The Environmental Atheist

I thought I should get this post out early on. I've called the blog "The Environmental Atheist." So while a majority of the content will be related to environmental issues, It's really important for me to come at it from the perspective of an atheist.

It's only been a short while that I've been calling myself an atheist, though that state had been in the planning stages for quite some time. My reasons for becoming an atheist and remaining one are inextricably tied to the environment and the state of the world. There's a synergy at work between seemingly unrelated issues that drive the forces of environmental degradation. I hope to elaborate on this in future posts, but for now, it suffices to say that religion is part of the problem as I see it. In truth, I see a vast network of forces that include religion, feeding each other to create a juggernaut that will wipe out much of the life on this planet. To me, my environmentalism and my atheism work together toward the same goal of a better, cleaner, more livable world.

If we're going to change the path that we're on, we need to change our mind set. A world view that refutes hard fact and scientific evidence blinds the person who holds it from seeing the problem. An ideology that dictates that all things that happen to us are a result of the will a mythic deity hobbles the person who espouses it from acting to fix the problem. A sect that encourages its members to defer to the authority of entities whose financial and political interests conflict with the entities working to correct the problem perpetuates the cycle of ignorance and deceit. And though fundamentalism may be the major culprit, every gray shade of moderation helps to perpetuate the myth that saturates our culture.

There are many other forums out there dedicated to debate about religion, as well as other blogs devoted to atheism alone. Unless bothersome questions persist, I don't intend to argue about god with deists and theists. I would prefer to talk about atheism as it relates to environmentalism. Even so, I should think that the subject would only come up once in a while. If I had to quantify it, I would say the blog will break down as 80% environmental, and 20% atheist content.

Still, atheism is a bit of an incendiary issue. I'm not moderating my comments at the moment. I don't really have any readers yet (except for my lovely wife) so there's really no point. If it becomes necessary, I probably will. I'm sure that the odd person will want to "save" me or curse me. It's all just static, and a distraction from what's important. If I start moderating, that will probably be the cause. There are also plenty of folks out there with political agendas. You can usually sniff them out by the language of their posts - the way that their arguments are framed. If someone like that comes on the scene, I might start moderating as well. I certainly don't want to suppress argument, but I also don't want to supply anyone with a venue for their destructive rhetoric, or that of the organization they belong to. If I do start moderating, I'll post a note as to why certain comments were removed.