Get to know an Atheist Blogger - Craig A. James

This is is the first in a series of interviews we will be posting where we try to get to know some prominent (and some not-yet-so-prominent) atheist bloggers. We hope through this process to help bring the atheist community just a little bit closer, and to help raise the awareness of some really great blogs you may not have otherwise had a chance to check out.

Today we present Craig A. James, author of the blog The Religion Virus. Craig is also in the process of publishing a book with the same name! He also just had a pretty controversial post on his hands recently titled "Atheists: Get out of the Damned Closet!"

Enough introduction, on to the interview!

Q. Tell us a bit about yourself, where you came from, what you do now, where you're going.

I'm a computer scientist who has spent my professional career writing scientific software for physicists and chemists. Currently my "day job" is as Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of a web site for scientists. In the mid-1980s while studying for my Masters degree in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford, I got interested in linguistics, evolution, and sociology, topics which led me to the Dawkins' ideas about memes.

I come from a liberal, free thinking family, but that does NOT mean all atheists. My paternal grandparents were very modern and intellectual, yet they were also deeply religious. (Several stories about them are recounted in my book). My interest in religion was probably sparked by my father, who was very bitter about the repressive Christian morals of his youth.

Q. Tell us about your book. What led to your writing it, and how you've seen it affect others.

I follow the Atheist ethic, derived from natural principles and rational thought, which demands that each of us do our part to make the world a better place. Sometimes you can see something so clearly, something original and important, and you just have to tell others. Call me an atheistic evangelical!

I discovered back in 1985 that religion is nothing more than a complex, evolving memeplex, that religious ideas survive and propagate because of their appeal, not their truth (where "appeal" can include both desire and fear), according to the evolutionary principles commonly called "survival of the fittest." It took twenty years, the study of hundreds of books, many long conversations with friends and family, and lots of deep thinking on my part, before I had a complete picture. Only then was I able to put "pen to paper" and write the book.

The book has been read by about two dozen people (it will be published next year). To the last person, they've all said it affected them in a positive way.

My favorite comment was from my Aunt Carolyn (the topic of a story in the book), who said, "I feel so much better now!" Carolyn had converted from very serious Christianity to Atheism relatively late in life. The Christian guilt memes, and the heaven/hell memes, are highly evolved, very infectious, and very hard to cure. Although she was convinced that her decision was correct, these memes gave her lingering anxiety.

Reading "The Religion Virus" completely cured Aunt Carolyn. Once she understood why the Christian religion memes are so infectious, she was able to purge the last of her doubts.

Another friend, a philosopher by education, helped me with the early drafts. He offered this thought: "I'm a member of a ... forum for atheists ... I've found recently that when the topic turned to the psychology of why people cling to religious ideas, I keep having two feelings: (1) This is obvious in an evolutionary sense, and (2) I wish I could just send a link to buy your book on Amazon and say, 'read this book!'"

"The Religion Virus" is intended to change your way of looking at religion. My step-sister, a former Catholic, said that when she first read it, she thought, "Well, that's interesting." But as the days and weeks went by, she realize that her whole world-view about religion had shifted. Things that had seemed mysterious, or "just one of those things people believe" were suddenly clear to her. Every news article about religion, every conversation where God came up, she saw it much more clearly, as though a veil had been lifted from her eyes.

That's what I hope to achieve for all of my readers: To shift your world view, so that when a question about religion comes up, you have a new way of understanding it.

You can learn more about my book, and read a couple of sample chapters, on my web site: http://www.thereligionvirus.com.

Q. What made you decide to blog, and specifically to blog about atheism?

I suppose every blogger is motivated by some combination of altruism, egotism and a desire to be part of a like-minded community. Blogging is a wonderful meritocracy: Your ideas get attention if you write well and present interesting topics.

But I wouldn't be honest if I ignored the marketing aspects of my blog. My book required years of research, and thousands of hours at the keyboard, but that doesn't mean the job is done. The next step is to promote it, and a blog is one of the most important tools for an author in today's web-based world.

Q. How long have you known that you are an atheist? Tell us about that time in your life, and what led to that decision.

There was no decision. I've always been an atheist. I went to one of the very last rural two-room schools in the State of California, in the mountains north of Soquel, which is near Santa Cruz (about 90 miles south of San Francisco). I remember very distinctly the first day of the first grade, we were memorizing the Pledge of Allegiance, and I realized I'd have to leave out the part about "One Nation Under God."

Q. What excites you most about the current state of atheism, what are you optimistic about?

Twenty years ago, when I first contemplated a book about The Religion Virus, it would have been very difficult to publish any book critical of Christianity. A noted scholar or highly-popular established author might have pulled it off, but a new author like me wouldn't have gotten anywhere. Even today, a remarkable number of book agents advertise "Christian Literature" as a specialty. Back in 1985 I'd guess that no agent anywhere would have taken on my project. If I'd gotten an agent, no publisher would have touched it, and if it had been published, few bookstores would have put it on the shelves.

Today, by contrast, you can find books like Dawkins' "The God Delusion," and Hitchens' "God is Not Great" on the shelves at Costco and Walmart. It's really a remarkable change.

Q. What are your favorite books on atheism?

There are so many great ones, I hate to single any out. However, I would like to recommend two books that are not about Atheism but should be read by every Atheist, and by every politician in America.

"Collapse," by Jared Diamond, is a remarkable book about why societies can make all the "right" decisions and still collapse into utter ecological self-destruction. It indirectly illustrates why faith is the enemy of rational thought, and why societies have trouble planning more than a decade into the future. It's really quite frightening, because today's world economy is repeating the pattern for collapse.

The second book, "Guns, Germs and Steel," also by Jared Diamond, answers the question, "Why did Western Culture spread around the world?" Many religious people have the Calvinistic idea that "God was on our side," that God favored Christians with wealth, health and power, and that the spread of Western culture, technology, and of course Christianity, was due to God's protection and favoritism. Diamond shows very convincingly that it was just good geographical luck, not God.

Q. Who do you most respect in the atheist community? Why?

Again, I don't want to single out individuals. Every author, every blogger, every Atheist who has faced persecution or been shunned, is a hero in his or her own way. It's a tough road.

Q. How has your blogging affected your life?

I just got started a few weeks ago; I'll let you know!

Q. What advice would you give those that are new to the idea of atheism, that aren't quite sure what they believe, and could use some direction?

Read, read, read! There is so much good information available. Of course, I'd like them to read my book, I think it will give them a new way of looking at the infectious memes that are in their brains.

Most of all, don't be afraid to mourn. One of the biggest problems with accepting Atheism is that you're really losing something that was very important in your life. Religion is very comforting, very appealing. It gives you a genuine sense of belonging, of hope, of purpose. When you realize that these promise are false, it's OK to feel a sense of loss. It's very much like grieving for the loss of a loved one, a person who filled a special place in your life, that you'll never get to see again.

Atheism is a life-affirming philosophy. It makes your actions in THIS world all that much more important. The life you have here on Earth is the one that matters; don't let false promises of rewards in an imaginary future deter you from achieving your maximum potential and happiness here, now, in this life.

Q. Tell us why people should read your blog, and anything else you want to want to share with our readers.

The blog will have to speak for itself! My goal is to provide a fun, but thought-provoking, series of blogs, from what I hope is a unique, memetic, evolutionary perspective.


Thanks Craig for being our very first interview! If anyone has any more questions for Craig or wants to know more, definitely check out his blog or just post them in the comments here.