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.