A little while back, vjack over at Atheist Revolution wrote a blog entry in which he talked about bloggers "finding their voice." It got me thinking. Discovering and refining my own voice as a writer since I started this blog nearly three and a half years ago is something I consider often. When this blog started, I considered myself a "post-Christian agnostic freethinker" who was not entirely sure about what I believed about god. I considered myself a heretic - one who publicly dissents from the officially accepted religious dogma - because I was an advocate of critical thinking and questioning all alleged "truths," including and especially so-called "sacred truths." I didn't call myself an atheist because I wasn't comfortable with the label, and I was still considering whether I was in fact an atheist or not. I spent the first year trying to find myself more than merely my voice. I started this blog in October 2009. By August 2010 I had come to terms with my atheism. I talked about my journey to atheism then in a blog series I titled (appropriately), The Journey to Atheism.
That word: "Journey." I found my voice in sharing my pilgrimage, my exploration, my story. I wanted to be different than the other "atheist blogs" out there. Not that they were bad; quite the contrary, in fact. I wanted to be different because otherwise my blog would end up being a bad version of a good blog. I realized that the one thing I could offer - the only thing I could offer - that was unique was, well, this:
Me. I could offer myself. Not because I'm a beautiful and unique snowflake (even though I am because my mom told me so), but because I have a story to share. I want to show the world a regular person who also happens to be an atheist. It's easy for people to look at each other online as two-dimensional, flat characters, like the villain of a poorly written story - defined only by that one trait with which we happen to disagree or despise. Atheists are misunderstood and, not surprisingly, mistrusted. My way of combating that attitude has been to present myself: my thoughts, feelings, baggage, beliefs, conflicts. My heart and mind.
I want people to see that being an atheist doesn't make a person less moral, less compassionate, or less of a human. My experience makes me think, for many, it can make a person more, not less, of all these things. I've been told that my blog reads like a personal journal, and in many ways that's exactly what it is for me. I just keep the book open for anyone else to read who might be interested.
In opening up myself to the world, I have encouraged discussion rather than debate. In a perfect world, we would all see each other as on a journey together, trying to help each other find truth. We're not all at the same place on this journey, and not all of us are traveling the same way. We're not all right, but none of us is all wrong either. I think we can learn something from each other. At the very least, we can help each other think less badly about the issues that matter most.
— Dead-Logic
