I'm actually going to do it this year. Last year I thought about it, but I decided I wasn't ready for it. This year I think I can do it.

Yes. I haven't published any original fiction, but I've had a mildly successful run as a fanfic writer and I have one published nonfiction article with another pending. Thanks be to God for that. And if you want to express your opinion on something, there are much easier and more efficient ways to go about it than writing a full novel. Wouldn't a persuasive essay do a better job of persuading people than a fictional book? Wouldn't an essay be a better way of expressing your feelings than a short story? Every work, no matter its genre, will reflect some of the author in it. But if you are using fictional stories for the purpose of expressing a nonfictional opinion, I think you're using a hammer when you should be using a screwdriver.  This isn't to say that writings can't serve more than one purpose. A persuasive essay can be entertaining, and a fictional work can convey an opinion. However, those shouldn't be their main purpose. A persuasive essay first and foremost must persuade. A fictional story must first and foremost entertain.

Then ignore it. No one is putting a knife to your throat and making you believe in things like Towers and C0DA. However, that games is played both ways. You don't get to tell us what we want to believe either.

C0DA's "philosophy" isn't anything new. It's a new way of saying something that has been around at least since TES: Redguard.  TES is supposed to be like the myths of old, where everyone added onto it and people came up with their own interpretations. Just look at the lore forums much older than these, like the Bethsoft Lore Forums. The entire point is for you to create your own concept of the lore. No one can tell you that you are "wrong". It's a fictional story. It can't be wrong, because it isn't real. Canon is more for authors than it is for fans. It helps us keep things straight in the story, but it isn't an absolute rule. The canon police aren't going to come arrest you if you believe something that isn't canon. With this knowledge, TES series makes the wise choice to just say there isn't a canon at all. The only "canon" that really matters is the one you believe in. Why beat yourself up over something you don't like it? It's a story. Change it. You don't have to believe Alduin is the "Firstborn of Akatosh" if you don't want to. The purpose of a story is to entertain, and if it fails to do that, fix it. You could just walk away, but where is the fun in that?  I don't advocate copyright infringement, but that and canon are two very different things. Just pick the "canon", or C0DA if you will, you want. Leave the rest behind.