Why Did You Start a Blog?

Joe talks about why he started his new blog:

Although I am an atheist I am a bit fascinated by the idea of religion. It seems odd to me that adults walk around everyday actively believing this stuff. When I get the hankering I go to IIDB and read the “deconversion” stories. I find them infinitely interesting (maybe some day I will write up my own here.) But many atheist internet forums or blogs devolve into argument, insult, preaching.

Reading FriendlyAtheist’s blog showed me that there are people on both sides of the god question that seek understanding and discussion instead of conflict. I thought to create an atheism blog in order to increase the understanding of atheism and to put out another positive atheist voice.

Anything to help. Though even some of the threads on this page devolve into preaching/argument/other-things-that-make-me-want-to-scream. Really, I can’t understand why some people make the crazy comments that they do. You people know who you are… a pox on all of you.

Though we do need to change Joe’s blog’s name. Something more positive is in order.

If you’ve started a blog recently, what was the reason?

[tags]atheist, atheism, blog[/tags]

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Joe

Hey thanks for checking out my blog! talk about great exposure for my first day. Now I feel the posting pressure for my next entry.

Regarding the name, yeah it’s not very good. I found it hard to come up with a name for something when I wasn’t sure yet what it might become.

Keep up the good work!
Chris Hallquist

I resent the notion that argument is a bad thing… not only as someone who argues a lot online, but as a university student majoring in philosphy, a discipline where if you can’t argue, you can’t get anywhere. *Must resist temptation to e-mail out to entire department, bringing said department’s wrath down on blog.*
Bart

I just started a blog too. It’s at reasonableatheist.blogspot.com. I guess I started mine because of Hemant’s blog post about Why I’m Not An Angry Atheist. I think Hemant makes some really good points in that post, but I do disagree with the idea of completely respecting irrational beliefs. I think it is possible to be agreeable, friendly, civil and such without betraying my beliefs in the power of logic, reason and critical thinking. It also gives me a place to express myself in a sort of public way, even though I’m pretty much in the closet as an atheist. For instance, I have not told my parents about it yet. My wife knows, as do some of my co-workers, but not many other people. I have to admit being a bit frightened, considering I live in the deep south of the United States.
Lynet

If you’ve started a blog recently, what was the reason?

I honestly don’t know. I must have been mad. I have to keep reminding myself not to be enthusiastic about promoting my blog because if I do, I’ll just end up feeling even more guilty when I haven’t posted for a while! 🙂
Mike C

Really, I can’t understand why some people make the crazy comments that they do. You people know who you are… a pox on all of you.

I know, I know, I’m sorry… 😉
Chris Ho-Stuart

I’ve just started a blog, four weeks ago. You were an early member of my blog roll, and I’ve been looking for a good opportunity to introduce myself.

I have been active on the internet for many years in different capacities. I am currently a member in good standing at “TheologyWeb”, which is a quite conservative Christian discussion forum that has made me very welcome. I’ve been impressed with how they run their discussions. I post there as “Sylas”.

I used to be very active in the Usenet group talk.origins; and was one of the responders in the feedback column of the talkorigins website. The feedback column is now defunct, for technical reasons of some kind, and there are thoughs afoot for how to resurrect it. I participated there under my own name.

Anyhow, basically it was inevitable that I would eventually try blogging. I was just really really slow at getting on this particular bandwagon.

My blog is “Duas Quartunciae“. It’s still quite new, but the articles which have attracted the most attention have been touching on religion and unbelief and how we interact. I’ve been engaging with the debate on responses to religion, with people I’ve known and respected for a long time through the talkorigins group — Paul Myers and John Wilkins especially.

The article that got the most attention was “Should we promote tolerant religion?“, which in turn was commenting on a quite fasciating article by Jon Rowe at positive liberty: “While Europe Slept“. For the hardline response be sure to see PZ Myers as well: “Do-nothing atheists and re-igniting the Enlightenment“. Lots of links there, but I think they will all be of considerable interest to you and readers of your blog.

I aim to be commenting more often on other topics; but somehow this one just keeps coming back. Other topics will be maths, science, education, and random thoughts.

By the way, I have also ordered your book. My father is a retired minister of religion, and we both share the reading habit. I added your book to a book order he sent out recently for various theology references. He is the way I tend to keep up with topics in academic theology.

Hail, well met — Chris
Bart

This thread is great, now I can fill up my RSS reader with lots of new blogs. 🙂
Tina B.

I started a blog about 7 months ago but didn’t do much for quite awhile.I started because my son told me about it and it evolved into religion and atheism.
Terry Storch

I just found your blog recently. I am really enjoying reading your thoughts and learning more about you. Good stuff. It might shock you, but I am a Christian (and pastor) and will have no problem joining your conversation and wont preach or anything like that. Thanks for your blog, I find it helpful to understand where you are coming from.

Why did I start blogging? I figured if I was going to help write a book about it, then I should know what I am talking about!
Kelly

I started mine very recently, and I can honestly say that it was because of your blog, and because of reading Parenting Beyond Belief. Living in Cincinnati, I don’t often come across many like minded people (need to get to one of the Free Inquiry Group meetings!). This blog and that book reminded me that there are a heck of a lot of people that think like I do. When I wanted to rant or rave about this or that, all I had was my husband! He enjoys the conversation as much as I do, but I just felt like doing more. I suppose I started it to record my thoughts, but also to seek out a community of sorts.
BK

If you’ve started a blog recently, what was the reason?

For me starting The New Atheist came down to needing a place to talk about things I read and things that happen, and keep track of resources I find on the web. I hoped that some of my friends would join the conversation, but that has been slow to start.

It’s nice to have multiple ways to participate, providing comments sometimes and new postings other times. The variety of perspectives from various bloggers is really interesting – sometimes there are slightly different ideas on one topic, and sometimes totally different things resonate with different people. The variety and creativity are amazing – and who doesn’t want to be a part of it?
Mriana

I had a blog once, but it didn’t go anywhere. I admire the people who blogs do go somewhere.
Zeolite

I started my blog as a method to de-tangle my thoughts.

I had a pen and paper journal where I would just dump out the words in my head and that was good, but it didn’t help me process. Writing things down with the goal of being clear and concise for a reader helps me peal away whatever extraneous thoughts are tied to a topic and allows me to identify the core of what I’m trying to communicate. This has given me more of a sense of closure and competence regarding the topics that swirl around in my head.
benjamin ady

I recently (5 days ago) started a new blog as a way to start a little exercise which I’ve been meaning to start for a long time. The exercise is called “Three Blessings”, and it was found to be the most effective, long term, for increasing happiness in an epirical study from the positive psychology center at the University of Pennsylvania, under Dr. Martin Seligman. It’s pretty simple–every day you just write down 3 things that went well that day, and why they went well. I’d love for anyone else who wants to to post their own three blessings on there too =). Oh–it’s threeblessings.wordpress.com
Ken Perrott

I started mine recently with the purpose of trying to get some discussion around diversity of religion and belief in New Zealand.
It is motivated partly by a National Statement on Religious Diversity developed under the wing of our Human Rights Commission. The principles underlying this are great but in practice the whole exercise was controlled by religious groups and this has lead to some weaknesses.
Would welcome some input – especially at this early stage to help get it off the ground.
Check it out http://openparachute.wordpress.com
sandrar

Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. 🙂 Cheers! Sandra. R.