First Post

I'm not completely convinced that blogging is my thing, but Lori thinks I should give it a try. I suppose it may be interesting to see what people think of the ramblings I usually keep in my head. That is assuming that anyone will read them.

There are only two things right now that get me worked up enough to actually write about them. The first is bodybuilding. I'm not that muscular and my genetics don't give me any advantages, but I've been training long enough that I want to make the jump to competition. Fortunately in this region, conditioning is rewarded, so if I can stick to a diet I shouldn't embarrass myself. Except for the part about standing on stage in my underwear.

The other area that I think I'll find worth writing about is skepticism/atheism. In the last year I finally gave up on religion. I was raised and educated as a fundamentalist christian, but as much as I tried to conform I was never able to be a "True Believer". After trying to play by the church's rules and having nothing happen, I tried just sitting back to see what would happen to my way of thinking. During that time I decided to educate myself on the theism vs. atheism debate. I have a fairly strong scientific bias. It is just the way I think either naturally or as a result of my engineering training, so I was looking for the evidence that either side could present. I'm a voracious reader so I dug into a stack of books: Francis Collins, Lee Strobel, Josh McDowell, C. S. Lewis, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Michael Shermer and Christopher Hitchens. I supplemented my reading with some science podcast like This Week in Science, The Inoculated Mind, and The Skeptics Guide to the Universe.

I found the theistic arguments to vary between fallacious and dishonest to completely without substance and free of evidence. In the end utterly unconvincing. The scientific arguments on the other hand were descriptive, predictive and had actual evidence. Based on that, I could no longer pretend to believe that religion had any merit. This decision really hasn't changed much. I was already a non-theist in practice, so all that is different is what I call myself.

So, that is me - a godless gym rat. I guess we'll see where this goes.