This is Two Sixteen House, a place where I shall publish insights and other articles which I find worthy of publication, or which I judge to be of interest to the public. I suspect that the focus of Two Sixteen House will probably narrow in the future, but at present, this is a general-interest space.
Some may object to my use of WordPress for the purpose, noting that I could use Facebook or some other social media platform instead. However, I am on Facebook under my real name, and for various reasons (which are elucidated hereinafter), I would not like to associate my writings here with my real name, nor would I like to create another Facebook account. I would also like to write articles longer than the infinitesimal attention span manifest on Facebook allows, where any article longer than around two hundred words without a click-bait title is skipped over amid chants of “tl;dr”. Hence, I founded Two Sixteen House to allow full and free expression of my thoughts.
I was raised Mormon, but am now an irreligious atheist, due to the fact that no religion can provide evidence for its truth claims. Mormons, like most religionists, are very ill-disposed toward those that leave their religion, one leader even saying that he is “furious with people who leave [the Mormon] church”. This man (Jeffrey Holland) is no low-level leader; he is an “apostle”, one of the fifteen men who rule the entire Mormon church. Furthermore, I am in a position where the normally more-or-less impotent church can make me feel the full intensity of its wrath. It is for this reason that I would not like to publish my writings under my real name, and I will not censor myself for the sake of allaying Mr Holland’s fury.
The topics that are most likely to receive treatment here are (in no particular order):
- Religion (particularly Mormonism and Christianity), skepticism, and the like;
- Science, technology, mathematics, and engineering; and
- Politics, history, social justice, &c.
It is no coincidence that these overlap with my personal interests.
Writing pseudonymously allows me to feel free to speak my thoughts (especially regarding religion) uncensored and unencumbered by the reactions of those that hold the power to ruin apostates like me, and are all too eager to exercise it. At some future time when the danger has passed, I may reveal my real name, but not now.
My pseudonym is Benjamin Gleck, derived from a spoonerism of “Glenn Beck”, to whom I used to look for insightful (!) political commentary. “Two Sixteen House” is derived by a convoluted route from “The Blaze”, Glenn Beck’s media outlet. Two Sixteen House is my media outlet, and no religionists shall silence it!
Two Sixteen House 