Stumbleupon; Providing the Annoyed with more Annoyance

I have recently started using the internet sifter known as Stumbleupon, if you’re unaware of this phenomenon then allow me to explain.

Stumbleupon categorises the internet into various tick boxes that you are able to select to allow the software to present you with appropriate websites according to your personal (and probably fairly generic) preferences.

After I selecting my favourite areas of the internet I’d like supplied to me, a general three areas seem to have been identified. These are as follows...

Atheism

 

Recipes

Photographs of the night sky

I manage to take issue with all of these – as I’m sure surprises my regular readers greatly – and I shall address each of these in reverse.

The Night Sky - As nice as photographs of the sky at night are, there are only so many one can appreciate before realising that there are bloody loads of stars out there and they’re a fairly attractive sight when photographed well. Once you’ve seen a few time lapse photos of the Milky Way suspended over a desert landscape, you’ve pretty much seen them all. Unless those cheeky internet buggers slip in a photo of the time lapsed Aurora Borealis, but again; once you’ve seen a few of those, you needn’t keep your eye on them too regularly to make sure they’re not causing any mischief in our polar skies.

Recipes - Now, these are very useful to make – in the words of the Flight of the Conchords – a meal for my friends, try to make it delicious, try to keep it nutritious, create wonderful dishes (0:34). I am just rather baffled as to why Stumbleupon continue to bombard me with such recipes as Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies and Tiramisu Pancakes. I expected this software to provide me with website to intrigue and entertain me, yet recipes have a fairly limited sphere of influence on my life, rarely venturing too far from meal times. So to discover the wonders of Cinnamon Sugar Pull-Apart Bread at midnight tonight failed to inflame my interest greatly.

And finally,

Atheism - I leave this ‘til last as it has annoyed me most. You would not believe the number of websites out there that are keen to hail religion as evil and to prove to you the discrepancies of the old testament or to, line-by-line, analyse The Bible and tell you why everything in it is evil, contradictory, immoral or simply wrong in the eyes of modern science. These web pages drone on and on about the author’s take on how religions have intersected with their lives and what thoughts it’s provoked.

Note: 'Proving that the Bible is Repulsive'

All of these pages have one fatal flaw; they are preaching to the converted (if you’ll excuse the biblical metaphor). How many devour Christians will be thinking ‘You know what I would love to read right now? What would really make my day would be to read a stranger’s opinion on why my holy text is nonsense, and to have the record of the word of my lord defiled and humiliated in front of my very eyes. I would also really appreciate having the entire integrity of my belief system insulted and mocked on my laptop screen.’

I find that concept tricky to conjure up in my feeble little head, be that my fault of theirs, I’ll let you decide.

This is where the other websites have the advantage, though. I can definitely imagine the most spiritual, sanctimonious, devout fellow – well I might go as far as saying that Jesus himself might declare to his crowd of disciples ‘I’d love a little flapjack while gazing up at the stars my father so elegantly spread across the swathes of sky that adorn this planet.’

I’m all for being an atheist. Of course it’s the only true state belief in the universe, but if you want to tell people about it then at least make a good point; prove evolution to people and teach it, if you want to blog, then discuss matters of science and the beauty nature has carved out on the spec of rock in the middle of space. Don’t write nonsense about an obviously dubious book full of elaborate metaphors that are easily interpreted by an old fool to mean any old crap. For the love of... erm... Logical thinking...

We’ve all got this same soap box to shout from, at least make your muffled and inaudible yelps something worth shouting.

Also, I remembered this video earlier today, so if you missed it on Facebook, watch it.