[chuck]So I get frequent emails about when Unapologetics is going to make an appearance, questions about why it’s taking so long, and general exasperation over the wait. I take it as a sort of back-handed compliment — hey the good news is that there’s an eager, vocal listening base built-in — but I did want to update you on where things stood and why it has taken this long so far.

Research for the first episode (on the empty tomb) is complete, all I need to do is nail down some format issues and record the thing. Research on the second episode (the art of argumentation) is just about done, most of it done by a listener who did all the groundwork and found some great examples of fallacies for me. I’d like to have 4 or 5 episodes in the can before I begin, but for once the research time isn’t the issue.

[chuck]While we’re waiting for what may well be an eternity on Unapologetics, the gang over at Church of Awesome had me on for another episode.

This time we discuss various types of secular ethics, how they relate to religious ethics, and their major problems. It’s a brief but hopefully informative overview to the ethical systems that act as alternatives to authoritarian religious dogma, starting in ancient Athens and ending up in 18th century Germany and 19th century England. I love this topic, so it is possible that I talked my cohosts into a stupor. Be forewarned.

Check it out right here.

[chuck]I’ve gotten a few emails asking about what’s going on and when can the new show be expected. Currently I’m working three to four 12-hour shifts per week in addition to the regular 8-hour shifts in an attempt to pay down the debt incurred last year. I’m not sure when the new show will start, but 1) I’d like to build up a backlog of episodes before it launches, and 2) it’s a low priority for me right now. Priority #1 is getting rid of the debt, which I think I can do but it’s going to take a while.

That having been said, feel free to drop some episode ideas in the comments, if anyone is still reading here. So far, I plan to do a show on the resurrection, mythicism vs historicism, CS Lewis, and the witch hunts.

Adios muthafuckaaaas. My last post will be a link to the new podcast, if and when.

[chuck]I don’t know why anyone would bother now, but we were hacked a few days ago (February 21 at 2:32PM according to the logs). You may have noticed being redirected to some random porn site or being told by your browser that Irreligiosophy was a “dangerous site.” True enough, I guess.

We’re back up and running, and I’ll look for some ways to harden the default WordPress install. The forums are not going to make it, because the hacker injected code into every php file, and I don’t really want to go back and remove it or even bother to reinstall phpBB. Everything else should be up and running. But if this becomes too much of a problem — if I’m going to have to come back here frequently and clean up some script kiddy’s mess, or if it takes too much of my time hardening the site, it will go away too. I have too much to do to babysit a site that isn’t really active any more. So save those mp3s now, because who knows what some asshole will do in the future. And by “some asshole,” I mean me.

And if you haven’t signed up already, here’s the Unapologetics Announcement List:[ALO-EASYMAIL-PAGE]

[chuck]Well, my hard drive crashed while I was editing episode 111, so I am raising the white flag and closing up shop on Irreligiosophy. I’ve locked the forums and will lock the site up within the next week or two. I’ve left a link to a mailing list — for those who are interested, sign up for the list and I’ll use it exactly once to email an announcement when Unapologetics goes live. Thank you to everyone who donated, it helped more than you know.

All of the episodes will remain available here and at iTunes for the foreseeable future, unless it starts costing me extra money to do so. So long, and thanks for all the fish.

Unapologetics Announcement List:[ALO-EASYMAIL-PAGE]

[chuck]I almost titled this post “I found myself in the goddamn ER again …” but thought better of it.

My wife had exploratory surgery yesterday to find a reason for the daily bouts of abdominal pain she’s been suffering from for the past three years. The good news is the surgeon found some possible culprits and addressed them. The bad news is she had some pretty severe nausea after discharge and couldn’t keep her pain medication down, so we ended up back in the ER last night. She’s doing fine now, and we’re optimistic for the future.

Episode 111 “What Is Truth?” co-hosted by Matt Wakefield has been recorded but I haven’t had time to edit it. I may not have time in the near future, but I will get to it when I can. The book is divided into two sections: a treatise on why science is wrong about evolution and why True Scientists™ support intelligent design, and a section on why Kirk Hastings’ religion is true and every other religion on the planet is false. We covered the first section (briefly — honestly this part is so filled with garbage we could have spent months trolling its depths) in Episode 111. I think we’ll try to do a 112 on the second section before closing up shop here.