If you're familiar with the above reference, I have influenced you to hear this in his voice, and I feel like I can almost guarantee that.
...aaaaaaaaaaanyway...
Tribalism
We had an amazing discussion today, and while I love our discussions in general, this one was even better than usual. Last time, we talked about tribalism and ended up mostly talking about our own tribe. Randall's blog post was particularly lauded, and if you missed it, you can read it here. I don't remember anyone directly addressing this last time, (though Randall's post mentions it twice) but Brian gave a name to the anthropological hypothesis that a person can only track a certain number of people at a time: Dunbar's Number. Susan brought up this commencement address that she felt was inspirational. Jayne mentioned something that she had read (and forgive me Jayne, I'm having trouble finding articles about this - help me out and e-mail the group?) about the psychedelic drug tests that question basic notions about the "self. "
This sort of segued into a discussion of inter-tribalism. Everyone obviously belongs to any number of tribes from familial to collegial, etc. We discussed nationalism at some length and whether or not it will eventually go the way of the dodo because of the internet creating a new, strange uniculture. Eventually, the conversation sort of distilled down to one of our older discussions: how do we interact with religious people (non-members of our strange little tribe)? We talked a bit about the diversity of belief and skepticism within our own group. Our acronym, Freethinkers, Atheists, and Agnostics is really the only way to describe us, and the "herding cats" (not to be confused with hurting cats - which my neuroticism always causes me to worry that people are hearing when I say that) bon mot from our meetup site. Eventually, the conversation came to how we identify ourselves to others who ask, as they often do, "where do you go to church?" Or, "what religion are you?"
A lot of us said that it was situationally dependent, but "I'm not religious" was a place where many of us started.
If someone persists, more of us said that we'd reveal more, but it was, again, situationally dependent. A Jehovah's Witness or Mormon on your front door is, according to many, more likely to get a debate than a random person who approaches on, say, a hiking trail. Colleagues are also accorded a special range of responses and, as a few members pointed out, the positioning of our family members can influence how we might interact with the community at large. We talked about the possibility of courting other faiths to hang out with us as a method of humanization - several people talked about how believers have been surprised to learn that they were atheists. "Really? But you're such a good person."
To paraphrase Mark Twain, exposures is fatal to prejudices. So, we joked a bit about "share a meal with an atheist" and things of that nature. John brought up that there are already some similar efforts in progress. Lastly, today's discussion was really awesome, and I think that I should mention here that the friendliness and warmth of the Secular Sunday group has been really fantastic. You guys are wonderful, and I hope to see you all again next week!
Social Media and Announcements
We have opened some new social media accounts:
There's a Twitter account: @FAACTgreensboro
A secret Facebook account so that those of us who do not want to be outed to the community at large can retain our anonymity.
Next Time:
We're going to be discussing the possibility of group consciousness. Are groupthink and mob mentality evidence of a more substantial link between people? I suppose we'll find out what you think next time!
