Doesn't it just figure?

That I had to miss this meeting of Gator Freethought. I miss GF. More background here.

VIDEO: "How to think about (the lack of a) God"

At Gator Freethought's 2nd meeting, Prof. Witmer gave a talk entitled "How To Think About (the Lack of a) God." Dr. Witmer argued above all else that we can (and should) rationally inquire into the question of God's existence—it is not a "matter of opinion" or "merely a matter of faith." Such inquiry, he further argues, undoubtedly leads one to atheism. Dr. Witmer also considers atheism in relation to theism, agnosticism, and other labels we might use; he discusses skepticism and the belief that faith ought to end the conversation, both of which he considers potential impediments to rational discussion; and finally, attacking teleological arguments for God's existence and defending the Problem-of-Evil argument against it, he argues that atheism is the most rational position one might hold. For Dr. Witmer's abstract of his talk, see here.

The video is embedded below, or you can watch it at the GF site here, or at GV.

VIDEO: "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?"

For those of you who missed the Green-Price debate on Saturday evening, you missed a great event. Many thanks go to Ryan, Brandon and others in GF for the work they put in to make this event go smoothly.

The room seated 500 people, and we had them lined along the walls and sitting in the aisles by about 15 after 7. By 7:30, people were turned away as there was no longer any standing room. Thus, it was enormously successful in terms of turnout and participation. Thanks to all of you who made it so.

I am in the process of uploading the raw .mpg files to GV, and will also send them to co-President Ryan, who intends to use them to create a much prettier (better-edited) video version. But for those of you who (like me) can't wait:

1. "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 1 of 5
2. "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 2 of 5
3. "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 3 of 5
4. "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 4 of 5
5. "Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 5 of 5

The video is embedded below the fold:

"Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 1 of 5


"Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 2 of 5


"Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 3 of 5


"Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 4 of 5


"Is Christianity Based on a Lie?" part 5 of 5


Video for the debate was filmed, processed and uploaded to GV by me. All rights reserved.
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Technorati tags: Gator Freethought

A flash of inspiration

Seattle's the Stranger sent 31 writers to 31 different churches (spanning Islam, Christianity, Judaism & Bahai) on the same Sunday to come back and write of their experiences.

I was just inspired. Would it be a good idea for a freethought group to send groups of 2 & 3 members to different churches (importantly, spanning different faiths) and come back and write of their experiences and impressions? Maybe select an atheist, agnostic & believer for each team?

Come back and report the good, the bad and the ugly? hmmmm....*pensive chin rub*
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Technorati tags: God, Religion, Atheism

Interesting Parallel

And one I'd never considered before: that between feminism and atheism.

From Jessica Valenti's new Full Frontal Feminism (p.6):

Sound familiar? People consistently ask why freethought/atheist groups exist, and what motivates people to join them (FAQ #4, 6). Honestly, this is a very valid question, and some people disagree that there is an equally valid answer.

And then she says (p.7):


Admittedly, this is slightly out-of-context. She's talking about the stuff women are taught regarding feminism being untrue, not about gods.

But there are many parallels, if you think about it. Feminists and atheists are generally maligned and stereotyped as angry, snobbish, and politically dangerous to people's liberties. These falsehoods are useful rhetorical tools for demagogues like Religious Right leaders.

So perhaps freethougtht groups ought to carefully monitor just how modern feminists get people involved and enthused about their causes. We could learn something from them...

food for thought.
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Technorati tags: Atheism, Philosophy

Blogger Template Hacks

I am definitely not a computer scientist, or even nearly so.

However, I spent quite a few hours learning some of the language involved in Blogger 3.0 (layouts), and I did some Google work and bastardized others' scripts to produce a website I'm proud of (given my almost-nonexistent programming background):
http://www.gatorfreethought.org/

The reason I'm posting about it is because I wanted to share the post template in order to make life easier for others. I put in a few HTML comments to make it easier to analyze.

If you find it useful, please let me know. If you have questions, though, you might want to ask someone else, since I'm a novice :-) Please comment.

Here is the template as a .txt file, and here it is as an XML file (probably want to R-click and "Save As").