The SHAFT site has been a success that far exceeded anyone’s expectations. It has strengthened our group’s sense of community and served as an important forum for critical religious dialogue. And the site largely owes its success to you, the readers. You voted it “Best New Blog” in the 2009 William Law X-Mormon Awards, and your continued readership and participation have made this among the most popular sites of its kind.

Here are some of the site’s stats over one year of activity:

• 66,938 visits
• 124,045 pageviews
• Average time on site: 2:58 minutes
• 255 posts
• 2,812 comments
• Top content: Worst superhero partner ever, If Eve had a sassy gay friend, A tragedy close to home
• Viewed in 141 countries/territories (56% of the visits came from the US, and half of those from Utah)

Again, thanks for all your support!

If you’re a USU student and interested in writing for the site, please let us know.

Also, if you want to follow the USU SHAFT blog but feed readers aren’t for you, we now offer a blog e-mail list as well! Just click on the “Blog Post Emails” link at the top of any page and you’ll receive a daily e-mail with the new posts from the USU SHAFT blog (note: the blog post e-mail list, which sends one message every day, is separate from our club events mailing list, which sends one message about every three weeks).

[A] few political scientists have begun to discover a human tendency deeply discouraging to anyone with faith in the power of information. It’s this: Facts don’t necessarily have the power to change our minds. In fact, quite the opposite. In a series of studies in 2005 and 2006, researchers at the University of Michigan found that when misinformed people, particularly political partisans, were exposed to corrected facts in news stories, they rarely changed their minds. In fact, they often became even more strongly set in their beliefs. Facts, they found, were not curing misinformation. Like an underpowered antibiotic, facts could actually make misinformation even stronger.

Yikes. If facts do not disabuse people of false beliefs but instead further entrench those beliefs, how can we (SHAFT) successfully promote skepticism and scientific literacy?

It’s said that you can’t reason someone out of a position they didn’t reason themselves into. So when logic fails, should we then resort to appeals to emotion? I have tried to be fair and reasonable with my arguments at this blog, but I understand that some people (atheist and theist alike) are just not receptive to that approach. Consequently, I am occasionally polemical in getting my point across. For example, in my post about the genocide in Third Nephi, I wrote that the god described therein is a “sadist.” Now, I think that statement is still fair and reasonable, but it is also emotionally-charged.

I’m convinced that this bold and confrontational approach lays bare the absurdity of some beliefs and can change minds that would have otherwise been unmoved by a more academic approach. Indeed, this is why the so-called New Atheists (Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, et al) are valuable voices. But in being more assertive, we run the risk of being rude and alienating those who are amenable to reasoned argumentation.

(On a related note: Science blogger Phil Plait gave what became known as the “don’t be a dick” speech at The Amazing Meeting earlier this month. It sparked a debate among the atheist/skeptic blogosphere about how best to dialogue with theists and believers in New Age “woo-woo.”)

In light of all this, I have a couple of questions for you, the readers:

1) How productive are the discussions/disagreements at this blog, generally?

2) And has your mind been changed due to something that you read here?

I fear my foray into the ex-Mormon/atheist blogosphere may be coming to a close shortly. Absent a second wind, I just don’t have the stamina to continue past the summer. Preparing posts and participating in their discussions is really time-consuming, and that time will be harder to come by as I start work and develop hobbies like guitar.

On a more personal note, my blogging has been a detriment to several friendships. Some theist friends think I’m too strident, and some atheist friends think I’m too accommodating. I’ve tried to strike the appropriate balance while still being authentic to myself. That balancing act has just proved to be too difficult a chore for me.

I have also been asked why I still write for the blog now that I’ve graduated from USU. The question occurs to me often. Well, the primary reason is that I don’t want to see this blog and this community die. Once other contributors become more active, I’ll gradually withdraw. But if others don’t become more active (and relatively soon), I’ll probably withdraw anyway. This is a USU student blog, and current students (aka not me) should be writing for it.

This is not a goodbye; you haven’t gotten rid of me quite yet ha ha. I just wanted to give everyone a heads-up. I plan on blogging here for at least the next month or two, and on a regular basis. So I hope you will continue to visit.

If you want to dissuade me from leaving (I’m still amenable to suggestion) or if you want write for this blog, please comment to that effect. Thanks.

Any feedback—positive or negative—is appreciated, but your responses to the following questions would be especially helpful:

• What is your favorite SHAFT post? Your least favorite?
• Would you like to see more authors contribute to the blog?
• Which topics are discussed too often? Which are not discussed enough?
• Do you like the layout/appearance of the blog?
• How is the frequency of new posts?
• What sites should we include/delete from our blogroll at the right?
• Do you feel welcome to express your opinions here?
• Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

USU SHAFT is in the running for “Best Humor Piece” (my post entitled “Watching LDS General Conference so you don’t have to”) and “Best New Blog.” If you follow this blog, please show your support by voting for us here. It’s a great way to bring more traffic to our humble blog.

So vote! Vote! Vote! Thanks.

We need your help! Do you know something interesting about science? Do you have something thoughtful to say about religion? Have you found or even conducted an interesting piece of research? Is there something that you’ve been wanting to get people thinking about? We’re looking for anyone interested in writing one or two short, thought-provoking blog posts for the usu-shaft.com site. If you are interested in writing something, please leave a comment and we will set you up with a guest account.

Also, our website has recently been added to ranks of nearly 1,000 other blogs at The Atheist Blogroll. The Atheist Blogroll is a community building service provided free of charge to atheist bloggers worldwide. If you would like to join, visit Mojoey at Deep Thoughts for more information. It’s an easy and effective way to put your website on the radar.

And so it came to pass that USU SHAFT did wax exceedingly powerful among the godless.

I thought I’d put up a quick introduction of the SHAFT officers, the people who will be posting on this blog. First off, there’s myself, James Patton. I’m studying computer science and am the group’s finance officer. Which will be an important job once we have some finances.

You’ve already met Jon Adams, a crazily prolific writer and student doubling in sociology and political science. Keep an eye on his “Why I Don’t Believe” series currently in progress, especially if you have any experience with Mormonism. Or–more particularly–if you haven’t. He’s our administrative officer.

Also posting here is the lovely and talented Kimi Anderson, studying english. Watch for her planned blog series “Haunted Utah,” a look at and debunking of supposedly haunted places in Utah (spooky). She also happens to be the group’s public relations officer and my smart and gorgeous girlfriend.

Rounding out the club’s five officers are Caitlin Laughlin and Jake Nelson, who have yet to show, slackers. Caitlin is advertising officer, and studying like, Birdomancy or something. Jake is our activities officer, and I’m pretty sure he’s a student in civic engineering. Show up and say hi, you guys!

I’m looking forward to some good discussions here, and a great godless (I wish ) school year.

I’m a blogoholic, but my writing has largely been restricted to Facebook. I’ve been encouraged to transfer some of my notes to a blog in order that they receive a wider audience. So over the next couple days, expect a torrent of posts from me—I’ll be posting those Facebook notes that I think will be relevant and welcome here. If all goes according to plan, my posts will spark discussions and bring some traffic to our humble site.

You will undoubtedly tire of my writing. But no worries—in due time, there will be other contributors. This is NOT my personal blog and it won’t function as such. I just want to get the proverbial ball rollin’.

I hope you’ll continue to grace this site with your readership. SHAFT will regularly update this site with event information and freethought writings, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, there is a Humanists of Utah BBQ happening TONIGHT at 6 pm in Salt Lake City. This BBQ will be co-hosted by SHIFT, our sister group at the University of Utah. If you’re around or interested, please try to attend. It’s important to support and socialize with fellow secular humanists across Utah. And why pass up free food and fun, anyway? See the complete event details on Facebook.