New Year New Post

Hello everyone!

So, the Secular Sunday group and its attendant Drinking Skeptically and volunteer projects are going through some administrative restructuring. Everything will continue as it has, but we're going to be under a new name. If you're on the e-mail list or a member of our new Meetup, you've gotten the link to be able to vote on the name.

Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Yours,

Current Website Organizer

September Updated

Good afternoon everyone!

Today:

Susan started things off today, talking about Factfulness and Active Measures. We had a great meeting today. We went around the group and asked what people wanted out of how we, as non-religious people, are seen by the outside world. While there were a lot of different responses, common themes were basically that a person can be "good without god," that we're tired of being seen as amoral, that we are a community, and that we are individuals who have as many or more different interests and beliefs as the rest of the world.

I guess a good way to say it might be that we're interested in atheist personhood. While not being hyperbolic, I wish that that were more of a joke.

Coming soon:

In other news, this weekend is Pride! Come see us!

Also, the 29th will be our next Drinking Skeptically!

I hope that everyone is having a fantastic September, and I hope to see you all soon!!!

September

First of all, sorry this email is only just getting out now. I was waiting on some things and trying to rush others. Anyway, it may not have been to late to order FAACT shirts for Pride, but I'm pretty certain that it is now. At any rate, here is a picture of the specific shirt (it's not date specific and it's a nice design - but, vista print is making me enter a name and password to get the order... so, you must need an account) as well as a link to the FAACT store.

Also, here's the email!

September 2nd

So this past weekend, we had another discussion similar to our reoccurring theme of "how do you interface"? This time, we talked about whether or not it's wise to be a part of a group whose main goal(s) you support but, perhaps, take issue with some of the things that are being said/done? Or, perhaps, put better in the words of Dumbledore about Neville Longbottom.

This was, in my opinion, an interesting and not entirely comfortable conversation - which is not a bad thing. A lot of us attend FAACT meetups because of the oft mentioned "definition of that which we Are Not" and this turned into a discussion of how to handle disagreements on how to interface with those who Are... so to speak. A few people had anecdotes to share with regard to the splintering of good causes because of carelessness or promoting one less popular issue over a more popular issue. Ann talked about criticisms of her own dealings with those who are *ahem* politcally different; Penny talked about the Women's March; I talked about the Teacher's March; Josh talked about his son's experience at Black Lives Matter rally, and while the agreement was that these things were all tools being used to achieve a bigger, broader good, there were elements of disagreement and discord in how and in what way to proceed.

Josh brought up the term "thin commonalities" from Walzer's Thick and Thin, basically that in order to achieve a goal, it's important to focus on the commonalities that we have with those with whom we are working. Someone (forgive me, but I forget who) brought up Maslow's Heirarchy of needs and how it's important to prioritize when it comes to a struggle like this. To wit, I am not going to worry about being a tad hungry if I am engulfed in flames. 

Uzma pointed out that many on the right wing are single issue voters who are mostly after things like making abortion illegal. It isn't hard to find a commonality with people who are pro choice when really, very few people would classify themselves as "pro abortion."

Forgive me, but this isn't summary. Instead, this is more of an evaluation of the information gleaned from my notes as a whole. It would appear to me that when an issue comes up as big as the denial of basic human rights, whether they are being denied because of gender, race, or socioeconomic status, naturally, people of every stripe and belief structure are going to come to bat for it. It's not the differences that are drawing those people together. It's the commonality of their belief in those rights. That having been said, you may find yourself, some day very soon, walking with a group of people who believe that you're going to hell for your lifestyle but who are also trying to help along an issue about which you feel very strongly. It's not only possible; I would say that the more active you are in terms of issues, the likelier it is that that exact scenario will play out. Even within FAACT, a lot of things unite us, but every single person is an individual.

In closing, I love you all for who you are - even if I haven't seen you in a while, even if there are things on which we might not agree. This is a fantastic group, and I hope that it continues that way.

September 9th

Open topic! Email me soon!

September 15th

LGBT Pride - we will have a table at pride... with a banner and pamphlets and a canopy and everything... so I'm informed. I will be there periodically to relieve others, but a number of volunteers have already stepped up. RSVP and come!

September 29th

There is a 5k race that I am planning to run to raise money for burn victims and for counselors for said burn victims. The race is commemorating Will Caviness, a Greensboro firefighter, who died running in the Chicago marathon to raise money for the same group. There will be a block party afterwards. If you're interested in running and/or donating, here's a link.

August

It's been a while, so I thought I'd start off with a bang.

August 12th and 19th

August 12th saw the unveiling of our terrific new banner for FAACT tables and an engaging conversation that dealt with victim blaming. Josh and Lyn brought up the us vs. them mentality that allows us to devalue members of our own species. To wit, it's easier to see someone as at fault for their own misfortune if they aren't one of "us". The conversation went from how people are comfortable distancing themselves from the world at large by assuming that somehow victims of tragedies have earned said tragedies and that religion gives them a corroborating narrative. The aphorism "let go, let god" came up, and - I believe it was Ann - pointed out that some people find solace in allowing themselves to believe that any terrible tragedy is part of a larger plan. It's psychologically comforting for us to believe that the universe is not an indifferent and random place where anything can happen at any time.

Uzma brought up that some people who see fault with victims may be projecting from their own unresolved past tragedies. If I blame myself for something that is patently not my fault, it becomes easier for me to do the same to you. It's a patently religious philosophy that brought us back to at least one reference to Max Weber.

We talked about whether or not people are *ahem* Naughty by Nature or nice. Joe C. brought up the fact that even in criminal trials, people are not judged, their actions are judged - which might seem like a very fine distinction to make, but it is true. A murderer is tried and put away for a single action or several individual actions - not quite so much for being "a bad person." This, sort of necessarily, segued into the talk of psychopaths - to which I think we should dedicate a Sunday. Yes, it sounds a bit bizarre, but I there's so much to talk about! I mentioned We Need to Talk about Kevin, a deeply disturbing but very thought-provoking movie.

We talked about punishment vs. justice and whether or not there is any value in punishing people who cannot harm others anymore. Clearly, a serial killer needs to be removed from society in some way - obviously, there are fierce defenders on all sides of the issue of how that is accomplished - but is it justice to harm someone because they've harmed someone else.

At the end of the meeting, Pam passed around our list of materials for IRC contributions. More on that in a follow up e-mail.

Last week's discussion centered around relationships between believers and non-believers. Charlene shared an experience about someone proselytizing at her and wondered what the group's various reactions were to that kind of behavior. We've discussed this before, but we came back around again to taking action based on the characters and setting involved (sorry, I am an English teacher). A few people brought up different experiences of prayer in the work place and how that has plagued or not affected them. Rob, amusingly, pointed out that his wife has a particular good strategy for dealing with the various door-knocking religions:

"I'll be right back."

Never returns to the door.

Someone else, I didn't write down the name (sorry) mentioned asking when it might be inconvenient for us to visit them to talk about religion (Brian?)

We talked about relationships between people who are of different religions and how that might work, why that might happen, etc. Douglas brought up James Carville and Mary Matalin  which I knew nothing about but can only imagine is sort of like the differently religious/religious/irreligious marriages that regularly occur. We talked about the codependency of believers and how the belief factor can transfer to state worship. So, we got in our weekly mention of Hitler, which caused a reference to Orwell's review of Mein Kampf.

Eventually, Josh brought up the idea of us having a discussion about what our core topics might be. We discussed a couple of those - the ones I wrote down were:

Free will

the Nature of Evil

How We Interface with Others

Tribalism

Deconversion

Reason

Compassion (We aim to be reasonably compassionate -  a good mission statement for our group)

Feel free to e-mail me, and I'll add some more!

I will be sending another short e-mail after this week's meeting, but as of right now - there is no topic for tomorrow. I hope everyone's week is going well. Monday starts the school year, so don't pray for me!

Love you all!

More Updates and Events

Yesterday

We discussed the connection between observation and causality that seems to imply subjectivity on the part of the universe. As usual, our conversation turned a few corners, stopped for a while on Big Cancer (the link, as I promised - sorryt, it wasn't last week tonight, I was referencing a very old episode of the Daily Show, and this archive link is tough to navigate, but it's worth a watch), the obligatory mention of Prez 45, and what do we do with the possible elimination of free will?

As John pointed out, a lot of our discussion is meaningless unless we have something we can take away from it and apply in our own lives. So, the slit experiment (I don't think that anyone NEEDS this explained to them like they are five, but it's just internet parlance for having things broken down to a basic level) shows us that we were always going to pick x or y? Great. What do I do with that information. Well, as Ann, and I believe several others pointed out, it should cause us to rethink our views of criminal justice. If we look at antisocial behavior as a problem and not an act of, say, "evil," we can get at its causes and perhaps prevent them more easily - rather than just making judgments punitive.

Wednesday the 1st

I think I forgot to mention this at the meeting, but the Rally for our Lives is going to be stopping in Greensboro. This ISN'T a side protest or anything like this. The actual heads of the movement are going to be here, speaking at Lebauer Park in downtown GSO. The FAACT event page is here.

Next Week

There will be an open topic - (no topic?) - this Sunday. I will be up Fluffya with the Jehovah's Witnesses and hopefully having a relatively peaceful time. Will my father try to re-convert me? Will we discuss the fact that his religion teaches that the world is less than 7,000 years old? We shall see!!!

I will return on the 12th of August.

Drinking Skeptically

There will be a Drinking Skeptically in Asheboro on August 18th. The event is here.

IRC Donations

We're doing IRC donations again soon. I believe that we decided on October for the donation date, but I will have more information (sorry, Pam, I should have gotten a picture/copy of that from you at the meetup) for what specific supplies are needed soon. We are going to be creating a meetup for putting together a meal for the homeless, to test the waters of how much interest and availability there is for that kind of an event.

Links for Next time! ALSO AN UPDATE ON ACTIVISM!

Good evening everyone

We had a great discussion, particularly dealing with how "hands on" to be when it comes to allowing them to make their own choices with regard to religion. There were some differences of opinion, interesting ideas, and cookies! (Thanks, Courtney!)

I'll be in attendance on the 29th, where we will be discussing Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics. Here are a few points, in different media, all except the second one are courtesy of Gene Garner, to give us some food for thought:

1) TED talk, regarding what consciousness is

2) BBC article, the link between consciousness and quantum mechanics

3) Newsweek article, "life" after death?

4) LIVE SCIENCE post, brain activity under anestheisa - this, IMO, begs the question, if we are unaware of so many of our mental processes, how does anyone draw a line, saying, "my consciousness starts here; this constitutes 'me'"?

I will, over the course of the next week, try to cobble together a coherent question that encapsulates these, so that we have a diving in point for discussion. Hope to see any and all of you there!

---

ALSO, I didn't mention it my last update, August 1st is Rally for Our Lives. The meetup RSVP is here.

Love you all!

The end of July and the beginning of August

Good afternoon everyone!

I hope that this e-mail finds everyone well. I just wanted to throw a few things out there for this month and next:

Last Sunday

Not one of my prouder moments, but I should probably have planned to be absent from the meetup after the Bastille Day shindig. Thank you to everyone who made Secular Sunday grand, sans me. I heard that it was a good conversation and am sorry that I missed it.

This Sunday (the 22nd)

I don't know if anyone came up with a topic last time, but I was thinking that we could talk a bit more about things that we can do for kids/growing up secular/growing up religious/growing up in a cult/how weird must it be to be Suri Cruise? (mom Catholic, dad Scientologist). There are going to be a few people there who I know have kids - if they feel like dedicating a meetup to that. As any good organizer would do: I am abdicating all responsibility for this event - just let me know what YOU want to talk about  

Next Sunday (the 29th)

Hardball time, everybody. Gene has sent me a bunch and a half of articles dealing with consciousness and quantum physics. It's time we talked about them. I'll send some of his links and mine by next time. If you can message me before, say, five on Sunday, I should be able to include any articles that people would like sent out to the group.

Drinking Skeptically and Sundays Beeeeeeyond:

The 5th of August, I will be in Pennsylvania and cannot astral project myself to Greensboro (yet.) I leave this meeting in all of your very capable hands. Love you all.

Additionally, I'll be adding another Drinking Skeptically for August, but this is going to be the last one that I organize for a while because the school year is starting. And while summer is a great time to wake up on weekends praying to a god for death even though I don't believe in him, the I am getting old and cannot do that when I have to confront teach the children who are the future of our world. Let me know if you have any suggestions for locations, days, themes, etc.