The Passion of the AntiChrist (I’m Returning To School)

In recent years I have discovered a great passion for public speaking and blogging. I have decided to return to school to pursue a graduate degree that aligns with this passion. Thus I am in the process of choosing an online university to attend in pursuit of a Masters in Communication.

Right now the leading candidate school is Walden University as its M.S. in Communications program strikes me as both interesting and achievable. Interesting in that each of the courses listed as part of the program appeal to me personally, and achievable because the online format of the program will fit into my current routine for both work and my personal life.

My work and career will benefit from pursuing this degree. My role as a pre-sales engineer is not just to verify that a technology will provide for a client’s needs, but also to communicate clearly how the solution that I am presenting is the best choice for the customer. Selling is at its core communication in order to establish trust for negotiating transactions between two parties. If you know how to communicate then you can learn how to persuade, if you know how to persuade then you can learn how to sell, and if you know how to sell you can always make a living.

That is all fine and good from the perspective of achieving economic gains, but that is only one small reason to return to school. The bigger picture for me is to communicate messages not for the purpose of gaining material wealth, but so that I can actively contribute to building a better society for everyone.

I believe that in order to build that better society our modern culture requires a better understanding of atheism and religion. I want to develop the skills needed to deliver the messages that promote the separation of church and state, denounces the bigotry promoted under the guise of so-called divinity, and also to protect the individual’s right to either practice or abstain from any religion without fear of political or social persecution.

I want to strengthen my voice so that one day the currency of the United States of America says “We Protect Human Rights” instead of “In God We Trust”. I want to develop my mind in order to convince others that it is wrong to have the ten commandments displayed in any courtroom that is charged with serving justice to all regardless of their personal beliefs. I want to empower myself with the skills needed to reveal the hypocrisy and fear mongering behind the messages of people like Pat Robertson.

In the near future you will see a section added to this blog for the purpose of helping me pay for this degree once all of the details have been worked out. I plan on using a crowd funding resource in order to collect donations that will help to pay for my education. I am currently seeking legal advice regarding how to handle any taxes that might be applicable to either myself or any of the donors.

If you wish to make a donation once everything is in place for doing so I will be grateful, but know that I am grateful to anyone who takes the time to read this blog whether they will be making a donation or not. The burden is on me to earn those donations when the time comes through providing insightful articles that donors will be proud to support. This is a challenge that I welcome wholeheartedly.

I look forward to sharing more about this journey with you as it unfolds. For now I leave you with the following quote which inspires me in this pursuit:

“Words – so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.”

Nathaniel Hawthorne