Greetings to new friends, to old friends, and to strangers just stopping by. I’m Adam Lee, and I’m glad to be here.
I’ve been an atheist for over twenty years, and I’ve been writing about it on the internet for almost as long. I created my blog Daylight Atheism in 2006. Big Think, a New York media company, scooped it up in 2011, and I wrote for them until we parted ways in 2013. That’s when I joined Patheos, which became my writer’s residence until 2021. That was when they decided to prohibit criticism of belief systems different from one’s own, effectively neutering their atheist channel.
Around that same time, a new startup, OnlySky Media, reached out to me. OnlySky was founded with the mission of giving a voice to America’s rising nonreligious population, and that’s a mission I was happy to help advance.
OnlySky launched in January 2022, and it was my home for two good years. But the economic landscape for startups is harsh and unforgiving, and for media companies, that goes double. Early in 2024, OnlySky ran out of money and shut down.
I could have gone back to blogging on my own, but it just feels better to be part of a community than to be a solitary voice shouting in the wilderness. I reached out to Freethought Blogs, and they agreed to take me on. So, here I am!
I write about atheism and secular humanism, and I won’t shy away from no-holds-barred attacks on the vicious absurdities of religion and its abuses in the service of power. I’m glad to take on any religious person who’s willing to put their beliefs to the test.
But I don’t want Daylight Atheism to only be a place for aggression and argument. As the mood strikes me, I write about science and technology, nonreligious life philosophy, raising children as an atheist parent, ethics and morality, uplifting dreams and fictions, meaning and purpose, the awe and wonder of the cosmos, things that make the world better, and reasons to be hopeful.
I’ve also published some books about atheism and religion, including Daylight Atheism and Meta: On God, the Big Questions, and the Just City, a dialogue with a Christian, Andrew Murtagh.
My latest, Commonwealth, is a hopepunk novel of the near future, a utopian manifesto and a socialist deconstruction/reply to Atlas Shrugged. You can read it on my Patreon, where I also publish short stories and other miscellaneous fictions.
Welcome. I have fond memories of Daylight Atheism though I lost track of you years ago.
I’m pleased to see you still blogging 🙂
Hi there, welcome back! Hope this place works better for you, and the rest of us, than OnlySky and Patheos did!
Glad you found a new home!
Welcome!
“Hopepunk” novel? Interesting genre. Never heard of that ‘type’ before. I’m reading the wikipedia page about it now.
Hello and welcome! Here’s hoping everything goes smoothly this time!
Yo!
Great to have you here & looking forward to reading. I’m guessing the “Meta” in your Meta: On God, the Big Questions, and the Just City nook ain’t facebook & Zuckerberg? .Plus the Just vity isn’t one that has only very recently graduated from town status?
Book not nook, city not vity. My typing stinks.
No, nothing to do with Facebook or Zuckerberg, although the title coincidence is unfortunate. It’s a book that I wrote together with a Christian friend, Andrew Murtagh. It’s a friendly exchange of letters debating the merits of our respective philosophies.
Hello.
Are you planning to keep this threaded comment setting?
Let’s hope not. 😉
@John: If you’re referring to the nested/branching subthread format, I really hope he doesn’t stick with it. I hate branching subthreads, and FTB’s version of them doesn’t really “work” as well as Disqus’s version.
A comment thread is the cyberspace equivalent of a discussion space, and it should work by the same rules: comments should be “heard” in the same order in which they are “spoken,” and every comment is “heard” by everyone else in the forum, not by one person exclusively or preferentially, and all comments are parts of the one discussion. I know that’s just, like, my opinion, man; but it’s an opinion derived from lots of experience with online and meatspace discussions.
I don’t know, I kind of like threaded comments. It makes it easier to reply to someone and make sure they see it, and you can have multiple conversations going at once in the same thread.
Adam Lee, welcome to this platform. I was pleased at the positive nature of your introductory piece. I read, and was impressed by, your paragraph about the breadth of topics you wish to present and discuss. My organization, also, is focused on rational, humanist values. Our original arts organization’s motto is: “Toward Enlightenment, through Communication, by Means of the Arts and Sciences”.
Welcome. I used to read you all the time while you were on Patheos.
Welcome! Came here from PZ Myers’ post. I’m looking forward to reading your work!
I am amused that the comment bar here has the ability to log in with G+ and Yahoo. 🙂
Do you have a Mastodon account?
I certainly do!
https://universeodon.com/@daylightatheism
Welcome, always good to have a new voice.
Hello and welcome, again! (I’m sure I’ve said something to this effect at OnlySky, Patheos, BigThink, etc.)
I knew your name seemed familiar. Your “Atlas Shrugged” series was awesome. Welcome to.
Thank you! I’m hoping to have my archives transferred here in the coming days, including the Atlas Shrugged series. I’ll post about it when it’s available.
That’s good to hear! I periodically reread the Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead series because it’s such amazing writing (yours, I mean, not Rand’s!) and so insightful on so many topics. My only regret is that we lost all the comments from its original posting on patheos. I enjoyed the commentary as much as the postings.
Hello.
Welcome!
Welcome, Adam Lee! I’m looking forward to your writings.
Hopepunk… try the Culture SF novels by the late Iain Banks.
(a song about “the disobedience that holds us together” may be an appropriate way to celebrate your arrival) 💐
‘Ghost – He Is’
.https://youtube.com/watch?v=7hMaHDTw-pI
hi and welcome!
Greetings and welcome. Your presence is bookmarked. Look forward to more 🙂
Hey, welcome, good to see another blogger in the mix!
I used to read the Atheist blogs on Patheos, but left when they took a turn for the worse. Was it only 2021? Seems like a lifetime ago.
Welcome, Adam! I’ve been reading your work for many years.
Glad to see you here. I followed you on Patheos and OnlySky.
A Church Lady in the US House of Representatives recently voiced concerns about brown people from the southern border. It is as if she had timed her speech to coincide with your arrival at Freethoughtblogs.
I think this link is an apt rebuttal, and symbolic of the reliability of statements coming from the religious right:
“Immigrants found to be significantly *less* likely to commit crimes than the US-born”
https://phys.org/news/2024-03-immigrants-significantly-commit-crimes-born.html
Welcome ! Will you be repatriating your old posts from Patheos ? I’m a big fan of your commentary on Atlas Shrugged, which sadly can’t be accessed anymore, it would be nice to have it back.
My archives from Patheos were transferred to OnlySky. You can read the Atlas Shrugged series there (for now). Here’s an index page:
http://www.daylightatheism.org/atlas_shrugged.html
I’m hoping to bring all my archives to Freethought Blogs soon.
Welcome, Adam!
Longtime reader (since the Ebonmuse days), longtime friend. Sad to see OnlySky fail, but happy to see you’re still going strong.