OH MY GOD I HAVEN'T POSTED SINCE LAST MONTH!

If there is great hue and cry (I got curious and the etymology of that is fascinating!) I'll find some of the older e-mails and post them. If not, the record is as it stands.

Here is my e-mail (late) from last week:

Hi everyone!

Sorry to be getting you this the day before we meet and I send you another one...

Things of Note as Possibilities for the Group

If you aren't following the March for Science, friend of the group, one Randall Hayes, posted this on their page. It's taking place at a church, but I don't think any of us will combust if we go to it. 

Next, Lisa Duke mentioned this to me, and I think it is certainly worth a look - we've had guest speakers before and talked about  having more. Well, here's a possibility. From her e-mail:

"If you don't already know Dave Warnock, he is a former preacher who deconverted and then, within the last year, has a diagnosis for ALS. 

He is giving talks about what he calls Dying Out Loud so it's death from a secular perspective. 

His assistant says:

'Since it's a reasonable driving distance away, all he would need would be the 2 hotel nights (~$85/night). Honorariums are appreciated but we let the group decide what they find reasonable. All profits go towards future costs of travel for the Dying Out Loud message, etc.'"

Shelving Update

As for the shelving update, I've received word that we can probably get in two days of work on the shelves in October - I'll talk to management at the IRC about it, but I think we need to see how things go on the 12th, first. That having been said, we really need at least one table saw, one chop saw, a table to set the table saw on, and some saw horses. Several people have said that they have the items that we might need, but I am wondering who among us can commit to bringing them that Saturday. I'll be there, but the best I've got is a crappy little jigsaw that's not going to do much of anything. (sad face)

So, please, if you're going to be able to be there, please, click this link, RSVP, and comment beneath about what you can bring as far as tools, etc.

Notes

Secular Sunday

September 28, 2019

Attendees:

·         Ann Brady	·         Bill Sparks	·         Sean Bienert
·         Charles	·         Jabari	·         Stephanie
·         Lynne	·         John	·         Brian
·         Staci	·         Bobby	·         Pearl
·         Pam	·         Molly	·         Will
·         Joe	·         Chris	·         Derek
·         Keeler	·         Adrienne	·         Richard
·         Karen

Announcements:

Team Rubicon – donations for the Bahamas. PBGreensboro.com for participatory government. Book club – Mere Christianity. Next Saturday. See Meetup site. Next video night – Mazes and Monsters. IRC shelving Oct. 12 will be cutting and staining the wood. Assembly tentatively November 9^th. This is also on the meetup site. Pride day – Will. Will gave out free hugs at Pride. Some of the people were very, very happy to have a dad hug. It sucks that there is the void there for affection. We gave out a bunch of literature and buttons.

Discussion Notes:

Charles is leading the discussion today. Topic is when was Jesus born. 2 sources, Matthew and Luke. Neither of them give us an exact date for this. The Bible is not history. They are strictly theological. It is up to us to figure it out. Dionysius, in 525 calculated the date which was accepted by the church and the Roman gov. (which was by then, Christian) made that year 1. There is no year zero because the Romans did not have the numeral zero.

Brief history: starting with David (who we aren’t sure was historical) was about 1000 BC. The kingdom broke up after David. Judea was the main tribe in the south. At the end of the 8^th cent BCE the Assyrians destroyed the 10 tribes in the north. They marched as far as Jerusalem. They exacted a ransom according to both the Bible and the Assyria history which Judea paid. This is when the prophets started talking about god’s plan. Micah chapter 5. He prophesized that Bethlehem would be the place where a ruler will come who will defeat the Assyrians. This is the only place where Bethlehem is mentioned and it was NOT a messiah and he was ONLY going to defeat the Assyrians.

The Romans made Herod the king of a large part of the middle east (Herod the Great). He had 4 sons and the Romans, on the death of Herod, made his 4 sons tetrarchs. Herod Antipas, 4 BCE – 39 AD ruled Galilee. Herod Herculaus 4 BCE – 6 AD  ruled Judea, only ruled 10 years. Romans took over the administration of Judea. Quirinius was the governor and held a census.

After Quirinius, Pontius Pilate ruled from 26 AD to 36 AD and was fired for being too cruel. Josephus tells us that he crucified hundreds of people and there were a great many rebellions. In 66 – 74 the Jews did revolt and were defeated and the temple was destroyed.

All the gospels were written after the fall of Jerusalem. 72 – Mark, 82 – Matthew, other 2 later. The two that talk about the birth of Jesus were completely different (Matthew and Luke).

December 25^th was adopted as his birthday because of other holidays that were already in place.

Isaiah also made a prophesy about Emmanuel who would also crush the Assyrians. He was Hezekiah according to the Jews, also not a messiah.

The Septuagent (Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) was in general circulation from 200 years before Jesus and was probably what the authors of the New Testament were reading and most familiar with. It translates ama (young woman) as virgin, which is incorrect.

Matthew: Joseph and Mary were living in Bethlehem and she was pregnant by someone else. Joseph didn’t want her to be stoned to death so he was going to divorce her quietly. Angel Gabriel comes to visit him 3 times and tells him not to divorce her because god is the father of the baby.  The wise men come to King Herod and ask directions to the new born king. Herod issues an edict to kill all the infant boys. But before he can, the wise men get to Bethlehem and give him gifts. There is no mention of him being king except in Matthew. The story about the killing of the innocents was the story of Moses. The second time the angel comes he tells Joseph to leave and go to Egypt. The 3^rd time he tells Joseph to go back to Israel, but don’t go to Bethlehem, go to Galilee because one of Herod’s sons is ruling in Bethlehem at the time and it isn’t safe.

The genealogies in Luke and Matthew are completely different.

Luke starts similarly to Abraham and Sarah story (old man, old woman, have a baby). Luke starts by saying that Zaccariah and Elizabeth (old) are going to have a son, who turns out to be John the Baptist (during the time of Herod the Great). Elizabeth’s cousin is Mary, who lives in Nazareth. In Luke, Gabriel goes to Mary, not Joseph and tells her that even though she’s a virgin she’s going to have a baby. She goes to see her cousin Elizabeth (70 miles away). Elizabeth is 6 months pregnant and her baby leaps in her womb. So 10 years later (Mary pregnant for 10 years?) Quirinius calls a census which the Bible calls it a world wide census. Joseph takes Mary who is now 9 months pregnant to Bethlehem for some reason for the census. They have Jesus in a manger and then later take him to Jerusalem to be circumsized and performed the normal purification rituals.

Matthew and Luke seem almost to have been writing to two completely separate audiences. Luke didn’t seem to care about Matthew’s version of the story.

Topic for next time – marriage, profanity, raising children as non-religious. Which topic do we want? Looks like it might be profanity. 

T̶h̶e̶ ̶G̶o̶l̶d̶e̶n̶ ̶J̶e̶t̶!̶ How Should SCOTT Spend Your Donations?

To the People Who Actually Make Me Look Forward to an Eternity of Damnation,

Before I write anything else, I wanted to tell you all just how psyched I am about everything that's going on with our group these days: meeting new members, reuniting with older members, hosting/seeing new events, feeling a lot of interest, and, as always, having great Secular Sunday discussions. If no one has told you this today, I am now: if you're on this list, you're a freaking awesome person. Keep it up! Hit me with suggestions for events, ideas about topics, etc. Here are links to our website, discussion topic list, and book catalogue. (The website link is at the bottom of all of these e-mails, and the discussion and book catalogue links are on the website.)

Pls! Halp!

We are looking for anyone in the group who 1) has any graphic design experience (as our current meetup site thumbnail, if printed and/or sold on t-shirts or whatever, will surely violate some copyright laws.) 2) is interested in volunteering at our table for Greensboro Pride on September 15th. There will be a chance to RSVP on the meetup site (if there isn't already - I've been writing this e-mail over the course of some days), and we can volunteer for times there. 3) would like to host some events! This doesn't have to be at your house or anything, we just need people to organize some activities. There is currently no Drinking Skeptically for August. If anyone wanted to pick a bar, and Be There, I'd say not much else is required... 

The Survey!

So, at this point, thanks to the very generous and very awesome people in our group, we're at $441. Almost to the point where we don't even need to choose between shelves and 501c3 status, as the shelves should cost roughly $330, and the application fee is $275 (for a total of $605.) But, we’re still a long way off from my being able to afford a golden jet. That having been said, I want to get the ball rolling on these items, but I am absolutely, positively not going to touch our funding without a vote from the group (but, you know, atheists are bad.) So, which one do we want to do first?

Just for background, and a bit of a repeat (for some): 

 - We want 501c3 status for a number of reasons: 1) transparency - I really don't want the funds for this organization tied to anyone's personal bank account. I don't think anyone does. 2) Having a group bank account will give us the ability to take checks and other forms of donation so that we can fund raise for a variety of charitable causes. 3) Legitimacy - we're growing as a group. (Shout out to all the bots on our meetup site! Kidding!) As we get bigger, there are going to be chances for us to help move the "good without god" conversation forward, and as a registered non-profit, it lends a bit more credibility to our capacity for causing positive change in the community without having to praise any specific sky wizards for having done so. The main reason to vote for this, in my opinion, is that we're almost at the $605 necessary for both items - if we get this started, we can probably have the funding raised for both and the shelves installed without too much grief. 

 - We want to put the shelves in before it gets cold. When the IRC starts having White Flag nights, it will be inundated with people who have very little but need a place to put their things. That's still a good bit of the way off, but we'll need to re-raise funding for the lumber and start later at putting them together. I also am not sure how many people will volunteer (though I have a feeling it will be quite a few, as many have expressed interest). So, if we have a light turn out for shelf building, it could take us a while to assemble everything. Also, the $330 is a basic cost. If we naff up, (because our hands were not being guided by Jeebus) we might need to adjust that. The main reason, I would say, to get the ball rolling on this is that it is time sensitive, 501c3 status is not.

There are great reasons to vote for either option, but please, think about it and click here to cast your vote!

I will shut down the survey and post the results next Monday!

Meeting Notes from 8/11

Secular Sunday
8/12/2019
Attendees:
- Ann Brady - Richard - Sean Bienert - Lisa - Andy - Tara - Rachel - Sheryl - Molly
- Pearl - Brian - Miles - Will - Chris - Tracy - Joe - Bob - Stephanie - Pam - Stephanie H. - Beth

Announcements:
Money survey coming up. We need to pay for 501c3 certification, shelving for IRC, Meetup site.
Sunday, Aug. 25 th , after lunch we will be going to the Cat Café to love on some cats.
Book club is Aug 24 th 5-6:30 Job: A Comedy of Justice. Also book club survey is out now.
Pride Day is coming up. We will have a table.
Movie night is Aug 30 th .
Discussion Notes:
Shame is today’s topic. Democratization of shame – nothing ever goes away on the internet.
Miles – stigma vs shame. Shame has many cultural connotations and uses. Guilt is an internal control.
Sean – we don’t trust people so that may be why we have no shame.
Lots of people don’t seem to feel any shame for anything.
Shame is something that children are taught over things that they have no control over. The word
shame can hit different people in different ways. We use shame to teach children but we often cause
damage.
Religion – the whole basis is shame.
Don’t discuss atheism in school because of the potential repercussions. Those of us who work in the
schools mostly agree. Rachel is more open.
Saying I’ll pray for you is a way of shaming people. It’s very passive aggressive.
Shame is a control mechanism. It can get out of hand because now we have to live with our mistakes
forever because of social media.

Some things that happened in the past cannot be refuted because of the time that has passed. So is
permanent shame ok in those cases.
Why have we lost a sense of common shame in this country? Why have we accepted the demonization
of the “other”?
The two things we are told not to discuss in polite company are religion and politics. Is that because we
acknowledge that sometimes we espouse some ugly things because of our religion or politics.
It is easy to convert shame or guilt into something else as a defense mechanism. Turn it into anger or
apathy.
How do you cut off the past and start anew? How do you start over in this world of social media? Are we
not worthy of second chances?
There are web services now that will bury your bad press and social media. Could be a great service for
people who just had a momentary dumb attack or said something that was totally misunderstood. But it
is very expensive so that mostly only the very wealthy who can afford it.
The idea that we are grooming a society that interacts through social media, sound bites and memes is
frightening.
Social media is power and money. We give one or two companies tremendous power over our lives.
If you look at a physical map and electrical impulses in our brains, social media clicks and likes reinforce
certain pathways in our brain. We get a serotonin hit.
You can flatten a person’s personality by constant shaming. You can remove their shame. Abused
children sometimes become sociopathic criminals with no shame.
Shame and guilt are not the same. You can have shame without guilt and guilt without shame. You can
internalize shame, especially if you are taught this as a child.
Shame is focused on the self. Guilt is related to empathy.
Fundraising – does anyone have any graphic design skills so that we can develop things to sell online?
Topics? Add to the list.

Shelving Dimensions, Cost Breakdown, and Picture

Framing Lumber - 

2 x 4 x 144" x 4 = $24 - for 6' vertical columns

2 x 2 x 96" x 8 = $32 - for 8' horizontal support beams

Plywood
4 x 8 x 2 = $34 - for the shelves themselves

Screws and finish (or paint)

150 screws $11

$10-$20 paint

---

So that's about $110 per shelf x 3 - $330.

All righty, I think that's it. As always, much love to you all and have a great rest of your week! I hope to see you Sunday or sooner!

Email from Last Week!

TOPICSSo, I've included the topic list. Let me know if you cannot access it. 

As was suggested at the last meeting, I'd like to do a couple of announced and possibly lightly curated topics (I'll come in prepared with questions if and only if the discussion doesn't move as well as it might.) I'll call for suggestions at the end of each meeting, if I can remember (you can help! I love you all!)

Because I just finished the incredible fascinating, So, You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson, I thought that Shame would be a great topic. Religions use it, lawyers use it, society uses it. What do you think? Also, because I cannot say the word without thinking of this, I'mma justa gonna leava this here:

So, please, don't feel ashamed! Add some topics to the list! Discuss what you'd like to discuss at the meeting this week!

New Meetups!

On the 24th, we have a Book Club (click the link for more info and to RSVP) coming up. On the 25th, after Secular Sunday (and probably lunch), we'll be paying a visit to the Crooked Tail cat cafe. Next up, there has been a call on the page for more meetups! Tara often has information about actions through Indivisible - I think it would be great to put together a few meetups for that. Also, we'd love to do another movie night, and, as we get closer to school starting the odds of my doing another Drinking Skeptically are decreasing. So, if anyone would like to be the point person for that, it'd be awesome. In the past, we've done board game nights and even a trip or two. I've never been to the Greensboro History Museum - would anyone like to try that out?

And Greensboro Pride Day is September 15th... As in previous years, we're going to have a table. We'll need your help to staff it. I will set up an event in the very near future, so you'll be able to RSVP there.

As for the shelving situation, thank you all so much for your comments and suggestions. As for pre-made shelving, that would be super convenient, but 1) I haven't seen any that doesn't make me worry about the durability, size, or cost 2) because this is going to be temporary storage for a lot of people's stuff on White Flag Nights (temperature gets dangerously cold for the homeless) it really ought to have compartments. If you can find anything like that, please, let me know. More on all of that later.*

Our Website!

So, if you've been to www.jovialitybeforemortality.org recently, you'll notice that it's still basically running the same stuff... in other words: these e-mails, essentially. Also, the store still goes to the FAACT page. The Activism and Content links almost haven't been updated since the page's inception. (I have a plan for this.) So, I wanted to put a call out for anyone who might be interested in designing some swag for our Zazzle.com store - so, you know, we can... have one. Though I think we should float it to the group first, I'm feeling proceeds for shirts and such could feed our need for funding for 1) 501c3 fee 2) shelving materials 3) meetup fees 4) my golden jet 5) other charitable work (there's plenty of it around here... but, you know, golden jet first.) - and more on that later**

The Poll

I want to put out a poll soon on where our money should go. As of last Sunday, we have $391 in the coffers. That having been said, $150 (Lyn - check me on that, is that correct?) will be due for registering for the Pride Day event so that we can have a table. It would basically be - should we file for 501c3 status before buying material for the shelving, or should we go for the shelving first. Remember, the shelving is for the late fall at the very earliest, so we can probably afford to put it off for a little while. And, 501c3 status could help us with raising money because we can open an organization bank account instead of keeping things in coffee can at the northeastern corner 1 Governmental Plaza in Greensboro. (I keed! I keed!) However, 330ish dollars is a lot of money, and I worry about how long it might take us to raise that if we go for 501c3 status sooner. So, before I put the poll together, I wanted to ask you - our beloved group - for input on how the money should be spent.* I feel really bad about having assumed that we would do a Pride Day table without having consulted the whole group. If a lot of people e-mail me about this, I'll consider trying something else (emergency fund raising? Knocking on doors? Selling those chalky oversized candy bars to my students?) so that we don't have to go into the groups funds for it. That having been said, I only gave a nod to this because I figured that this is exactly the kind of thing that the funding is for - keep in mind, it hasn't been spent or anything yet. I would never do that without the group's approval.**

Much love to you all, and I hope to hear some feed back soon! (...from you... you know, not like, uh, microphone feedback. That's, uh, that's terrible.)

Le Notes

Secular Sunday
8/8/2019
Attendees:
 Ann Brady, Kia, Sean Bienert, Lyn, Charles, Pearl, Brian, Judy, Adrienne, Pam, Molly, Bob, Tara, Francie, Ronnie, Carol,oe


Announcements:
No Drinking Skeptically planned for August (Yet?)
8/24 Next bookclub meeting. The book is Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein.
We have $311 in our account. The fee for filing as a 501(c) is $275. Shelving for the IRC will be $330.
Pride table is $150. Donations are appreciated.
The Indivisible Candidate forum is in HP on Sunday at 4 pm.
Swing Left is doing postcards and Get Out the Vote for 9 th district candidate McCready
In the Sunday Greensboro N & R there is an article about Liberty University and the culture of fear there.
Discussion Notes:
How do you cope with all the bad news.
 Disconnect from social media and the news
 Exercise
 Do the right thing
Even if humanity survives and doesn’t go extinct, we currently have a higher standard of living than we
can expect to have in the future.
Complacency, denial, despair are all problems. People become frozen
Self-care is very important, as is a sense of community – feeling that there are others who share your
values.
If we are going to fix our problems, we have to come together.
The Onion is a good release for these times, but we need to draw a line between satire and new.
Before Trump we didn’t have the problems with vitriol and nastiness.
Money in politics is easier to notice now, if not control.

You don’t get anywhere by not prioritizing your issues.
Education has been intentionally dumbed down.
Person who won the Nobel Prize for Economics last year did it on the theory that people don’t act
rationally.
Group insanity. Some people think it’s actually a thing. Some (Mencken) say you don’t get it all the time
because people are afraid to show who they are.
Hate speech on the internet gives you a certain amount of anonymity, but the internet is forever. It will
come back to haunt you.
Curate what comes into your life.
Pride is September 15 th .

Two Weeks of Updates and Another IRC Project!

i everyone!

So, I seriously thought I'd sent this out last week. Then, I thought I'd get this sent out earlier this week. I didn't. I blame...

So, there's that. Now, you wonderful people get a double dose of updates - all of which should still be not only relevant but incredibly exciting [provided that your thresh hold(s) for incredulity and excitement are, well, extremely low]!

I'll start with the more recent news because... well, it's more recent.

IRC Shelving Update:

Several moments ago, I returned from the IRC, where I took some measurements and got a good look at the shelves that they already have. The ones there are pretty nice, and while it is certainly up to the group, I am going to go ahead and guess that it sort of scraps my idea for putting together some with cinder blocks and 2 x 4s. After all, if we're part of our goal is to have the community acknowledge that the non-religious are capable of doing charitable work, it's going to be partially counterproductive if our completed projects look like a public health hazard.

So, I'm going to spend some time putting together some blueprints of my own. I just (whilst writing this!) got the go ahead from our contact at the IRC (she wasn't present at the time of my visit), but it looks like we're trying to put in right around a total of 26' wall space for shelving. It seems like, for the purpose of things being modular, we're looking at three 8' shelves - we can model them after the existing ones. They are really nice: painted plywood and 2 x 4s, sturdy and aesthetically pleasing. They are three cubbies high (about 33" across, 20" high, and maybe 24" deep) with thick, supported pieces of plywood on the bottom of each. Each one is also three units across at a total of roughly 8' 2". (So picture a shelf, 3 x 3 cubbies.) If you have some experience with carpentry, please let me know. I've done some carpentry, but it's not exactly my forte. Once we have a definite blueprint, we can figure out cost and start fund-raising. It sounds weird, but I am really excited to have another project like this!

July 7th, 2019 - Secular Sunday

Attendees:

Sean Steven Roger Pearl Brian

Gene John Adrienne Mark Vince

Bob Judy Tara Antonio Joe

Upcoming events:

Bastille Day Party - July 13th

Book Club - July 27th - 5 pm - Community Room at Earth Fare - Text is here!

Cat Cafe Get Together - TBA - if you're interested, when can you make it?

Announcements:

We've collected more cash and should be getting close to the - correct me if I am wrong - $275 necessary for us to file for 501c3 status. Eventually, we'll need to pump another 90ish dollars into the meetup site, but there will be announcements as events warrant. If you want to give something, that's great. I can get you a receipt.

Tara suggested the possibility of our awarding a local church with recognition for its lack of respect for the separation of church and state. (I feel like that's sort of a poor interpretation of what you said, Tara - correct me?)

Brian has been good enough to include the book list for our secular library - I'm going to work on putting that into Google doc format. 

Discussion:

We talked about religion in the workplace and our reactions to it. Pearl kicked things off by mentioning an incident where something of a memo was sent or meeting occurred because of an employee saying, "Goddamn." A few other people chimed in on the level of secular (dis)comfort one is likely to experience where they work. Adrienne pointed out that this is often because churches are often the social center of small towns, and so it's natural for people to invoke them in any interactions. Steven pointed out that larger companies are more like to respect HR guidelines about keeping religion in church - smaller setups (as we've probably seen in the news) are less likely to respect this.

John spoke about conservative cognitive dissonance and how the lord works in mysterious ways when it comes to professional misfortune.

I brought up an incident involving the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and the edges of religious freedom emphasizing, as someone else put it, we have a freedom to CHOOSE religion but not freedom from it. We talked about how fungible people's beliefs are when they can choose, I think it was Gene that said it, their brand of theism like Baskin Robbins. Mark mentioned that people often decide their faith based on what fits certain specific preferences - music, community, and (perhaps most importantly) what works best for their wallets. It seems odd to make such arbitrary judgments when a person's immortal soul is supposedly on the line. As usual, a great comedian has said it best. We got into a discussion about denominations and whether or not its members who decide how devout they'll be, or if, as Roger expressed - do certain denominations have a tendency to zealotry?

From there, we talked about Vacation Bible School, what people remember of it and just how predatory it actually is or isn't. Members shared personal experiences with actually having been there or Christians approaching them with regard to whether or not they were going to "let their own children decide." From there, we got into whether or not it is actually Child Abuse to indoctrinate children - and what constitutes child abuse. Eventually, we made our way round to whether or not it's intellectually lazy to assume that someone who doesn't believe in evolution is an idiot. All in all, it was a good discussion of How We Interface. Sorry if I misquoted or didn't manage to get notes on something good that someone said.

NEXT, here are the notes from June 30th.

Secular Sunday

June 30th, 2019

Attendees:

·         Ann Brady	·         Bill Sparks	·         Sean Bienert
·         Derek	·         Gina	·         James
·         John	·         Brian	·         Pearl
·         Penny	·         Bob	·         Marsha
·         Chris	·         Stephanie	·         Katie
·         Pam	·         Ronnie	·         Dawn
·         Tara

Announcements:

Chem trails, flat earthers, anti-vaxxers. Don’t ask. Book club meets on July 27^th at 5pm. Why I Am Not a Christian by Richard Carrier. Bastille Day drinking Skeptically, July 13^th. Trivia will be all things wine, France, and Revolutions. Francie’s get together is July 9^th. Leave G’boro about 9 am. Brian has the library. See the list. Gerrymandering discussion (SCOTUS decision).

Discussion Notes:

Nostalgia – remember the good old days? Not great. An iron-clad view of how good things used to be even though they weren’t so great. The American Dream isn’t alive for many of us.  Real ID (and voter id) wasn’t necessary until recently. Globalism is something that we have to deal with now.

Corporations are already global. In fact corporations drive globalism. But we’re also more tribal. Nationalism is kind of a dirty word in some circles, but more popular in others. Thomas Friedman (economist) says globalism has made the economy a level playing field (it’s not). Racist, nationalist groups in the last 20 years have grown, especially since Trump when it became acceptable to openly espouse those feelings. You used to be able to/have to hide your racism.

Blocking Fox News using parental blocks on TV.

The Villages in Fl. Retirement community. Culty, predatory men. A cross between The Good Place and Get Out.  Fake nostalgia. Golf carts and STDs.

Regarding nostalgia – if most of our memories are good, we remember the past as good. If our memories are bad, we remember the past as bad. 

Look for Upcoming Updates about Adopt-a-Highway!

A Movie Recommendation, A Fond Farewell, Drinking Skeptically You Call It, And A Few Other Things..

So, Kia and I were watching a class after finals and happened upon an absolutely fantastic animated movie with skeptical undertones - Small Foot is a movie about bigfoots (bigfeet?... yetis?) who live in denial of us - the small feet. Their various credos as a society boil down to, "don't question stuff; if things appear to contradict the ancient wisdom, the truth is wrong - the ancient wisdom is always correct." It's good. Anyway, that is all.

This past Sunday, Josh Yarden led a wonderful text discussion of Genesis 22 - which I would love to subtitle here, but I feel like Josh would probably respond: Hm, interesting idea, but no, your joke inaccurately represents the text on an objective level. ...to which Lyn would then say, "Right and wrong? Isn't that a binary?" And we would all chuckle to ourselves. The Secular Text study was informational an interesting. I feel unqualified to do too much paraphrasing, but sufficed to say we went from "hineni" <here I am> to existentialism and back - see Josh's previous e-mail or ask someone for a forward if you didn't get it. It brought up the fact that Isaac doesn't really have words with Abraham anymore, which I never really questioned as a religious person but leaves me say, "Well, duh, he almost burnt him!" (Insulted? Sacrificed? AMBIGUITY!) Unfortunately, as Josh said in his e-mail, he is moving. I have given him his name tag as an unburnt offering that he may do with as he wills. We wish you safe travels and to see you again when the various primal forces of the universe throw us together. We are poorer to have lost you but richer for having known you. All the best.

Here, I would like to pose to you the next Drinking Skeptically venue - Grasshoppers game on the 22nd of June? Or, a bar night this weekend? I will not be able to make the former, as I will be in Fluffya (Philly, as the outsiders say). I wanted to leave it up to you! What do you think? Message me back and let me know!

We have a few things coming up soon! 1) We're going to need to figure out dues, and I'll get you more information about that soon! 2) We'll have more information about shelving at the Interactive Resource Center soon! 3) We're going to start doing adopt a highway again... guess when? SOON!

Much love!

JUNE!

Good day to you all!

I thought I'd post this out (a little later than I wanted to, as usual) somewhat before this week's Secular Sunday, which I will not be attending. My school year will be ending soon, and because of that I am excited to get started on some of the projects that we've been talking about as a group, particularly our 501c3 status and shelving at the IRC. More on that in a few.

RECENT EVENTS

On May 25th, our first every SCOTT pub crawl was a smashing success, where we visited 8.5 bars (Preyer doesn't count as a full bar because there was a private event going on there when we tried to show up) and ended up at Boxcar. I had a blast, and I think most everyone else did as well. The next Drinking Skeptically will be either a fire pit night, a baseball game, or... perhaps a brunch??? Message me if you have an idea!

The Book Club got together to discuss The Year of Living Biblically. Though I've never finished the book, I am fairly familiar with it and have read a few funny excerpts. I gather that the discussion and camaraderie was great, and we are lucky to have Molly organizing this. The next meeting will be June 22nd, and they will be discussing The Poisonwood Bible which is phenomenal. The meetings are in Earth Fare's common room at 5 pm. The Meetup link is here.

Last Sunday, we discussed alienation. The semi-paradoxical nature of social media came up pretty much immediately (memory fails me as to whether or not a I brought it up at the beginning of the meeting or the conversation just sort of flowed that way), as well as people who document life rather than experience it - why do people feel the need to do that? Are we, as a species, streamlining our paths to validation with carefully curated and sometimes dishonest appraisals of our own lives, or are we trying to record something for posterity with a subtle fear of death and a desire for any kind of digital immortality we can get?

 We talked about how much and how often any of us use social networks. What counts as a social network? And, if you're friends on Linkedin, does that person actually even like you? Kidding about the last one.

Friend of the group, Ashish George, sent me this a little while ago, and I felt that it hit the nail pretty firmly on the head when it comes to what happens when we're trying to live in the present and be on social media as well. It's good, even if - as someone who, on occasion, grades whilst netflixing - I did feel a little attacked. BTW: remember when you didn't have to fear for your life because of people texting and driving?

The Autumn of the Mulitaskers

MONEY IS NOT THE ROOT OF ALL EVIL

Nope, it's the love of money - thank you 1 Timothy 6:10. Ann and I are still sans golden jet some years into this, but it's time we buttered up a couple of people because I still have to fly steerage coach when I fly. Actually, it's because registering as a 501c3 requires the payment of a fee. And, we'll also need some money to keep the Meetup site up, but that won't happen for a little while yet.

Lastly, shelving at the IRC is probably going to cost us something. A few of you wonderful folks have already come forward with potential sources and donations of shelving, which might be all we need (more money for the golden jet). At some point, I need a project manager to say, all right, this is what we're going to do - either having gone to the IRC themselves or having spoken more with the fantastic John Perry (who has pictures and connections) can come up with a more specific plan for exactly how much we're going to need, when we're going to do it, what everyone will need to do/bring/pitch in, etc. Now, Kia has probably stopped reading at this point, so I'm going to go ahead and say that I can probably start heading this up once the school year is completely over. You'll know whether or not she's read this part of the message because she will actually murder me if I take this on. In addition to summer lesson planning, several hobbies, current group responsibilities, summer projects, and, of course, waffle making.

Kidding about the murder...

I think.

So, we're going to need to collect some money at some point. Some people have already been generous, and some others have promised future generosity. I 1) want to keep the group going 2) am hoping to keep it entirely donation-based, but that may be tough, going forward. Anyway, I thought I'd ask if anyone had any ideas for this because, of course, you, the members, are what makes this group what it is. Ideas?

GROUP UPDATES

Next, I've already talked to the esteemed Joe Lantz about being the webmaster for the website that we have and actually does exist. (You're here now!) He encouraged me to put out some feelers to see if anyone else might say, "Joe Lantz? I could do a heap of a better job than him!" Note: You don't actually have to say that, but if you can offer the group some help with our currently very rudimentary website, that would be wonderful. Just so you know, you will not be hurting anyone's feelings, but you will have to fight Joe... to the death.

With an organizing body having been elected and appointed, it is now time to call for any changes to the bylaws - we've already had it suggested that people are nominated and can accept/decline/campaign for their position before there actually is a vote on that position. I have a feeling that that will pass unanimously at the next leadership meeting, but I wanted to ask if there were any other suggestions for additions to the bylaws. If you need a copy, e-mail me.

Let me know what you think.

All right, I shan't see you all tomorrow (and if I do, I'll ignore you and quietly whisper under my breath "But it's my day off from these people!")  Kidding. I love you all. And, I will see any and all of you who come to NEXT week's meeting. I believe we will be doing a text discussion then, June 9th, but let me clear that up with our good Mr. Yarden!

Have a great week, everyone - there may be a follow up e-mail with more news or more updates after the meeting tomorrow.

Much love,

Sean