Introductions

Hello, and welcome to The Iron Chariot. For those of you who were readers of my old blog, Lord J-Bar for Democracy, Not Theocracy, you can expect more of the same. For those of you who are new, let me tell you a little bit about myself:

First and foremost, I am an atheist. I have found religion to be a rather superfluous exercise and a waste of time and money that could be better spent on things that actually help people. I'll be sure to give you the reasons as time goes on, but, for now, just know that I have not come to my current worldview lightly. I agree with the late Carl Sagan in that, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." Considering that the God hypothesis is an extremely extraordinary claim, I am disinclined to believe until the theists have more than a mere ancient book and a few anecdotes to back up their claims.

Besides, I have found the intellectual freedom that comes from atheism to be far greater than any wishful thinking that might come from religion. It allows one to truly contemplate the nature of the universe without the blinders of religion and better understand why the universe is the way it is.

Finally, I worry that the recent religious upswelling in this country poses a significant threat to our way of life. I'm concerned with how the conservative, Religious Right wants to destroy many of our essential civil rights to recreate a historical era of Christian values that never actually existed. As far as I'm concerned, the only way to provide freedom for all this nation's citizens is to ensure the government will not impose any sort of religious dogma upon them. It is unfortunate that atheists seem to be the most vocal group on this critical endeavor, but I am proud to be a part of it and wouldn't have it any other way.

As for my credentials, I have a bachelor's degree in military history from the US Military Academy with a focus on ancient and medieval warfare. Beyond that, I have done as much as I can to further educate myself on historial and scientific issues. I certainly don't know as much as I would like--and never will--but I strive to learn more everyday, and I'm more happy to hear new ideas and views on every issue.

In short, here you'll find rational arguments to support science and pleas to maintain the US Constitution as the secular document the Founding Fathers intended it to be. I may even groan a bit over the intolerances of fundamental religion. Anyway, you may disagree with everything I have to say, but I hope you at least learn something....