Welcome to Gabbin’ About God, sponsored by Ace Religious Supplies, where they say, “If we don’t got it, it ain’t holy.”
Just kidding. This is Not My God, a site for the personal aspect of atheism. I’m putting together a book with that title, having already 20 interviews lined up, but I still want to hear from more of you. I couldn’t find many personal stories of atheists in existing books. Dan Barker talked about his in his book Losing Faith in Faith and Julia Sweeney described hers in the monologue Letting Go of God, but I wanted to write a compilation of experiences from everyday people with extraordinary stories, with particular emphasis on how atheists are reviled in the U.S. We are everywhere, and we are perhaps the most reviled group of people in America.
Now, I’m updating the site to include non-atheist related posts, since I’m phasing out the possibility that Not My God will get published and therefore want to include material that highlights my other interests and writing skills.
Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, Sam Harris and other brave writers (not to mention comedians) have brought on “new atheism.” We want, and need, to stand up and be counted. I want to know more about atheists’ personal experiences. What brought you to become an atheist? How did your family, loved ones, school, work, community respond if you are “out”? If you’re not “out,” what sort of isolation have you gone through? What are your obstacles? Do you feel reviled? Persecuted? Lauded?
Yeah, like most atheist/secularist sites (see my links on the media page and my blogroll), more global issues will come up, like the guy who got death threats for “kidnapping” a communion cracker. Unless you’re the guy who did that (and if so, I feel your pain), I’d rather hear about your personal experiences, not so much your responses to such events, although those are important and lots of sites discuss them.
I don’t want to use a silly tag line like “atheists are the new gays,” but for lack of a better analogy, yeah, a little. Tell me what you’re going through, whether funny, angry, disillusioned, sad, whatever.
In the stories I’ve heard, I’ve burst with pride, laughed, sighed with sorrow, shouted in anger and I’ve been afraid…but ultimately hopeful. As Rosie the Riveter would’ve said, we can do it.
You can read about my atheist experiences in my introduction.
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