, Twitter has decided to ban me permanently.  The reasons given are usually violations of their terms and services related to ‘Targeted abuse or harassment’.  Even though I ask, I’ve never received a single example of my engagement in this behaviour.  I don’t believe the big wigs at Twitter are being anti-atheist, or anti free-speech, or any other such silly victim nonsense, but rather a flawed and automated reporting system is being abused to silence criticism.  My lofty goal with the below open letter is to prompt an actual human being at Twitter to review my case and provide me with some feedback as to what exactly I tweeted that was deserving of permanent suspension from Twitter.  Please share this post and amplify it to Twitter execs, @Support and those with influence in the ‘atheist community’ etc:

Case Id #09914411

Dear Twitter,

I joined your micro blogging service back in 2012, when ‘join the conversation’ was the mantra. And join it I did, and I fell in love with you immediately. I created the account @Gspellchecker when I noticed a steady stream of badly spelled anti-atheist bigotry and hate working through the Twitter servers. I decided before I’d even sent my very first tweet that I’d never use a single expletive, engage in any abuse, nor reward or encourage any such behaviour from those kind enough to follow me. I kept to that set of ethics right up until my permanent suspension in Jan 2015 where I was forced to bow out to a total of 49,600 followers.

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