Introduction

Darwin Day is Coming

Important Dates to Save: Dawkins Tour and SSA Conference

University of Kentucky SHIFT Wins Best Service Project Award

Article by Leslie Zukor

Congratulations to the University of Kentucky’s Society for Humanistic, Intellectual, and Free Thought (SHIFT) for winning the SSA 2007 Best Service Project Award.  Each year, the Secular Student Alliance awards its four annual Best Awards to clubs that excel in a particular area.  Groups can be awarded in several categories, among them Best Service Project, Best Media, and Best Website.

Members of University of Kentucky's SHIFT

SHIFT Treasurer Tyler Porter donates blood as part of the National Day of Reason.

An active club, SHIFT has upwards of 10 regular members and 60 people in its Facebook group.  The organization has hosted events for Darwin Day and the National Day of Reason, and has spearheaded a group-wide blood drive.  For all of the group’s accomplishments, it is SHIFT’s commitment to service that distinguishes the University of Kentucky club. “President Adam Leedy, a couple other members, and I really wanted service work to be part of what SHIFT did,” explains club Vice-President Jo Oldiges.  As a result of club members’ giving spirit, SHIFT undertook a charitable endeavor that would receive accolades from both the SSA and the University of Kentucky.

This past year, club members participated in DanceBlue, a daylong, no-sitting-or-sleeping dance marathon to benefit the school’s pediatric oncology clinic.  For each hour, there was theme music which participants had to dance to, including jazzercise, merengue, and Disney movie ditties.  According to Oldiges, an English senior, “It was kind of goofy.”  However, the benefits of helping children with cancer far outweighed temporary sleep deprivation.  “A lot of the families and the kids that we were raising money for were there. Yes, it was exhausting, but it was…a chance to do some good work, promote a positive image of freethinkers, and just be a part of the UK community.”  As a result of the group’s efforts, SHIFT raised over $1,000, which was the second highest amount among UK’s “small groups”.  In the end, not only did SHIFT receive the SSA’s Best Service Project award, but the club was also recognized with a plaque from the university itself.

UK SHIFT members pose at DanceBlue.  From left to right, Chris Wiedamann, Jarrod Miller, Jo Oldiges, and Adam Leedy.

For all of the group’s accomplishments, what stood out was how many club members participated in SHIFT’s service project.  Unlike many other student organizations, where it’s difficult to get a commitment from beyond the officer circle, four members took part in the actual dance event and even more went door-to-door to raise money to aid children with cancer.  In sum, seven students played a key role in SHIFT’s efforts and even more contributed money to the cause.  It is this teamwork, along with raising in excess of $1,000 for pediatric cancer patients, that makes the SSA thrilled to present its Best Service Project Award to the University of Kentucky’s Society for Humanistic, Intellectual, and Free Thought.

Harvard Secular Society on NPR

SSA Reports Record Expansion of Atheist Groups on Campuses

"We are clearly doing something right," said August E. Brunsman IV, executive director of the Secular Student Alliance. "Only two years ago we were working out of coffee shops and computer labs. Now we've got office space and we're about to hire our sixth employee."

Students are increasingly rejecting the religion of their childhood. A 2007 survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that the number of Americans ages 18-25 who identify with no religion had doubled since the late 1980s: from one in ten to one in five. The Secular Student Alliance currently has over 100 affiliate groups, run by students at schools all over the world. The number of SSA affiliate groups has more than doubled since 2006.

"These campus groups help bring speakers like Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins to their campuses," said director Brunsman. "In addition to these big speakers, these groups create a day-to-day community for students who do not find religion compelling. The groups run service projects, have social meetings, publish newsletters, run informational tables, and educate their campus communities about what atheists, agnostics, and humanists believe and value."

The Secular Student Alliance has three staff working out of its headquarters in Albany, NY and regional campus organizers in New York City and southern California. The alliance is currently hiring for a recently funded campus organizer position in northern California.

The staff of the Secular Student Alliance work with campus groups to help them run better events, create a sense of community, and provide opportunities for student leaders to connect with each other and the larger secular community. The alliance also helps students start groups on campuses that lack alternatives for nonreligious students. Students interested in starting a group on their campus should request a free group starting packet from the SSA's website: www.secularstudents.org.

Earlier this year, the Institute for Humanist Studies awarded a $40,000 grant to the Secular Student Alliance, bringing its total support to $227,000 in six years. The Institute has given out more than $1 million to humanist causes since it began the IHS Grant Fund in 2000.

In addition to support from the Institute and the Secular Student Alliance's growing base of members, the alliance has received gifts and pledges from other foundations totalling over $94,000 in the last eighteen months. Matt Cherry, executive director of the Institute, thinks the support for the alliance from the Institute for Humanist Studies has served as a catalyst for more support.

"It's wonderful to see other organizations stepping up to the plate and funding the Secular Student Alliance," said Cherry. "I hope more will follow. Based on our experience, you'll never get more bang for your buck."

Call for Submissions: Secular Short Stories

Our Struggles with Disbelief will be a compilation of short stories from current and upcoming leaders in the atheist/agnostic/freethinker/humanist movement.  The short stories should be non-fiction and discuss challenges that the author has faced as a nonbeliever. Submissions should be no longer than 4,000 words (about 10 pages double-spaced, Times New Roman 12). 

American Atheists 2008 Scholarship Competition

The Blogging of a Secular Lobbyist

January 2 - Candidates Should Make Some Secular Resolutions

For myself, I’m keeping the New Year’s resolutions to a minimum – organize my files better, finish a book this year, and exercise more regularly.  But since we are at the start of the primary elections, I have some suggested resolutions for the presidential candidates.  How about these, candidates:

   * Resolve to promote civil law based on civil reasons, not based on theology.  This means that if you want to believe that the earth is 6,000 years old, believe away; but don’t pretend that this “lesson” is appropriate for a public school science class.  It also means that your theology regarding whether stem cells have a soul and which adults should be permitted to civilly marry will affect your own life only – not mine.
   * Resolve to talk about issues, values, and qualifications – instead of your beliefs.  Proclaiming your love for Jesus doesn’t tell me anything about the reasons why I vote for someone.  Plus, far too many voters then conclude that a Christian theology is necessary to share their values.  This is not true.
   * Resolve to include minority beliefs in your representations.  Don’t tell us that all Americans believe in a god, or that only Americans who do matter to you.
   * Resolve to stop running for pastor-in-chief.  You are running for president – not a theological leader.  We are not a theocracy … yet.

Well, candidates … any takers?

January 16 - An Honest Politician!

On January 15, Mike Huckabee admitted that he wants to change the U.S. Constitution to make it comply with his biblical god beliefs.  For years now, politicians whose motives were clearly theocratic, have hidden behind supposedly secular rationales for their attempts to change the U.S. Constitution.  Just look at the “secular” arguments for traditional (i.e. Biblical) marriage to be imposed on all civil marriages:

• Studies show children fare better with male/female parents (reliable studies actually show that the gender of parents makes no difference in their children’s well-being)
• Civil marriage rights are given solely for the purpose of biological procreation (in reality, couples who can’t or won’t procreate get civil marriage benefits anyway; and adopting parents are also permitted to marry, but only if they are a female and a male – unless they are in Massachusetts)
• Appropriate gender roles require that a marriage include a bread-winning male and a nurturing submissive female (don’t even get me started on this one!)

Now we know, thanks to Huckabee, that the real reason was, the Bible told them so … and even if you don’t share their belief, you must live under laws comporting with their belief.

Here at the Secular Coalition for America, we couldn’t help wondering what other laws would need to change to comport with Huckabee’s biblical god-beliefs:

• Would birth control be prohibited?  This would require a change to the Constitution since the U.S. Supreme Court decided such laws were unconstitutional.
• What about spilling one’s seed?  Would masturbation be prohibited … and if it were, who would be tasked with enforcing the law?  (Given his dissent in Lawrence v. Texas, Justice Antonin Scalia would welcome such a law.)
• Would blasphemy require a death sentence?  And if so, what words would be considered blasphemous?  Would only Huckabee’s specific god be included in the prohibition against taking the lord’s name in vain, or would Yaweh, Allah, Thor, and the Great Plate of Spaghetti in the Sky (all hail his noodly appendage!) be included?

Rational Response Squad: Kelly's Blog

Kelly of the Rational Response Squad is writing a year-long series to address theist talking heads in the media. Kelly is a Psychology major, co-host of the RRS Radio show, and has been featured on ABC debating Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort. Here, we reprint select articles with permission.

Kelly of the Rational Response Squad is writing a year-long series to address theist talking heads in the media. Kelly is a Psychology major, co-host of the RRS Radio show, and has been featured on ABC debating Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort.  Here, we reprint select articles with permission.

January 13 - Still Don't Think that Theism is a Mental Disorder?

Wow. A whole barrage of nonsense came at us in the past two weeks or so. First off...a man cuts off his own hand after seeing the Mark of the Beast on it. With a circular saw. And then microwaves it. And then calls the authorities. A quote from one of the sherriff's deputies states, "That kind of mental illness is just sad." I couldn't agree more.

Now, I know what you guys are going to say--"It's not BECAUSE of religion." Actually, I don't think that a case could be made either way. Was he likely vulnerable to delusional behavior? Yeah, I'll concede that one. The fact that religion is unique in its ability to seep into the crevices of your mind so pervasively that this theme plays out in our society over and over again isn't addressed by that statement, though. How do the appeasers and framers answer that? Maybe it only manifests itself in those already prone to mental illness, but isn't that akin to excusing and perpetuating a belief system that preys on the weak? What exactly is it that causes atheists to feel this compulsion to cover for a malevolent, archaic belief that has caused mothers to kill their children, countless cases of child abuse, seemingly endless wars and violence, and self-mutilation and flagellation that can be traced back to the very foundation of the religion?

One doesn't need to delve too deeply to uncover the singular thread that has persisted throughout religious history--violence. Violence against others and oneself. Internally or externally expressed; it's there from day one. Ignatius of Loyola makes an interesting case study demonstrating the way in which religion exploits this predisposition to self-loathing and delusional disorders. The esteemed founder of the Jesuit's autobiography details graphically the man's obsession with self-harm, his hallucinations, and his severe depression which would at times lead him to drastic measures such as digging a hole in his room at college deep enough that he hoped to end his life by jumping into it. All that to escape the demons that he felt were tempting him with indecent, ungodly thoughts. Sometimes that would lead to an insatiable desire to harm himself in order to purge this evil from his body, simultaneously punishing himself for not having the strength to resist thoughts that were likely normal human doubts and concerns. His life as a beggar on the streets, living only off of the good-will (and pity) of others, as well as an extremely hazardous trek from his home in Italy to Jerusalem soon after his conversion on which he embarked with nothing more than the clothes on his back all coalesce to form an image of a man haunted by the great spectre in the sky and his impending wrath.

Augustine also suffered from some degree of guilt after his drastic conversion; either from his previously debacherous lifestyle, the fact that his father was never "saved", or the fact that he stole fruit from a tree as a young teen, the almighty, supposedly omnibenevolent, god has stricken people with fear, guilt, shame, and remorse severe enough to permanently alter their lives--and often those of the innocent people around them.

Next up in "Nutter News from the RRS", we have the pope (yeah - Ratzi again) urging people to pray for clergy members who sexually abuse children. I assume he doesn't think that removing them from their posts is the most pragmatic solution and would rather leave it in the hands of god--or in other words, do nothing. He's actually ordered every parish and diocese to set up prayer teams for round-the-clock vigils to help support the pedophiles in their midst. The most disturbing quote, one that I'm hoping was merely a nuance of translation, was, "The pope asked Roman Catholics to pray for the 'mercy of God for the victims of the grave situations caused by the moral and sexual conduct' of clergy members in daily prayers of penance and purification, The Times of London said Monday." Hold on...could you run that by me one more time? He wants them to pray that god has mercy...on the victims?! I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto--we've been transported straight to bizarro world.

Let me give the church some advice since I still possess the faculty of reason: Stop covering up for these people!! Either they are mentally ill or just sociopathic and have no business in a congregation, school, or possibly even in public. The church's willingness to cover for them (note the use of the words "sexual conduct" instead of "misconduct" from the pope) obviously persists to this day and likely will never stop. Any person who willingly leaves their child in the care of these men of god is as delinquent and delusional as the pope apparently is. (On a side note, I find it especially ironic that the first empire in search of global domination was in fact the catholic church, and now Ratzinger issues an encyclical highlighting the dangers of globalization. Flip-flop much? When are you going to outlaw mass in the vernacular and start burning bibles in any language other than Latin? We all know how much more powerful the church was when nobody could understand that nonsense.)

The third, and final, course of irrationality that I'm going to serve will be the petition floating around the interwebs demanding the removal of drawings depicting Mohammed from Wikipedia. The text states that, "In Islam pictures or Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) and other holly figures are not allowed, but on wikipedia they has published some pictures that are showing not only a body with white face but an image that has a complete face.. that is even not allowed by SHITAT fact of Islam.
i request all my brothers and sisters to sign this petition so we can tell wikipedia to remove them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad specially this image http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Maome.jpg ."

First of all, work on your spelling. It's hard enough to read this without having to cringe internally with every other word just from the grammatical errors. Secondly, Wikipedia is not run by Muslims, and therefore has no obligation to adhere to your silly laws. The rest of us are free to depict him however we choose. Just for good measure, I've included some pictures of Mohammed. Feel free to start a petition to have my blog removed from the internet, barbarians.

 

 

Anybody who would like to donate to help us increase security due to the likelihood of psychopathic idiots coming to chop off our heads with rusty machetes may do so here. If they can get 34,000 signatures on their petition, we should be able to get a grand for some guard dogs, right?


You can read Kelly’s original blog post and other great entries at RationalResponders.com

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SSA Hiring Northern California Campus Organizer

The Secular Student Alliance is seeking applicants for a part-time Regional Campus Organizer (RCO). This is an hourly position with a high degree of independence and responsibility.

The ideal candidate will have experience in atheist, freethought or humanist activism at the college level. Someone with experience leading or helping to lead a student group would be an especially strong candidate. Any experience with campus activism will be helpful. She or he will have excellent communication skills, including speaking and writing. The candidate will enjoy collaborating with people of different ages, ethnic groups, sexual orientations, and philosophical or political beliefs.

The RCO will help organize and support students who do not see theism as the source of morality--this includes atheists, agnostics, humanists, brights, rationalists and other non-theists. Duties will include working in person and remotely with student groups on campuses in the northern California area to improve their operations, provide them with resources and network them with each other and the broader secular movement. The RCO will also work to start groups on campuses without groups via flyering, tabling and networking. The position will involve some traveling, public speaking, record keeping, lots of phone and email communication, and some possible resource development.

The RCO will be willing to work 15 to 20 hours each week, often on evenings and sometimes weekends, and will set this position as a high priority. Accommodations can be made for exam weeks and other busy times, as long as ample advanced notice is given. The position pays $10 an hour. Candidates must be willing and able to travel to campuses located in northern California on a regular basis. All travel costs will be covered by the Secular Student Alliance. Candidates should be able to provide strong work and activism references. The RCO will need to answer phone calls and e-mails promptly, unless on pre-arranged leave.

The RCO will work very closely with our full-time Field Director who is based at our headquarters in Albany, NY. The RCO will work in the northern California area.  Most communication with the SSA will be via telephone, instant messenger and e-mail. However, the RCO will need to travel to Albany for training. We will work to ensure that this travel does not interrupt the RCO's academic schedule.  As with all travel, all expenses will be covered by the Secular Student Alliance.

There are many intangible benefits to this position.  You will have the option to do at least some of the work in the comfort of your own home. You will have the opportunity to make enormous progress in furthering freethought and humanist goals. You will gain job experience involving more responsibility and independence than most jobs for college students offer. Finally, the RCO position is a potential springboard to an ongoing career in the freethought and humanist movement.

The Secular Student Alliance hopes to select a Regional Campus Organizer in mid February 2008 and have him or her start shortly thereafter.  Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, so apply soon.

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 best candidates will have a passionate, personal desire to see the realization of this mission.  This position is being funded by the Humanist Community, the Vital Spark Foundation, and the American Humanist Association.

The SSA was founded in 2000 and is a registered 501(c)(3) educational non-profit. You can learn more about the Secular Student Alliance at http://www.secularstudents.org.

If you would like to apply for this position, please e-mail Alison Bates at hr@secularstudents.org with your name, address, phone number, best times to call, and the text of your resume in the body of your email.  Please keep the formatting (e.g. bold, italics, off sets) to a minimum. Please do not send attachments. We will send a list of screening questions to help us learn more about you.

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