An agenda full of agendum.

As I'm sure people will quickly learn while reading my entries, I am a logophile, a lover of words. Neither brevity or simplicity have ever been a natural part of my diction, though I do attempt to force them occasionally. The title of this post, as well as the title of this blog, also illustrate my love for the etymological history of words and obsolete words respectively.

Agenda was originally plural in its Latin form, while each item on an agenda as we know it was called an agendum. As noted at Dictionary.com, and cited from the American Heritage Dictionary:

It is true that Cicero would have used agendum to refer to a single item of business before the Roman Senate, with agenda as its plural. But in Modern English a phrase such as item on the agenda expresses the sense of agendum, and agenda is used as a singular noun to denote the set or list of such items, as in The agenda for the meeting has not yet been set. If a plural of agenda is required, the form should be agendas: The agendas of both meetings are exceptionally varied.

Meanwhile, the title of this blog, Atheotatous, means "the most atheist ones"! It was an insult pagan philosophers employed against Christian apologists during the formative years of Christianity and on into the fourth century. The label had also been applied to the Jews, with Julian the Apostate noting that Christians had inherited their atheism from the Jews. The pagans saw both religions as atheistic due to their lack of temples and statues dedicated to different deities. Jan N. Bremmer, Atheism in Antiquity, in The Cambridge Companion to Atheism 11, 21 (Michael Martin, Cambridge U. Press 2007). (When information that is drawn from somewhere else cannot be directly linked to, I will cite the source using the ALWD manual, 3d edition.)

I found it humorous to think that a word that was once used against Christians and other monotheists would now, if it was not obsolete, be slung as an aspersion against me. Hence, I decided to use the word as my title, to accept the label not as an insult but rather as an honorific.

I am an atheist, and lack belief in any god. I will openly argue the impossibility of some gods existing depending on how one defines the term "god." Many of my posts here will undoubtedly touch on atheism and religion and the culture clash that has resulted as society has become secularized, whether it involves the evolution-creationism debate, the old Earth-YEC debate, stem cell research, abortion, homosexual rights, gender equality, et cetera.

However, I promise that not all my posts will deal with atheism. Some will deal with politics, law, philosophy, anime, video games, and other areas listed under my interests in my Blogger profile. I am sure, given my general, avid love of video games and World of Warcraft (WoW) in particular, I will at some point blog about my adventures in that world as well as the frustrations I've encountered - like trying to configure the perfect user interface (UI). I am also a giant fan of the old Robert E. Howard Conan stories, one who has been continually forlorn fan due to the repetitive postponements of the new massively multiplayer online game (MMO), Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures. If I do not get to play that particular game by next spring, I may be blogging about the evils of the video game industry.

I will also occasionally blog about different animes I'm currently watching or have watched, movies I've enjoyed, or books I am currently reading. I will also comment on and link to stories that appear in blogs I frequent (which can be found linked to on the right side of the page) as time allows.

I will try to post often. Hopefully daily posts will be the minimum while multiple posts per day will become the standard. However, I make no promises. Posting may be intermittently suspended due to different important events, such as video games, movies, books, work, et cetera. Most of my posts for the day will be posted during the evenings, when I actually have some free time to write and comment on the day's events. They will not all be posted at once, but rather randomly added as my mood and time allows me to write them.

Comments will go largely uncensored. I am a strong proponent of freedom of speech and will allow heated argument that stay within the realm of good taste (this, in my opinion, includes profanity when used effectively). That noted, I will censor comments that are violent and physically threatening to others. I will also censor trolls that continually post the same argument while failing to respond to relevant criticisms or who copy and paste others arguments without citation. Additionally, simply to throw in some legalese, I take no responsibility for the comments posted by others, blah blah blah . . . .

And that, ladies and gentleman, I believe covers every agendum on the agenda.