How do you turn this thing on?

I just want to understand how this whole blogging thing works and I figured that there's no better way than doing it.

I don't really have time to blog my whole life, so I'm not going to. I would love to have a place to give my commentary on the "atheist/freethought/humanist/secular" movement that has more or less taken over my life. I hope that the movement will be effective in carving out some kind of livable future for humanity. I worry that without it, a great deal of suffering is headed our way.

Unfortunately, our little movement has a very long way to go. It's full of organizational rivalries and only on the international level does it seem at all interested in putting its money where its mouth is and making a difference in people's lives. For the past twenty plus years in the U.S. it has been a movement about attacking religion and pseudoscience and little more. It is slowly moving in two positive directions: #1 becoming a community center for people's lives (i.e. playing the social role of religion) and #2 becoming more activist both in terms of defending the rights of nonbelievers and advancing public policy and service that nonbelievers think is of value. These roles, esp. #2, have been much more central to international freethought.

Just so you know, I'm involved with the following organizations in one way or another:

The Secular Student Alliance http://www.secularstudents.org

The Institute for Humanist Studies http://www.humaniststudies.org

Camp Quest, Inc. http://www.camp-quest.com

The Secular Coalition for America http://www.secular.org

The American Humanist Association http://www.americanhumanist.org

The Humanist Community of Central Ohio http://www.hcco.org

Freedom From Religion Foundation http://www.ffrf.org

Godoffmoney.com http://www.godoffmoney.com

I also have great respect for the following organizations

Humanists of Florida http://www.floridahumanist.org

The International Humanist and Ethical Union http://www.iheu.org

Atheist Alliance International http://www.atheistalliance.org

American Atheists http://www.atheists.org

Internet Infidels http://www.infidel.org

There exist between these organizations some rivalries and jealousies, but on the whole I think they are interested in cooperation and advancing the cause of reason forward in general. There is reason to hope for cooperation amongst all of them--and some of them are already cooperating a great deal.

More on this later.