About

This is not *that* kind of atheist blog. You know the ones I mean: the ones that take on religion, debunk it, fight it, argue with it. I have no problem with those blogs. It’s just that there’s plenty of good ones covering that territory already. I want to try something else, something a bit more personal.

For too long in my life, I tread water. The details aren’t important. What is important is that in the last couple of years I’ve been waking up, both intellectually and emotionally. My atheism, hitherto usually not thought about much and mostly just a default position, has proved crucial in this. I wasn’t saved by Jesus or the Truth as revealed by Muhammad. I wasn’t enlightened under the guidance of an Indian Guru or Buddhist teacher. I woke up myself.

Atheism by itself, of course, doesn’t do much of anything. It merely provides a stance on a particular issue that, I believe, has very little actual relevance to life. But it is crucial in another way, because it sets a certain state of mind, a certain stance towards the world. In particular, it makes me the master of my own destiny.

You hear a lot of people talk about the meaning of life, and it’s often couched in terms related to searching — you search for it, you seek it. You’re a seeker. It’s out there somewhere, you just have to find it.

Bah, I say. You don’t search for meaning, you make it. “Meaning” is the ultimate creative act. Of course, this creation doesn’t happen ex nihilo. The contents of your mind are like a bubbling cauldron, the contents made up of ingredients borrowed from countless sources — friends, family, the culture around you. From that mixture, you pull out your creation, a meaning for your life, or perhaps many meanings.

This, then, is a look at my cauldron, and a look at my personal act of creation. The ingredients in my bubbling cauldron come from many sources — literature (classic, science fiction, fantasy), movies, television shows, science, philosophy, vegetarianism, friends and family, and even, yes, religion, at least in the sense of various bits of mythology and folklore understood in metaphorical terms.

Some things to know: my main philosophical foundations are skepticism and naturalism. I tend to be whimsical, and can wax poetic. I’m a geek. I’m a vegan, though pretty relaxed about it. I adore Doctor Who with a passion. There are huge areas of my life in flux, everything is being questioned, and my life has become a canvas that I’m trying to turn into a worthy work of art. I’m a writer who has spent too long being afraid of the act of creation, of letting it all out, and am now trying to get past that barrier. I’m am a creature of fevers and enthusiasms.

Mostly, I’m just this guy trying to figure out this thing called life. Come join me and see how one atheist does that.