Let's Get Started!

I'm not starting yet another blog highlighting the inanity of religion. The purpose of this blog is to document opportunities to be an awesome person, and afterwards bring it to the attention of folks from all walks of life that we are atheists. The misnomer that atheists are assholes comes hard earned in many instances, however that's only because (in my opinion) we get fed up with religious diatribe to such an extent that we no longer can sit back and let things slide by us. There comes a point when we must stand up and scream out, "Stop the nonsense!" It is then that we gather the attention of religious followers around us. They point their fingers and raise their eyebrows at the rude, garish atheist who has dared to voice dissent. As such, we're categorized as egotistical know it alls, devoid of a soul, mocking humanity's ignorance as we skip merrily into the gates of hell.

I'd like to change that negative perception.

There is, however, a glitch. Isn't that always the case? The thing is, whenever I've told people I am an atheist, I'm immediately cast into a negative category and knee jerk judgments are made against me-about my ideas, my parenting, my marriage, my happiness, my intentions..everything! At that point I'm in a no-win situation. If I'm anything but pleasant it's because I have invited Satan to consume my soul, yet if I'm the bastion of niceties I'm fake and putting on airs, or consumed with guilt for my misdeeds. So I'm done with that game.

I've decided, instead, that the world needs to know that atheists exist, and that we're very kind and caring people. In fact, I'd wager we're MORE kind and caring, because we do nice things...wait for it...because we like to. We don't do them because of some eternal reward, or because some god told us to do it. We do nice things because it's the right thing to do, and hey...it's fun! We get no extra points, and in the religious world we're all going to hell anyways, so one would thing we're the one population of individuals who could literally get away with murder. Yet we're nicer and less judgmental than your average church member. Really. I've met a lot of atheists. And a lot of church members.

So, thanks for the support and please feel free to share your ideas on the process. If you've engaged in a random act of atheism, please send us your story (remove the space before the "@" symbol before sending) so we can share it...pictures (uploaded to a photosharing site and link to them in your email)! I'll write another blog post about how this will work, and we'll tweak it as needed over time, but the important thing is that we get started right away. See you soon!