Humanism and Secularism will receive some great national media attention this week as Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe, by Harvard Humanist Chaplain Greg Epstein, will be the subject of this Wednesday 12/23's episode of NPR's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, and of a segment on Sunday 12/27's ABC World News with Diane Sawyer.

Epstein chairs the Advisory Board of the Secular Student Alliance and has worked closely with students at several SSA chapters beyond Harvard—including Yale, Tufts, Boston University, and Brandeis. The book describes the work of the SSA in its appendix; and Greg mentioned the Secular Student Alliance in both of these big interviews, though of course we don’t know what the shows will choose to include.

Good Without God has drawn strong praise from both secular commentators as an introduction to Humanism, yet it has also managed to win a very positive response from influential religious leaders who are increasingly realizing they can work with and even learn from the nonreligious. 

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Harvard Professor and noted author Steven Pinker has said,  “Good Without God is not just a brilliant book title but an indispensable and humane ideal. Greg Epstein's wise and warm explanation of the humanist world view goes beyond the recent atheist bestsellers and speaks to the moral and spiritual impulses that have traditionally attracted people to religion.”

The following is the text of the invocation given by Andrew Lovley, president of the Southern Maine Association of Secular Humanists at the University of Southern Maine, at the 2009 inauguration ceremony for new city officials in South Portland, Maine, on Dec. 7.

"Today we have come together to mark a new beginning of governance in the city of South Portland. What lies ahead is an untold opportunity to affirm our ability, and our responsibility to serve the greater good - of which there is no higher purpose.

This story originally appeared on www.KeepMeCurrent.com, the website for Current Publishing's six newspapers and numerous specialty publications covering over 30 communities in Southern Maine.  The story ran on December 15, 2009, and is used by permission.
Article by Tess Nacelewicz, writer for KeepMeCurrent.com.

December 8, 2009

• Introduction
  
• SSA Announces Northern California Regional Leadership Summit at Stanford University
  
• Secular Student Alliance Accepting Application for Paid Winter 2010 Internships
  
• UCLA's Bruin Alliance of Skeptics and Secularists Confronts Ray Comfort
  
• About the Secular Student Alliance at UMBC
  
• Shelley Mountjoy Wins American Atheists Scholarship
  
• Austin Dacey On Campus
  
• Friends of the Freethinkers of UTA
  
• American Atheists Scholarship Competition: Deadline January 31, 2010
  
• Patheos Sponsors Faith on Campus Video Contest
  
• Council for Secular Humanism Announces Free Expression Cartoon Contest

Save yourself some clicking and read the all-on-one-page version of this month's eMpirical.

We were delighted to see the Associated Press story by Eric Gorski, Atheist student groups flower on college campuses, that came out yesterday.  It might be the most accurate and  thoughtful piece about the secular student movement that has ever been written.  It has been a long time coming, but we're delighted to see the seeds that we (and so many other people and organizations) have planted over the last decade flower in such numbers!  Keep up the excellent work everyone!

The Secular Student Alliance is proud to announce its first-ever Regional Leadership Summit, to be held Feb. 12-14, 2010.  The summit will be hosted by the Atheists, Humanists and Agnostics (AHA!) at Stanford University in Stanford, CA.  This weekend session is a great opportunity for student leaders to fine-tune their group-running skills, meet other leaders from the area, network with local off-campus organizations, and have a great time!

Get Information On:
          Registration
          Housing
          Travel Grants          
          Program & Schedule
          Getting to Stanford
          Advertising

 

Thanks much to Collection Agency Films for creating this promotional video about the Secular Student Alliance.  Check it out, laugh, tell your friends.

 

 

The Secular Student Alliance (www.secularstudents.org) is seeking two to four interns for the winter of 2010. 

• Internship Details
• Task Focus Areas
• How To Apply
  
  

Internship Details
* These positions are ten weeks long and have either a $100/week (20 hr./week) or $200/week (40 hr./week) stipend. 
* The start and stop dates are flexible, as are breaks, we only require a commitment of approximately ten weeks between mid January and late May. 
* These positions are 20 hr./week ($100) or 40 hr./week ($200) positions and will take place during normal business hours except where otherwise noted. 
* We are willing to be flexible in terms of time and stipend to meet academic requirements.
* The interns will work at our office in Columbus, OH.
* On a case-by-case basis, some work may be able to be done via telecommuting.

Our mission is to organize, unite, educate, and serve students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human based ethics. The bulk of our efforts go into organizing and supporting students and student groups who do not see theism as the source of morality or knowledge--this includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, rationalists and other non-theists.  We have over 130 affiliates in nine countries--the vast majority of our affiliates are in the U.S.

The Secular Student Alliance is a 501(c)(3) educational, non-profit, public charity.  We were founded in 2000 by students and recent students.  We are headquartered in Columbus, OH.

For Immediate Release
Contact: August Brunsman – (614) 441-9588 – august[AT]secularstudents[DOT]org

November 18, 2009

COLUMBUS, Ohio – In a move that avoids the counter-protests organized by the Secular Student Alliance and other organizations, Ray Comfort and the Living Waters Ministry covertly began their Origin Into Schools project today, November 18th, instead of the previously announced November 19th.  Altered copies of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, which contain a introduction which misrepresents the theory of evolution, were distributed on college campuses today.  The Secular Student Alliance has been mobilizing groups on college campuses to respond with a positive, science-based campaign but took Comfort at his word that the distribution would occur on the 19th.

“We’re sorry that Mr. Comfort felt he had to mislead everyone just to avoid the counter-efforts of our campus groups,” said August Brunsman, Executive Director of the Secular Student Alliance.  “Apparently he thought his deception would only work if nobody was around to tell the truth.”  Counter-efforts were planned at Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, the University of Virginia, UNC Chapel Hill, UCLA, UC San Diego, UC Irvine, San Diego State University, University of South Florida, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, University of New Brunswick, and elsewhere.

The altered version of On the Origin of Species distributed by Living Waters Ministry contains a 50-page introduction written by Comfort attempting to cast doubt on Darwin’s theory of evolution and connect Darwin to Hitler.  The books feature Comfort's section in a much larger font than Darwin's section.  Comfort's section is rife with illustrations, but the single illustration in the original Origin of Species has not been reproduced.

In an attempt to prevent the ministry from tricking college students, the Secular Student Alliance national office assisted affiliated college groups to schedule protests, host speakers, write letters to the editor, show films, and distribute the original version of Darwin’s 150-year old masterpiece.  Their plans will go forward despite Comfort’s sudden, unexplained change of dates.  The Secular Student Alliance has collected resources to counter Living Waters' efforts at http://www.secularstudents.org/originintoschools.

“The best way to defeat misinformation is with education,” said Brunsman.  “We would have loved to have a peaceful exchange of ideas with the ministry, but we’ll settle for having the last word in students’ minds.”

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The Secular Student Alliance is an educational nonprofit that supports a network of over 180 campus groups which promote the ideals of scientific rationality, secularism, democracy, and human-based ethics. Learn more at http://www.secularstudents.org.