Welcome

I am a sceptic. I am an atheist.

It is with these words that I embark upon a new journey. It is with these words that I enter the fray.

I had planned to start this blog in the New Year. But tonight it struck me that the New Year is but the creation of man. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar to suit our needs. If I mean to begin, why not now? Why begin a task at an arbitrary number such as the 1st of January?

The use of time and calendars. The subject of a future blog entry? (I must start keeping a list)

Anyhoo, here I am. After a bottle of cheap wine, I decided that I would re-invent my blog from a collection of family photos (dogs and babies) into a proper sceptical, critical, secular, humanist, scientific, analysis of the world around us. I’ve been a by-stander for too long. A listener, a reader. Rather than be a consumer of podcasts, a reader of blogs, websites and the occasional book. Why not contribute something to the nascent conflict that is raging below the surface? I think this will become the theme of this collection. As the economic system collapses, as the new world order establishes itself, as the reality of our ecological dire straits becomes apparent, a larger shift in our affairs is about to happen, in my opinion.

The technology available to the average western person is beyond the dreams of our ancestors. We are no longer reliant on “The Media” for our news, education or entertainment. We are entering an era where the self-published opinion is all. We don’t have to wait for the established organs to produce a daily newspaper, a cinema newsreel, a lunchtime radio bulletin, a 9 o’clock news. The news is everywhere. Youtube, the blogosphere, podcasts. We can learn more about what interests us now. Immediately.

We can subscribe to the podcasts that cover our particular topic of interest. We can listen to the digital radio channels that play our favourite music. We can read the news aggregators that give us the headlines we want to read.

In essence, we are becoming worldwide communities of taxidermists, genealogists and phillumenists (look it up).

As the scope becomes narrower, the detail becomes more intricate.

So it is into this new medium I enter. It is my opinion that we are about to embark upon a new age. Next year, next decade, next century. It is inevitable that the human race will awaken from millennia of superstition and belief in the paranormal. As a species, we are detecting planets orbiting distant stars. We are unlocking the secrets of the conception of the universe. We are bridging the gaps in the fossil record to uncover how we evolved to this stage.

Thus I look forward to an age when we can, as a species, abandon forever the redundant belief in a magical supernatural being, who listens to our thoughts, answers our prayers, promises eternal happiness and provokes hatred for our fellow man. I look forward to an age when we can see the world and universe around us as the wonder of scientific, evolutionary and astronomical beauty that it is. I look forward to an age when we can appreciate the time we have on this planet, use it to achieve our potential and treat each other with the respect we deserve.

I presume the following entries won’t be as prosaic as this one. I hope to get into the details of why religion is past its sell-by-date. Why alternative medicine is doing more harm than good. Why we live at the pinnacle of human evolution, yet cling to mad superstitious beliefs in the afterlife that prevent us from achieving our potential here and now on this insignificant rock, orbiting an average star in an mediocre neighbourhood of middling galaxy in a universe that we don’t fully understand.

However you’ve found your way to discovering this blog, keep reading. Keep thinking. Question everything. I’m only stumbling through the darkness, trying to find some truth. But as we analyse the evidence, establish the facts, stand on the shoulders of giants and move forwards rather than backwards, if I persuade one person to think rationally and abandon a superstitious, dangerous, belief, then I’ve achieved something.

Zero Albedo
19 Dec 2008