Project and Meeting Ideas

• Women in the Freethought Movement.  There are many women who are extremely influential in freethought.  Lori Lipman Brown of the Secular Coalition for America (www.secular.org), Bobbie Kirkhart of Atheist Alliance International (www.atheistalliance.org), and Molleen Matsumura, writer of the ‘Sweet Reason’ column of the Humanist Network News (www.humaniststudies.org/enews) to name but a few…I could go on all day (see the attached sheet for more names!).  Please ask for more contacts if you’d like.  Bringing these women to speak at your school is a possibility, or obtaining copies of their media appearances (Lori did a number on Bill O’Reilly) is something I would love to help with.

• How Religious Dogma Influences Women’s Sexuality.  For instance, in Islam, Ali (the husband of Muhammad’s daughter Fatima and the founder of Shiite Islam) dictates that ‘Almighty God created sexual desire in ten parts; then he gave nine parts to women and one to men.’  In Catholicism, the opposite seems to be true, and women are less sexual than their male counterparts.  I would be happy to share some more info on this topic!  

• There is an interesting book titled Faith of the Fatherless by Paul Vitz.  Vitz claims that atheistic men replace God with other ‘concretes,’ i.e. science, reason, rationality and so on.  This is not enough for women.  Of course these are generalizations, but I think this warrants some discussion.  I myself am not impressed with the freethought movement’s fervent adherence to science, reason, and rationality (I have also done research in this area and have written an article on this topic to be published in our next ENews). 

• There is an indigenous community on Mt. Kilimanjaro called the Chagga.  The Chagga are being introduced to Christianity, and they are having trouble reconciling Christian doctrine with their held values and cultural ideas.  One could focus just on the effects on women.  For instance, Christianity denounced polygamy and the birthrate increased.  There was an emphasis on money, and the church wanted its part too!  So as women came to value money more they put themselves at risk through prostitution to obtain finances.  Christian doctrine prohibited women from working undercutting their traditionally egalitarian position.  This is one such negative example of missionary work, turn to your ‘Cultural Anthropology’ department professors for other such instances.