Monday, March 11, 2013

Something about Writing About Atheism

I don't write much about atheism; I don't write much about being an atheist. This isn't really an atheist blog; it's just a blog that happens to be written by an atheist.

But, in watching the stats for the Blog o' Doom here, I've noticed that I'd probably increase my traffic if I devoted more time to atheism and irreligion as topics. I have to admit, that has a certain appeal - there's a part of me that would love to have more of an audience. (It's really just a pity that more people don't have the wit and perception to be drawn to my unmistakable brilliance entirely on its own unmistakeable merits.[1])

The problem is, I couldn't do it. I don't have that much to say about the topic. "I don't believe in God." I don't really have much to add to that.

I was fourteen or so when Christianity quit working for me as a paradigm, as a way of looking at the world. I kept poking at it for a few years after that, sometimes struggling to see what I was - what I must be - missing in my view of it, and sometimes reviling it for making so little sense. Finally, I gave it up. Rightly or wrongly, I couldn't make it make sense to me - and I couldn't "choose" to believe in something that makes no sense to me. I still can't.

I dabbled in other things - New Age ideas, neopaganism, the abstracted and watered-down versions of other religions that are marketed to affluent Westerners - but none of them proved satisfactory either. I had the same troubles with them that I'd had with Christianity. So now, by process of elimination, I'm basically a materialist. If there's life after death, and it's governed by something merciful and just, I'll be pleasantly surprised. At the moment, that seems unlikely.

I'm not a Christian. I'm not a believer. I don't see things that way, because that way doesn't make sense to me. That's all there is to it, really. There's no deeper mystery, here. There's not a lot to discuss.



[1] Yes, this is irony.

2 comments:

  1. This is the great irony on my blog, too. I'm a Christian who writes Christian books and people want to come to my blog and see posts about being a Christian or devotionals. But they are pretty hard to find among the funny videos and strange things I've found on the Internet. Oh well.

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  2. On the other hand, "Here's something that made me smile, and I hope it makes you smile, too," isn't a half-bad devotional in its way...

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Feel free to leave comments; it lets me know that people are actually reading my blog. Interesting tangents and topic drift just add flavor. Linking to your own stuff is fine, as long as it's at least loosely relevant. Be civil, and have fun!