The Atheist Blogger

Thanks to a reminder by the Friendly Atheist, I have now pre-ordered my copy of Ariane Sherine’s latest book “The Atheist’s Guide To Christmas”:

Unfortunately, there's probably no Christmas either...

The book comes out in the UK on October 1st, and Brits can pre-order a copy through Amazon (sorry Yanks). Whilst you are there, don’t forget to pre-order a copy of Richard Dawkins new book, “The Greatest Show on Earth” if you haven’t already (what on earth were you waiting for?!?).

Dawkins’ book is of course about Evolution, whilst Ariane’s is a compilation of tips offered by scientists, comedians, authors, etc in order to help you survive the Xmas holiday. All that we have left to wonder about is how many other things we can use that font (and indeed the colour scheme) on before it gets old. Perhaps we could make some un-festive “There’s probably no god” wrapping paper?

Now what are you waiting for? The post is over! Go order the books! Ariane Sherine reported earlier on Twitter that the book was now at the #34 spot on Amazon’s future releases chart. 34??? Methinks that score needs vast improvements! Let’s have it at #1 position by the end of the week; if we did it for the Atheist Bus Campaign, we can do it for a book.

Update: Aparently Ariane reads my blog, and has kindly given me a hi-res image of the book cover. Now you have literally no excuse not to pre-order it!

Are you gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered? Have you rejected Gods of all kinds? Then Reed Braden (Homosecular Gaytheist) might have  proposal for you! Reed plans to create a collaborative blog of gay atheist activists, where issues that affect both minority groups will be discussed, a kind of Skepchick blog, only where the chicks like other chicks, and the guys like…well, you get the picture.

The idea has already got the attention of Greta Christina, as well as some other atheist bloggers (myself included). If you are interested or just want to find out more, go and join the facebook group!

If you have not already added me on facebook as a friend (and please do, it helps feed my ego) then you can easily access my profile by going to http://facebook.com/atheistblogger.

This quick quiz will tell you. I got the obvious result:

"Today is a fine day for reality..."

I am fast approaching the end of term, and there is a massive coursework writeup due so I won’t be posting many things for the next few days. After that however I will be starting my Linux tutorials (for those who follow my full feed or personal feed), and I’m also thinking about getting back into the world of vlogging.

The Atheist Jew has tagged me yet again in another meme. This one is pretty interesting, and came at a good time, since I have either been too busy or unable to think of articles to write recently. However, when my course involves playing around with Lego robots; getting them to solve mazes and stand up on two wheels, and Cryptography (code breaking) you can hardly blame me.

Onto the meme!

Can You Remember The Day That You Officially Became An Atheist?

This question has two answers. The day I “officially” became an atheist would be the day I first put down “no religion” on a government form (Data protection act in 1999). That’s the first time my non-religion was acknowledged by the state, however I think this question is more aimed at the time I first realized I was an atheist.

That was probably around the age of 9. I had been thinking about the question for a while, thats all I can remember about the how. I don’t remember exactly what I was thinking about, but it probably involved trying to combine the Bible with science (it doesn’t work). I was very scientific from a young age, and I frequently read children’s encyclopedias instead of “bedtime stories”. Learning about how we see colours differently in dark light is much more interesting than any story that begins “once upon a time”.

I also remember that the day my realization occurred was a Sunday. This is deeply ironic because the only reason I remember the actual day was that it occurred in a Church service. If it had happened on a Tuesday, I would never have remembered. Such is the power of religion at ingraining things into the mind I guess.

During the church service, the priest probably got up and said something about the Bible and how the Earth was created, or some other complete nonsense. I started thinking about this, and how there are so many flaws in the whole “God” idea. Much like comedian Ricky Gervais, 10 minutes later, I was an atheist. Of course, being such a young boy, I was slightly nervous about these new feelings I had, so I turned to my mother and said “I don’t think I believe in God”. She told me it wasn’t the kind of thing I should be saying in church, and that she would talk about it later.

She never did, and my atheism has only gotten stronger since that day.

Do you remember the day you officially became an agnostic?

Not really, probably because I’d never really heard of the term until much later in life. I guess I’d been an agnostic since the day I got interested in science. If there is anything science has taught me, it is that there are things so complex in the universe we may never fully understand them. The best way to gain knowledge is by continually testing and challenging ideas, and looking where the evidence points.

How about the last time you spoke or prayed to God with actual thought that someone was listening?

Sometime before that Sunday services all those years ago probably. Not that I haven’t had a few “crises of non-faith” since then of course, where I have prayed simply out of fear. I didn’t think anyone was there, it was more of a test to see if anyone was there. Of course, after several experiments, the scientific method held true, and I stopped my pointless praying.

Did anger towards God or religion help cause you to be an atheist or agnostic?

No, the Bible did that quite effectively.

Here is a good one: Were you agnostic towards ghosts, even after you became an atheist?

Yeah, I’ve only very recently become a proper “skeptic” towards a load of things. I’m still a recovering conspiracy theorist to be perfectly honest, and the truth is, there are only so many times you can look at 9/11 footage and say “Why is there no wreckage?” or “Those were bombs exploding in the towers” before you realize you are talking absolute crap and the people who put these bizarre theories together know nothing about proper science.

Of course, I still like to humour these things.

Do you want to be wrong?

Of course I do! I say this to Christians all the time but they never take it in. I would honestly love nothing more than to live forever in some form of paradise, but if I have to adopt a flawed belief system to do it, I refuse. I fail to see why a God who supposedly gave us the ability to reason, would want us to abandon that reason in order to pass some sick test and get into Heaven…

Now my turn to tag people:

Amiable Atheist

Db0

Chicken Girl

Moiz Khan

and Splendid Elles

On Monday 22nd September, several thousand new students will arrive at Royal Holloway, University of London, in order to register and join societies. The godless members of our student organisation “Atheist & Agnostic Alliance” will be there too, handing out flyers in order to grab as many new members as we can. Statistics says roughly 30% of students are non-religious, so I’m hoping we can get quite a few.

As part of our affiliation with the UK Brights, we have 1,500 flyers that present a “friendly” message, as well as something that isn’t “in your face”.

Atheist & Agnostic Alliance Flyer

UK Brights are also helping us organise an awareness week later in the year. I’ll be taking my camera along to registration and get some pictures of the group in action. No idea how many flyers we will hand out on the first day, or how many will end of torn up in bins on campus. Hopefully a few people will stop to chat, either in support or to try and convert us from our heathen ways.

Edit (in response to a complaint): http://the-brights.net, http://brights.meetup.com