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Martin Willett: Editor of Debate UnlimitedWho am I? The founder of a personal website called The Meme Machine which has evolved into this, Debate Unlimited. I appointed myself the editor in February 04 as I want to get more people involved in the site, to believe they have a stake in it, to share and cooperate in this venture. |
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“be glad this guy is on our side”
If you are anything like me I suspect that you look for a biography page before you decide whether or not to pay any attention to the content of the rest of the site. I am nobody. But that is not to say that my ideas do not matter. They certainly matter to me.
I work as a sales consultant, in a shop. That's what I do, it isn't what I am.
I was born in April 1963. I was born and raised in the north of England. All my recent ancestors going back to the 1820s (the mists of time as far as family oral history seems to go) are from no more than thirty miles from where I live today. My father is retired, he served as a Police Inspector for many years. My parents separated when I turned 16. My mother worked as a Prison Officer for several years.
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I am married, since 1989, and I have two wonderful children. My marriage is happy and faithful. |
My atheism began when I was a choirboy.
From the ages of 7 to 12 I went to church twice each Sunday, plus practice, weddings and special services. I was thoroughly exposed to the Anglican (Episcopal, Protestant, established church) message. I had every reason to want to believe it, but the graft did not take. It did not make sense to me. I knew there was another explanation for the existence of the Universe and for why we are the way we are. Nobody was pushing that message on me but I sought it out. Between the ages of 10 and 12 I wavered, since I turned 13 I have never believed in God. I have always looked for the rational explanation.
I have learned a lot from television and radio since I was a boy and in the last few years I have started reading around all subjects that impinge on religious explanations for the way the world is. I became a regular library user several years ago, due to a temporary job looking after deaf and severely handicapped children at night. In order to stay awake I needed to take six books to work in case my addled brain got bored in the small hours of the morning.
One book I took in was River out of Eden by Richard Dawkins. The phrase 'a truly unputdownable book' is very overworked, in this case it was literally true, I read it in one go, no coffee breaks; I picked it up, read every word, and put it down a changed man. In subsequent weeks I read all the worthwhile books in the local library and I started going to the main library in Stockport, in the first instance to find The Extended Phenotype by Richard Dawkins.
Recommended Reading
I have found philosophy very heavy going and largely unproductive but evolutionary biology has been much more rewarding. Since the end of August 1999 I have had access to the Internet, I launched my own website at once. Since then my site has grown and moved and grown again several times.
My deepest and most dearly held belief is that there is such as a thing as THE TRUTH. At least I totally reject any idea that everything is relative and that one persons idea about the Universe is as good as the next. Believing bullshit cannot make it true. I also reject the often unspoken liberal assumption that the truth will always win out in a fair fight. I fear that vested interests are far too powerful and can blind people to the truth.
I have always been interested in the big questions of life and death, the meaning of existence and how everything could be arranged better if only more people would listen to what I am saying. I have an opinion on most things, often different from the fashionable or politically correct view. I expect that about half of my opinions are wrong, in that I could fairly easily be persuaded to change my mind if somebody was prepared to discuss the matters with me. However experience has taught me that I am right more often than wrong on the issues I care about.