Monday, December 3, 2007

First Post

Hi,
This blog is kind of like a birthing. It is the first exposure of a closet atheist. All of my life I have been a member of the Coptic Orthodox Church. The predominant Christian minority in Egypt. I was an extremely active member until just before I began college. I'd often struggled with my faith but I accepted that it was true. This began to change once I saw that the people who were "sinners" weren't, on the whole, any less moral than my friends were at home. But they sure were more honest. Then something happened. You see, I was a born scientist. I had conceived of the scientific method before I knew it had a name. It led me to a degree in zoology and a path to medical school. All my life I had a wall in my mind between my religion and my science. Like I said, something happened. The wall came down. As I applied basic scientific principles to religion, it seemed unfathomable that I had ever believed it at all. This wasn't the first time the Wall had been breached. As a devout Sunday School student I read voraciously of the history of my Church. Even something as seemingly solid as history was full of holes. At the time I was able to apply what I would later learn was called doublethink to the situation. It melted away into a warm, blissful ignorance. Speaking of which, Orwell's 1984 and Dawkins' The God Delusion were just two of the books which helped me come to this initially difficult decision. It was initially difficult because I found great shame and fear in my first steps into atheism. In fact, I sometimes feel them still. Nonetheless, as my eyes were opened wider, it became shamefully self-evident that this is the correct path for me. Doubtless, of the small number of you reading this blog, many will call me a coward for hiding behind the internet's anonymity. Alas, it is not safe in the real world for a self professed Coptic Atheist.

1 comment:

Xavios said...

I don't know if this blog is still active but I came upon it through a Google search and I'm glad I did. I understand your stance as I am also a Coptic Atheist and I admire your courage to speak out and blog about it. I've done the same on Reddit and it would be great to have you join us.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ExCopticOrthodox/

We even have our own Wikipedia page now!