Tagged with an evolution meme . . .

Actually, this meme is not about the evolution of the species, but about the evolution of my blog. Vjack at Atheist Revolution tagged me for this one a few days ago, and while most meme's are pretty easy to come up with instant responses, this one required a lot of thought and reflection. I am supposed to list five previous posts which reflect the evolution of Stardust Musings and Thoughts for the Freethinker and tag five other blogs so they'll do the same.

I started blogging in October 2005 with my oldest blog, Random writings, photography and artwork: mine and those of others as sort of a place to put down my thoughts, photos, artwork, fiction, poetry . . . and articles, essays and other things about atheism and freethought. However, a close relative of mine was offended by my atheistic and freethought posts, and said how it "hurt" her and she wanted to read my blog but could not just overlook the posts she didn't agree with. This person said it hurt her deeply to read things that dissed her faith, religion and her god. It was not my intention to hurt anyone, especially this person, so I moved all the atheistic stuff to a new blog . . . this one.

So, that's how Stardust Musings and Thoughts for the Freethinker got started way back in November 2005 and I told this person not to go to this blog as it would offend her. However, that was not enough and she could not stand the fact that I had this blog and wrote the things I did and continued to take it personally...since she sees it as dissing god is dissing her. I toned it down for awhile, but then after some thinking I decided that this is MY space, my blog, my thoughts which reflect my worldview. Even Christians and other god believers of the same faiths don't even agree with each other about various aspects of their religions especially concerning the characteristics of their god, and their widely differing interpretations of their holy texts, and about hell and even if this god is involved in the lives of humans or not. But that's okay because they all believe that their is "something" that is in control. I, on the other hand do not because there hasn't been one shred of evidence to convince me otherwise. I should be able to speak and write what is on my mind in the same way that god believers speak and write about their beliefs that people like me are the baddest of the bad and how they believe we are going to burn in hell for all eternity for simply not believing in a god, specifically THEIR version of this god and the religion that goes along with that.

Now, back to the meme...

1. I started out in blogging rather casually, not really intending it to be read by anyone. If they did, fine. If not, oh well. It was a place for me. I began with no real direction, no plan or goal in mind. I was an art major in high school and in my first two years of college, and worked as a graphic artist for a number of years so enjoyed playing with the graphics and text and making everything look pretty while posting poems and essays that weren't really too involved. Simple, aesthetically appealing. My first post was my favorite quote of all time by Groucho Marx, " I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it."

2. I soon went on to post about my lack of belief and reasons why in Life is Here and Now which explains my view of why humans cling to religion and superstitious beliefs, and openly expresses my lack of belief in the existence of any god and reasons for that disbelief.

3. I became very "rabid" for awhile, attacking any Christian who happened upon my blog, and became very defensive when someone tried to proselytize to me in "my house" here in blogland and sometimes got into it in a not so nice way with these god believers, which is unlike how I would behave in the real world. (However, Christians can be quite annoying and still provoke me and bait me into senseless circular arguments at times.) The blogosphere allows us to say things we would never say to anyone face-to-face and allows our worst to come out because we cannot see the person behind the computer screen who we are talking to. Sable Chicken especially would get my "feathers ruffled" and bring out the worst in me. ( I was wondering where she went, and it looks like she has shifted from blogging to YouTube...and is as crazy as ever!) Just type in Sable Chicken if you are interested. It's good for a chuckle or two.

4. Astronomy is a love of mine, and like I say in my profile, if I could live life over again I would become an astronomer. I began to add Astronomy posts from various astronomy sources and also other bits of science and evolution news, politics, and also odd news and cartoons thrown in to add some variety. Here is one of my first Astronomy posts from NASA's Picture of the day.

5. After some more confrontation from the certain family member who, even though I had asked this person nicely not to go here, this person did and the hurt feelings etc happened again, SO . . . I posted much less about religion, and toned-down my religion bashing (for awhile) but I was not happy because I was allowing this person to dictate to me what I can and cannot say on my own personal blog. I felt a lot of resentment about this, and then thought this is MY blog, my space, my place to express my thoughts, and my worldview. While I continue to post and speak out about my atheism and in support of freethought, separation of church and state and against theocratic rule, I have toned down using derogatory and hurtful language while doing so.

As for who I am, and what I write, I have to be true to myself. This post sums it up nicely as to why I continue Stardust Musings.

I now tag:

KA of biblioblography
poodles of Atheist Rants
The Atheist Jew
Cyberkitten of Seeking a Little Truth
BigHeathenMike