FAQ

Who are you?

That depends on what you mean. I was raised Catholic, including 12 years of Catholic school. As soon as it was under my control (college-age) I stopped attending church and started looking for my own answers. I’ve called myself an atheist for many years, but even when I didn’t have a word for it that’s how I’ve felt. I think that in this country, there is a huge resistance to the idea of calling oneself an atheist both internally and from those around you. However, I feel so much better being open about my beliefs and able to express them, and I wish that for everyone else too. I post things here to encourage readers to draw their own conclusions and be able to dissent openly. I know how difficult it can be to be pressured into silence, and how wonderful it can be to put that behind you.

So, something terrible must have happened to you in the Church to turn you away so adamantly…

No. I want to stress this very much. Compared to many stories I hear, I had a very good experience in my childhood. This is not to say that if I could change some things, I would. But my parents were not overbearing. They simply were steering me in the direction that they thought was best. I reached the “age of reason”, and decided that it was wrong. I have no desire to “get back at the church”, nor do I share the opinion that all religious people are bad. Just like anything, there are good and bad people in all areas of society. Please don’t attribute my beliefs to any wrongdoing of someone else. I’m proud to have brought myself to this point.

The term atheist is used in many different ways. How do you apply it to yourself?

Yes, many people have great debates over the use of atheist, agnostic and such related words. To be specific, I would call myself an agnostic atheist. See this explanation for a thorough description of what this means. Essentially the two are orthogonal terms. I claim no proof of the non-existence of any particular god, so I’m somewhat agnostic, but all my reasoning points me to the belief that there are none. I like Isaac Asimov’s quote on this matter: “I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I’ve been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn’t have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I’m a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally I am an atheist. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn’t that I don’t want to waste my time.” [source] The evidence is not there to support belief, and the burden of proof is on the maker of the claim.

What will you do if I email you?

You are free to submit anything to me that you think would be appropriate. I reserve the right to share what you send to me on this site, in part or in whole. I also reserve the right to ignore it if I find it to be inappropriate, rude or otherwise unfit for my site. I will do my best to answer any questions you may have, whether that means integrating the ideas into a post, or responding to you directly.

Can I comment on your posts?

Yes, you are free to comment on any post you like. If you think the spam filter has inappropriately blocked your comment, email me to let me know and I will review it. If we get into any kind of “comment wars”, or if comments lose focus and become a forum for ridicule rather than free debate, I may close comments for a particular post. Hopefully it won’t come to that.

Can I write a guest post?

If you’d like to do this, send me an email about the topic you want to discuss. I will of course review the final draft as well. I don’t anticipate much of this, but I’m not closed to the idea.