About the blog
I created my blog De Avanzada in 2008. A week before creating it, I was arguing with my dad. I was saying the state has an obligation to provide health services for free, as well as education. Basic Keynes. Then he told me all these “avant garde” ideas I had were utopian and there was no wherewith to pay it. Inaugurating the blog I took up his description of my thoughts, so when John asked me what I wanted to name my new blog, I asked for the same name.
About me
I am David Osorio, a Colombian journalist and skeptic. I became an Atheist during 2008 after reading god Is Not Great, by the amazing Christopher Hitchens and The Bitch of Babylon by Fernando Vallejo, and before those Onfray’s Atheist Manifesto. I came out a week later and started reading atheist blogs on a daily basis.
Even though I had created the blog before deconverting, I had it there standing by for almost a year and a half, until I started blogging frequently. First, it was a weekly, then daily, and before I knew, I was writing more than one blogpost every day. Then, I began translating atheist op-eds and blogposts and I started looking for atheists in my own country.
AAAB
When 2012 started, I got an invite (via Facebook) to go to a gathering in my city, Bogotá (Colombia’s Capital District). I met the guys and we started planning a monthly get together in order to get serious about secular activism in our country. After several meetings the Bogotá’s Atheists and Agnostics Association (AAAB – it’s Spanish initials) was born, and I was elected to be on the Director’s Board.
So far, we’ve shown support for Alexander Aan, asked India to stop persecuting Sanal Edamaruku, we’ve gone to several schools promoting skepticism, and we have filed several right to petitions asking several public officials to stop promoting religion with taxpayers’ money. By the way, we also showed up at a Gospel concert the city paid for, with posters asking Christians if they would like their money spent on Pagan concerts and the likes. We got tons of Christian love!!
You may have heard of me before…
I have been following the atheist blogosphere for quite a time now, and I’ve been mentioned once or twice around here.
If you thought my name rang a bell, it might be due to the fact that I was awarded by the SSA with the Third Place of the 2011 Best Indivudal College Activist Award:
Attending the Universidad Externado at Colombia, Osorio is an international journalism student who advances skeptical principles. Besides attending several freethought conferences in his home country, David has been an advocate for the nontheistic viewpoint on his Spanish language blog, De Avanzada (http://de-avanzada.blogspot.com/). He has written articles from a freethinking perspective about Islamic fundamentalism in England, The Ground Zero Mosque in New York, and the separation of church and state and abortion in his home country. With a decidedly international flavor, Osorio’s blog has been linked by a number of atheist websites, not to mention being a detailed exposition of secular values.
In addition to advocating nontheism on his blog, David has been published in a number of other online venues. His artwork was featured on Hemant Mehta’s The Friendly Atheist as part of Draw Mohammed Day (DMD) in both 2010 and 2011 and on the Everybody Draw Mohammed blog. As well as participating in DMD, Osorio has advanced the atheist cause by translating and subtitling a Christopher Hitchens documentary, “Hell’s Angel” from English to Spanish, as well as by writing articles on what he calls the Dalai Llama’s “hypocrisy.” Throughout all his activism, Osorio has described himself not merely as “godless liberal,” but someone who critically evaluates all points of view, whether they be from the Left or Right. We are pleased to give our third place Best College Activist Award to David Osorio.
I also tipped off Hemant about Uruguay’s President, José Mujica, being an Atheist.
And I think that’s what I want it this blog to be particular about: reporting about what and how religions poison everything in Latin America and Spain, that sometimes you wouldn’t get the chance to find out.
If you’d like, you can follow me on Facebook, Twitter and ask me whatever you want on Ask.