I'm writing this hours after visiting TAM 2010 organised by the JREF at London's Hilton Metropole Hotel. This was a seminal moment for me, the first major event I have attended of this type since leaving religion at the beginning of 2009 and becoming from that a strong positive atheist.
This, at the time, was due to scepticism about the evidential irrationality in holding such beliefs and the problematic areas that these undoubtedly touch. However quickly I began to realise that the very tools that had helped me lose my religiosity could be applied to the wider world in countless aspects.
I quickly joined the London Atheist Meet-Up group where I met many kindred individuals (as much as we can expect the freethinking to be kindred) and attended various talks with lumanaries including a fascinating dialogue between Richard Dawkins and Brian Eno, a verbal dual between Dan Barker and a outspoken Muslim and the now famous Intelligence Squared debate pitting the intellectual heavyweights of Ann Widdecombe and Archbishop Onaiyekan against the shrinking violets of Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry.
But attending TAM was like lighting the blue touch paper for me - a warm, vibrant atmosphere with countless memorable speakers. It was amplified by the fact that the venue is a few minutes walk from my flat. The sceptical movement had literally pitched-up on my doorstep. Inspired the various call-to-arms type speeches (or at least call-to-new media outlets) I decided to lauch this blog into the blindingly diverse and mammoth blogosphere in the hope that I can develop it into something that hopefully contribute in some small way to the wonderful network of sceptics making a real difference online.
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