For 30 years (1972-2002) I was an "Apatheist", and in the atheist closet. I wasn't overly concerned with what most people were doing with their beliefs. I felt they were nonsensical, but they didn't really concern me. That is, until September of 2001 when followers of Islam flew planes into the Twin Towers in New York City and the Pentagon. 

At the time that happened, I was reading Carl Sagan's book "A Demon Haunted World", which among other things vividly outlined some of the atrocities that religion had perpetrated upon the world throughout history. This included the 300 years of torture and oppression during the Spanish inquisition, the harmful effects of religion's opposition to the advancement of science, and how spiritualism and pseudoscience were moving to the forefront of everyday conversation and media coverage.

It was also about that time that President George W. Bush used a presidential decree to introduce "Faith Based Initiatives" into government. This forced me to directly support religion by taking a portion of MY tax dollars and giving it directly to religious institutions. This was, and still is, in direct opposition to the constitutional separation of church and state. 

Knowing something of the history of religion and how horribly it had treated mankind (especially non-believers) whenever it was given power, and I did NOT want my tax dollars, collected with the force of government, to aid such enterprises, no matter how much they claimed to do so under the guise of "charitable work".

At that time there were a couple of "New Atheism" books that were in the works but had not come out yet. I also had just found The Infidel Guy podcasts, and other atheist podcasts that were starting to become available and I knew that I had to get involved. That's when I started my website, DigitalFreethought.com, and founded the Atheists Society of Knoxville; now 580 members strong.