Saturday, July 25, 2009

Entering the Atheist Blogosphere

I’ll be honest: when I got the idea for this blog, I was woefully uninformed about the atheist blogosphere. I had no idea that there were so many amazing, brilliant, well-written atheist blogs out there. And frankly, I feel intimidated. Really, really intimidated.

What do I have to contribute to this field? What can I say that hasn’t been said a dozen times, each in better prose than I can conjure? In what way does my story add anything to the existing body of outstanding atheist works? Can I hope to compete with minds far greater than my own? I minored in philosophy in college, but I managed to routinely perform poorly in religious philosophy classes. What hope do I have of saying something useful or meaningful?

Maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way. It’s not combat I’m engaged in here. Far from it, in fact. I created this blog in part because I wanted to display my atheistic thoughts to the world, and it would be utterly uncivilized of me not to consider atheist bloggers my companions on this journey toward the truth. If anything, I should look at those established blogs as mentors. Father and mother figures, here to help guide me as I take my first baby steps away from the Catholic doctrines I’ve believed for so long. Yes, I think that’s a much more productive way to view things.

So perhaps I should not be intimidated so much as impressed, or awestruck, at the glory of those who’ve come before me. I am humbled by the knowledge exhibited in blogs out there. It is my solemn hope that some day, I will have something as unique and interesting to share as those bloggers routinely do. Until then, I’ll just have to do my best.

Next time: My deconversion story! Every good atheist has one, and now you’ll get to read mine!

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