Since this weblog is, in a sense, my home on the Internet, it seemed a useful metaphor to divide it into categories symbolized by the rooms of a house, with each room encompassing a specific set of topics. At least to begin with, there will be six categories, which will be as follows:
The Foyer is for introductory posts (such as this one), important announcements, and news relating to site administration. If and when I have guest authors, their biographies will also appear here.
The Observatory tracks science and its abuses, reporting both on major new discoveries and on classic experiments that still have important lessons to teach us. Here is also the place where a skeptical eye is cast on the fads and fallacies that result from excessive credulity and a lack of critical thinking skills.
The Library is where I turn my loquacious side loose to pen long-winded essays on history and philosophy, including such topics as morality, free will, rationality, personhood, consciousness, and the like. It will also be the home for reviews of books I’ve completed, both those I agree and disagree with.
The Loft stores odds and ends – meditations, fictions, thought experiments, short stories, random musings, and whatever else doesn’t neatly fit into any of the other categories.
The Rotunda reports on current events in law, politics, the media, and other areas relevant to this blog’s mission, shining a light on the evils of religious fundamentalism worldwide. Correspondence and debates will also be posted and addressed here.
The Garden is the home for essays promoting the positive side of atheism and its associated values, arguing that the freedom and exhilaration of a life lived with conscience but without dogma or superstition far surpasses anything religion has to offer. Expect, too, essays on the practical aspects of living life as an atheist and how best to apply humanistic real-world ethics to a range of situations.
Over the next few days, I’ll be posting an entry from each of these categories, to give a better idea of the sorts of subjects each of them will address.