An idea occurred to me while driving home last night, and idea for the website I needed when I first came out of religion. It would serve as a repository for articles on science and religion (from an atheist viewpoint). Basically, an entire site dedicated to saying “You are not alone, and you don’t have to suffer.”

There could be different sections dedicated to issues unique to former members of different religions, comparative religion studies, articles by well known freethinkers (like Dawkins, Hitchens, etc etc.), a bookstore (I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen “What are some good atheist books?”), links to videos like Skepticon and other talks, Blog hosting, social networking, the potential ideas are endless.

I’m looking for ideas in what you would have liked to have seen when you came out of religion. High level ideas are great, but I’m more interested in specifics, like “I wish somebody had told me about The God Delusion”, etc. If you have come across articles that helped you, or would have helped you if you had known about them, I want to know. If you have ideas you would like to see implemented, also let me know. Just post a comment. Every honest suggestion will be taken seriously and is likely to be implemented.

Trolls be warned, I will delete your comments because I’m really just not in the mood for it. I’m not looking to start a debate here, so troll comments are less than unnecessary. I’m quite serious about giving new atheists a resource for coming to grips with their atheism.

That said, please comment. Thank you.

I recently registered for Skepticon IV. I’m not going in an official capacity, FYI, just attending. It would be great to be a speaker, but that would require a certain percentage of the community actually knowing who the fuck I am first.

I love the fact that it’s occurring in Springfield Missouri, right smack in the heart of Jesus Central. It’s also nice that it’s within easy driving distance from here.

I’ve never attended any Atheist/Skeptical conventions before. In fact, the only large scale convention I’ve ever attended was DevConnections four years ago. Luckily, this one is a lot more affordable than DevCon (free vs. $3k or so). It runs November 19th and 20th. I was hoping to make it on Friday the 18th, because PZ Meyers is planning on taking a group down to the Creation Museum just for fun. Going to the Creation Museum with PZ Meyers and posting some photos of the ensuing insanity here sounds like more fun than I’ve had in years, but it looks unlikely I’ll make it on Friday at the moment.*sigh*

I recommend going if you can make it. It looks like it will be a load of fun. I’ve made several Atheist/Skeptic friends in recent months through local meetup groups, and many of them are going. I’ve personally met Darrel Ray, author of The God Virus, and he’ll be speaking there this year.

Here’s a list of this year’s speakers: http://skepticon.org/speakers.php.  The list grows year by year, and it’s exciting to see something like this catching on.

If you go, I hope to see you there. Be sure to comment on this post and maybe we can meet up while we’re there. If you need someone to room with, I’m not your guy. Already got plans 😉