The return of Pastor Tom Estes of Hard Truth

Pastor Tom Estes

Oh, joy. Oh, happy day. Pastor Tom Estes is back – and he’s sillier than ever.

Those of you who’ve been hanging around this joint since 2009 (which I realize is practically Precambrian by Internet standards) may remember the days I spent happily picking and poking at Pastor Tom, who ran a silly anti-atheist fundy blog titled Hard Truth. He eventually closed up shop after a few months, his tracing-paper-thin skin no longer able to withstand the vitriol of the Angry Atheist Army^TM incurred by his constant dishonesty and bigotry. I, for one, was particularly disappointed (beneath my schadenfreude) at the loss of such a reliable source of loony blogging fodder, and my “Necropolis” (mid-right sidebar) just hasn’t felt complete since. Others came and went, but … it just wasn’t the same.

Well, I despair no more, for Pastor Tom and his blog have returned, and he’s already hitting the ground stumbling. From his re-inaugural post, explaining how he got back to blogging after all this time:

This got me thinking about the nonsense I dealt with from atheists when I was running this blog before, and how frustrated it made me, and how I fealt like what I was doing was ultimately a waste of time. But lately I feel like God has wanted me to go back to the beginning of what motivated me to start this blog to begin with, and work from that point of view. This is why my subtitle is, "The Truth From a Biblical Perspective." I still plan on telling the truth, no matter whose feathers it ruffles, but it will always be the type of response that I believe God would be pleased with.

However, there’s another reason he’s back: reverse PZ Envy (sort of):

This leads me to another motivation.

I wandered over to Pharyngula, where our old pal PZ Myers writes. I looked at a couple things, who he was picking on now, if my name was still in his "dungeon"(it is), and what his traffic was llike. (He has a "sitemeter" link at the bottom of his page) And I was shocked at what I found.

Yes, you are seeing this correct. Pharyngula's traffic is way, way down. I must point out that I have absolutely no idea what has caused this. But none the less, it was very motivating to see the great Pharyngula down by around eighty-four percent.

I truly do believe him when he says he “ha[d] absolutely no idea”, as it only reinforces the notion that he’s quite possibly the most clueless pastor in existence (which, I suppose, is saying something). For starters, you might notice how his Pharyngula link actually points to the Scienceblogs site … which, for anyone who hasn’t yet fallen out of their chair laughing, features this lovely little banner at the top of the blog:

Right there: Big bold letters, bright blue links, clear phrasing and prominently displayed right at the top of every single page on that blog … and it still wasn’t enough to give Pastor Tom any “idea” where PZ’s traffic may have gone to since last year.

God, how I missed this guy.

He’s already making a bit of a comeback amongst the atheosphere as well. PZ has certainly noticed him, as has Jen McCreight (for whom we’re all disappointed that Pastor Tom hasn’t called “Helga’s Battle-Ax” yet). And naturally, Pastor Tom has already gotten all huffy about being called naughty names on the Internet:

Evidently I awakened a sleeping giant.

Even though I mentioned in the post that I had no idea why his traffic was down, and only mentioned it as a side note to my larger point, PZ felt the need to once again attack me on his blog with all the personal attacks and insults we've come to expect from him. I want to point out to all three of the people reading this that PZ claims his traffic is not down, and that it only looks that way because he has moved to a new web host, "Free Thought" blogs. I tried to find out what his traffic was by going to his "sitemeter" link at the bottom of the page, but when you click on it you find that it's basically an advertisement trying to get you to sign up and buy their service. To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what Pharyngula's traffic is, and I don't care. As I stated clearly in my previous post, if his traffic was down, I found this to be VERY insignificant, but that if it was, I would have enjoyed it none the less.

Isn’t it interesting how those chastised for saying something stupid always seem to go for the “I don’t even really care about it!” defense? The point isn’t that Pastor Tom got something wrong (which, trust me, is more than par for the course, here), but his combination of arrogance and utter idiocy in trying to claim victory over Pharyngula’s supposed demise whilst being the only person on the Internet who managed to miss that big, glaring disclaimer at the top of the page.

Just as in the ol’ days, atheists aren’t mocking him because he’s a Christian (though he likes to pretend otherwise), or even because he’s a fundy. It’s because he’s a complete and utter tool who encapsulates all the willful, even boastful, ignorance that we’ve come to expect from his ilk.

At any rate, I’m just happy to have my beloved punching bag back. Vox Day and Bill Donohue get boring after a while without suitable accompaniment.

Tags: Tom Estes • Pastor Tom • Hard Truth • Pharyngula • PZ Myers • fundies • anti-atheists • atheists • fundamentalists • fundies