When it comes to important and controversial matters such as religion and religious beliefs, debate and discussion are vital components of our individual quests for truth and knowledge.

That is why this month I am kicking off the first ever AnAtheist.Net Top Commenter of the Month competition. This month, the person with the most comments will win a free T-Shirt (excludes long sleeve and sweatshirts) of his or her own choosing from the AnAtheist.Net store to help assist you in visibly promoting atheism, science, and skeptical thinking (which you want to do, of course!).  You will be able to choose from my own designs or any of the designs of my affiliates that are listed (more will be coming). I am only requiring that you choose a T-Shirt.

Of course, like any good competition there must be rules. So here they are:

Competition Rules

• To be eligible for the prize you must register a free account with Intense Debate, our commenting platform, and you must comment under that account. This makes it easier to be certain that you are who you are, not to mention the plain benefits of joining.
• Comments must be at least three sentences long and must be meaningful and relevant. In other words, you must contribute to the debate/discussion in some meaningful way. Off topic or nonsense comments will not be counted.
• There are no limits on the number of comments you can leave in a specified period of time or on an individual post/page. Just make sure the content of the comments meet the above criteria.
• The competition begins today, October 1, and runs until 11:59pm PST on October 31. Please note that reads Pacific Standard Time, which is the time zone in which I live.
• If you are the winner I will contact you for your choice of prize and delivery address. Obviously, you must be willing to provide an address to receive the shirt.
• Rules are subject to change if circumstances require it, in which case they will be updated here.

That’s it! You might also consider subscribing to my RSS feed or following me on Twitter to keep in the loop.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. It just might count!