Wearing the big scarlet "A" on my chest (and I don't mean the Hawthorne kind)

Okay, first off, let's get this out of the way. I'm an atheist. I don't believe in any kind of god or supernatural force at work in the universe. I put my trust in science, reason, and the philosophy of secular humanism. I totally respect everyone's right to believe whatever they want to, as long as they don't force their views on me. I guess this is my blogosphere version of "coming out."

Given that, on Sunday I attended an excellent talk at the D.C. branch of the Center for Inquiry on parenting for people who are not religious. (I would have said "atheists" instead of "not religious" but I'm discovering a lot of people prefer other labels, such as freethinkers, skeptics, secularists, etc. Also, a lot of agnostics may not completely reject the notion of a supernatural power but have many similar concerns as atheists. ) The talk featured Dale McGowan, a interesting and articulate guy in person and editor of a book called "Parenting Beyond Belief: Raising Caring, Ethical Kids Without Religion," as well as Nica Lalli. I learned a lot, took notes, and can't wait to read the book. Why did I go to such an event? There are a couple of reasons.

The first reason is the obvious one. David and I are starting to think about having kids in the next year or two. Since we're both non-believers (I don't mind the term "atheist" but David typically will say "agnostic" just so he doesn't have to get into arguments with people about his beliefs . . . or lack thereof), I've been thinking about the obstacles and special problems we'll face as parents in the U.S. not raising their kids with religion. How do you answer questions about death and mortality? How do you educate your children about religion and acquire a necessary "cultural literacy" in religion without indoctrinating them? How do you raise your kids to think for themselves and ultimately choose their own religious beliefs? And how do you explain to your children the hostility and discrimination they will sometimes face from others since their parents are atheists? These are all big questions that no one book can answer. However, it's nice to now know there's a community of people who have gone through these experiences themselves, and who I can learn from.

Second, I've been thinking a lot lately about finding an atheistic community in the DC area. Non-believers are a varied and individualistic bunch. We usually don't organize the way religious folks do. But since the publication of books by Sam Harris, Richard Dawson, and Christopher Hitchens, non-believers have started becoming more vocal and organized. I guess you could say many people are "coming out" as atheists. So I found a few local groups that I'm starting to check out. I'm going to try to attend meeting of the Secular Humanist Group of the Unitarian Univeralist congregation of Arlington. There's also a branch of the American Ethical Union in Northern Virginia that looks interesting. However, I really think the Center for Inquiry's local DC events seem the best match for me. An affiliated group of the Center for Inquiry, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, publishes one of my favorite magazines, the Skeptical Inquirer. It's focus is more on science and human reason than ethical issues.

I'll blog more about any future events of any of these groups that I go to. A gathering of self-proclaimed skeptics, freethinkers, and atheists is turn up some characters and interesting interactions.