I’m seriously arguing that we should should be discussing morality (and other branches of philosophy) outside of religion. I don’t know how I gave the impression that we shouldn’t be discussing it. I said:

I enjoy being able to construct my own morality. [...] I’d like to see what my fellow atheists think about their newfound world view. I’d love to know what society would be like if atheism was the dominant philosophy.

I don’t come out and say it, but I’d hoped that it was implied: we should be talking about morality, and ethics, and what makes a life worth living, outside of a religious context.

Are you sreiously arguing that people shouldn’t discuss morality outside of the context of religion?

So if you are looking for blogs that focus on issues pertaining to atheism, then by definition they’re going to talk about religion. I don’t know what exactly you mean by positive atheism, but it sounds like you want a “diet religion” blog, which give recipes for all the satisfying religious experiences you like, with substitutions so you don’t get all those nasty calories.

All other “atheist blogs” are simply blogs which talk about life. You just don’t notice them because they don’t mention God, neither in praise nor in scorn.

- RG>

If you ask an atheist how the got to their philosophical point of view it will probably go “Well I thought about it for awhile, then I just figured it out.” Sure maybe some people will have tried alot of religious/spiritual experiences first but really, they just figured it out.

What have you done lately that has been affected by being an atheist?

Hi Erigami,

Feel free to post this on your blog, if you like. I have two answers
to this question.

First is the trivial answer: I’ve been extremely busy at work these past several weeks, working a lot of overtime and weekends, and I haven’t had as much time to write new posts as I’d like. For when this happens, I keep a cache of posts that I wrote some time earlier and can release at my convenience, so the site doesn’t go dark for too long. Since these stored posts have to be timeless, many of them are about philosophical or theological topics rather than current events. I realize some people find these boring, but personally, I see nothing uninteresting about carefully examining theological claims, even the more esoteric ones. I think it helps to be a knowledgeable and well-equipped atheist, and I find human culture fascinating no matter how it manifests itself.

Second, and maybe more importantly: While I do write about positive atheism and humanism as often as possible, I want to maintain a balance. And one thing I’ve found is that posts which pick a fight, or disassemble an argument, often get more hits and more attention than posts which promote atheism as a positive worldview. Just look at how many comments there are on my most recent post responding to William Lane Craig, as opposed to the one urging atheists to sign up to make loans on Kiva. That’s not something I’m thrilled about, but that’s how it is. I don’t want my site to be all arguing all the time, but to keep things lively, it does help to stir the pot on occasion.

He was responding to:

Hi again,

Daylightatheism.org is your blog, and I enjoy reading it, so I’d like to ask you the following: why so much focus on religion? Your recent “Free Will and Evil” post is entirely about Christianity. Ditto for Monday’s “Resurrection Creed” post. Which is fine (since it’s your blog), but why do you expect atheists to care? We’re already atheists. We don’t need another reason to be atheists.

On the off chance you’re interested in what one of your readers thinks: religion is interesting because it tells us where we’re from, and what our cultural ancestors cared about. If you do want to cover religion, branch out, explore polytheistic religions such as Hinduism, Shintoism, or the pre-colonization religions of North America. Even better, move away from religion, and explore how atheists fit into society. Something similar to what a rabbi/priest/imam would do. You could look at current events and talk about those from an atheist perspective.

Regardless of what you decide to do, keep up the good work.

e

PS: I’m probably going to post this on PiePalace.ca, at some point. If you want to respond to this email, keep in mind that it will probably be posted as well.