The Atheist Blogger

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

A new atheist blog, The Religion Virus has an interesting article in which the author Craig A. James argues that 70-80% of atheist bloggers remain anonymous, either using a pseudonym (as Mr. James used previously) or a username such as vjack who runs Atheist Revolution. Craig James says that atheists have no reasons to be in the closet, and he issues a challenge for more atheists to get out.

I am one of the atheists he used as an example of a blogger “out of the closet” so to speak. Although I don’t see how he came to this conclusion. “Adrian Hayter” could just be a pseudonym to the casual observer. Unless he had been reading my blog for a few months, or had stumbled on my personal website (now defunct). In any case, I disagree with his argument that atheists have no reasons not to come out of the closet, even thought I admire what he is trying to do.

I am “out of the closet” because I live in the UK, specifically the south which is one of the most secular regions. Although the majority of the population is religious, there is a large number (supposedly 30%) of atheists in the country. I don’t feel threatened at all, and the closest thing we have to fundamentalist Christians are the people who go around protesting abortion and homosexuality, but they don’t post any kind of threat. Most of the time they are laughed at.

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It seems that a lot of talk has been going on about Patrick Greene, especially since Ray Comfort mocked him on his blog, and he started emailing (and phoned into) The Atheist Experience. In case any of you have not been following the story, Patrick is attempting to sue Ray’s evangelical company “Living Waters” for selling an offensive bumper sticker.

The sticker in question says “National Atheist’s Day” in large red letters, then “April 1″, and the quotes the Bible “The FOOL has said in his heart, There is no God” (Psalm 14:1). Here is a small thumbnail to help you visualize it:

Now, there are many reasons I believe people can get offended by certain beliefs. I’ve written how I am offended when people tell me I’m going to Hell, not because to them it is “fact” (as Patrick Greene argues), but because they believe that such a punishment is justified, and they are willing to compare me as equal to murderers and rapists. I am offended by the threat of Hell for the same reasons I am offended when someone calls me a bastard. It is a personal attack, aimed and directed quite thoroughly.

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Recent debunkings of Creationist flaws leads me to ponder how many people believe in Evolution and what relation these results have with belief in gods. Thus I have constructed the following poll. It only covers atheism / theism and unless I have complaints it will stay that way. If you are a deist I would say to go with the theist grouping since deism is a vague subset of theism. Likewise with agnosticism, if you are an agnostic atheist put yourself in the atheist groupings, and agnostic theists go in the theist group. Very simple!

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It would be interesting to see what the results turn out to be. Obviously I have some predictions about atheist / Evolution but there may be some people who doubt it. Likewise I suspect the majority of theists believe in Evolution, but then it is usually Creationists who come to this blog so perhaps not.

I should also point out that I’ve added the Poll widget to the sidebar so the latest poll is always shown at the side nomatter which page you are browsing.