An Introduction

I'm an atheist. I'm also a philosopher. No, I mean really. I have the Ph.D. and everything. I've even taught at schools you've heard of. I was brought up in a very religious family. We went to church every Sunday, and generally a couple times during the week too. We weren't fanatic. In fact I think of my family's approach to religion as eminently reasonable and sane, despite the fact that I no longer follow it. We weren't fanatic, but we were devout. I was raised to believe that one's relationship with god wasn't merely a facet of one's life, like a penchant for reading mystery novels, but was a central pillar which supported and defined the rest of one's existence. I still think that's largely the right way to think about god. Well, that is, I think it's the right way to think about god IF you're going to believe in god. I've never understood those who take their religion lightly, who believe in god but don't give it much thought except on Sundays, and then only for an hour or two. From my current vantage as an atheist, I do understand that a bit more, at least from the outside. But I really can't wrap my head around what it would be to live that way. Perhaps as this blog progresses I'll come to understand it more.

I don't believe in god. I think the evidence against the existence of god is overwhelming. I think that a purely rational analysis of the publically available evidence concerning the existence of god is as a close to a slam dunk against god's existence as can be had short of mathematical proof. As far as I'm concerned, the evidence for god ranks right up there with the evidence for Santa Claus, somewhere just shy of the evidence for alien abductions and Bigfoot. Nonetheless, I don't think people who believe in god are necessarily crazy or irrational for doing so, even if they are aware of the same arguments against god's existence that I am. I know that sounds like an odd position, perhaps even a bit contradictory or paradoxical. Nevertheless I believe it is the right one. A lot of the point of this blog is for me to try to spell it out and argue for it. In the end it will come down to trying to get clear on what "belief in god" means. There are certain interpretations of the phrase on which belief in god turns out to be unjustified, irrational even. But I think there are others in which it might not.

I don't really know how I'm going to organize this blog. I'd like to think that I'll work through the material a little at a time in some sort of logical order, but I probably won't. Instead it will probably come closer to a post on whatever aspect of the topic is occupying me that day. I'll try to arrange relevant posts topically somehow also. So someone reading a chronological version of the blog is likely to get insights into how my thoughts develop. But I'd liek a way for it to be read topically, so that those who are interested in just the content can get to it without having to wade through the tangents and meanderings of my psyche.

A couple other points by way of introducing the blog. I'm writing anonymously. My main reason is that I often work through this material in my philosoophy classes. I find that it's helpful if students don't know what my personal views are until the end. It helps them maintain an open mind and discourages those who would rather just be told the answer rather than working it out for themselves. At the same time, I'm not going to great lengths to hide my identity. If anyone has a good reason for knowing, I'd be happy to fess up about who I am as long as they agree not to go blabbing it about. Second, I'm going to be using lower case to refer to deity ("god" rather than "God") in general. I'm doing that to try to indicate the generality of my remarks, not as a sign of disrespect. For the most part "god" isn't a proper name, and so shouldn't be capitalized. I suppose one could argue that it's a title like "President" in "President of the United States". But that analysis assumes that it is a specific title, not a general descriptor that could apply to a variety of similar though not identical positions. But when we consider the difference between conceptions of god even within the Christian tradition, it's just not clear that a single title can be stretched to cover all of them. The Catholic conception of god has enough differences from, say, the Mormon conception, that no single entity could occupy both roles. Thus it seems innapropriate to use a capitalized term for both of them. Nor is "god" a title in the line of "Ms." or "Dr.". These titles precede names, and a usage such as "God Yahweh" or "God Thor" seems tortured at best. So I'll stick with the lower case construction here except in those few cases where an upper case construction seems clearly called for.

Well, that's enough for now, time for bed.