New Direction

This blog was intended as a place for longer, more thought-out discussions on various topics than would normally be posted to my regular journal. Many times it has been made painfully clear that the average person believes a variety of things about me (generally based on stereotypes about classes to which I belong), many of which are false. Some of which are bewilderingly false, even disturbing.

My hippie nature prevents me from holding any one set of beliefs or opinions above any other. My geek nature, however, leads me to hold facts and truth as paramount in all things. If your opinions are based on a web of flimsy lies & misinformation, I will discount your opinion, but not merely because you disagree with me. Those who attempt to mislead others with lies or just misleading presentation of information are the worst sort in my eyes, because hiding the truth is first step in enslaving others.

So the idea of this blog was to spread a little truth where misconceptions currently carry a lot of weight. And when it comes to misconceptions, the one area of my life where they abound the most is my lack of religious faith. For instance, did you know that:

- I never chose not to believe in god, so stop asking why I made that decision
- I do, in fact, have morals and live by them passionately
- I don't have proof that any god doesn't exist, but I have piles of evidence that mainstream gods don't
- If the Christian god (as I understand him, I'm not a theologian) did exist & proved it to me, I would still not worship him
- My atheism is not central to my life like your faith might be to yours, but the trust in myself & love of life that comes from atheist are important
- The odds are high that you don't really believe in the god that you claim, but rather a different concept of god that is not found in most mainstream religions
- I don't hate religion or want to see it abolished
- I don't hate people who are religious
- I think that religious faith is good for some people
- I don't worship science
- I think Richard Dawkins is a jerk
- I don't think you're a moron because you're religious, although you may be holding incompatible beliefs - not because you're stupid, but because many people with conflicting interests have conspired all your life to control your thoughts & beliefs
- If you've spent time arguing about religion on the internet, your perception of atheists is wildly inaccurate. The same would be true in reverse if I made the logical error of assuming online trolls are representative of all Christians (I'm not persecuting Christians here, I have never to my knowledge participated in or witnessed a petty argument between an atheist and anyone of any faith other than Christianity), but I know better.
- There is no one thing that all atheists agree on, so no, it's not a religion. There is no dogma.
- and much, much more!

Therefore, I have decided to change from Hippie Confessions to Atheist Confessions. This will probably invite even more trolling, but hey - someone's got to stand up for the truth. Hopefully this will lead to more updates (expanding on the points above, then other topics), but I'm not making any promises. Because even though I am not governed by the 8th (or 9th depending on your faith) commandment, I still have a policy of always telling the truth. Funny how that works.