Say It With Me...

My name is [your name here], and I'm an atheist.

Didn't that feel good?

If you're not an atheist, then it either didn't feel good or you just didn't say it. Either way, that's fine. You're not my target audience. Which isn't to say that I'm not interested in your input. But we'll get to that part shortly.

So let's start this off properly - my name is Geir, and I'm an atheist. I have been for a long time. Always, actually. Don't get me wrong - I was raised Lutheran, went to Sunday school and all that for several years, went through confirmation...and then never went to church again (except for the occasional wedding, of course). None of that religious education stuck. Why? I don't know. But I do believe that religion is instilled by indoctrination, and part of my atheism, I'm sure, is that the indoctrination just wasn't strong enough. (The church I went to was ELCA, not Missouri Synod - those of you raised Lutheran will understand).

Anyway, why is this important? Why am I doing this? The simplest answer I can give is this: organized religion is either directly or indirectly influencing and causing a lot of things in the world that it shouldn't be. And it is also denying or refusing to deal will issues that must be addressed. In the past week, in particular, several news articles appeared that finally drove me over the edge.

I've been thinking about creating this blog for a while. It will function as sort of a running tally of religion causing trouble, as reported by the media. Plus some color commentary from me, as time permits.

Now - back to my target audience. My target audience is those of you who are or may be on the fence about religion, faith or whatever you want to call it. If there are lingering doubts in your mind about the existence of the God of the Bible, or any god, I hope you take a good look at the cases I show here and ask yourself what makes more sense - an invisible man in the sky, supposedly all-powerful and in control of everything that happens, or the fact that we're just here, in control of our own destinies, and responsible for making the most of it. It's more complicated than that, of course. Entire books have been written on the subject. But this is a blog, not a book, so I'll do the best I can.

To those of you who are atheists already, I ask you come out of the closet if you haven't yet! You don't have to put up a blog or anything. As a good first step, I'd recommend checking out The Rational Response Squad, which is a great clearinghouse for atheism-related information. It's probably the only link I'll include at the top of this blog as they have links to everywhere else I would consider going.

One last point to end this long-winded first post. I am not interested in, and nor will I, attack any individual based on his or her faith. As atheists, we don't attack individuals. We attack the shameful and destructive results of religion taken too far. So please don't take my existence or the existence of this blog as an attack on you or your beliefs. As I said before, I am interested in your input. If you want to debate, we can debate. In fact, at some point soon I'll be posting something just for you believers to respond to!

On with the show!