The SSA only exists because of your support. Please donate today. Secular shorts: Stuart Bechman, president of Atheists United of Los Angeles, California, was unanimously elected as the next president of the Atheist Alliance International at the annual board meeting held on Friday, September 26, 2008 in Long Beach, California. His term begins immediately. Read More... The New York Times reported Saturday, Oct 18 that the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel has just posted a memo on the DOJ Web site saying "faith-based" agencies can collect government funds and still discriminate in hiring on religious grounds even if Congress has specifically banned such bias in the program in question. Read More... The sides of some of London's red buses will soon carry ads asserting there is "probably no God," as nonbelievers fight what they say is the preferential treatment given to religion in British society. Organizers of a campaign to raise funds for the ads said Wednesday they received more than $113,000 in donations, almost seven times their target, in the hours since they launched the project on a charity Web site. Supporters include Oxford University biologist Richard Dawkins, who donated $9,000. Read More... Visit the donation site. Breaking News: Webster Cook Impeachment Overturned! You will remember that Webster Cook is the young man who was involved in the first part of the Crackergate Event, the result of which involved two separate kinds of legalistic charges against him at his school, one by a more general disciplinary board, and the other by the student government (Webster was an elected school officer). The first one was thrown out, but the second was not, and Cook was impeached. Greg Laden reports that Webster Cook's impeachment was overturned. Read More... Check out SkepticBlog for a healthy dose of text from the likes of Phil Plait, Brian Dunning, Kirsten Sanford, Mark Edward, Yau-Man Chan, Ryan Johnson, Michael Shermer, and Steven Novella. The End of the Infidel Guy? After nearly a decade, popular web show, The Infidel Guy, may be calling it quits due to lack of financial support from listeners. Read More... Say hello to the new editor! Bjorn Watland, a Systems Administrator in Saint Paul, MN, has stepped in to edit the eMpirical. He lives with his wife, Jeannette and two cats. He is the web editor for Minnesota Atheists, and serves on the board of MNA and Camp Quest of Minnesota. He is also an unapologetic fan of Weird Al Yankovic. A big thanks is deserved for Lyz for easing the transition! Has your student group renewed its affiliation with the SSA? Contact Lyz if you're having trouble! Recent SSA Grant Awards
The SSA offers grants to student groups to support operations and projects. Here are some projects that groups are using these grants for! Find more information and apply here. Gator Freethought University of Florida Michael Shermer and Douglas Jacoby evolution debate Date: 11/9/08 Amount awarded: $400 Bradley Skeptic Society Bradley University Paul Harrison presentation and live webchat. Date: TBA Amount awarded: $100 Contact us! Call us toll free at 1-877-842-9474. You can also email us at ssa@secularstudents.org. We are always happy to hear from you and answer any questions or concerns! What do you think? This is your eNewsletter and we are always updating and changing to fit your needs, so please let us know what you think of our new format! Email enews@secularstudents.org with any suggestions, ideas, or comments. eMpirical Team
Editor-in-Chief: Bjorn Watland
Editors: Elizabeth R.A. Liddell, August E. Brunsman IV, Hemant Mehta, Jacquie Kuzma, Brian Gelletly
| Introduction 
For many students in the US, there is a crisp smell of fallen leaves in the air, and political advertisements in their ears. That can mean one thing, the closing of a two year election cycle. Go vote! As a side effect of the election season, preachers called on their flocks to pull the lever for the right guy. We have some great organizations on our side, like Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, to keep an eye on things. All over the world people are raising awareness for the importance of keeping religion and government in their own corners. You can help spread awareness too, by attending a fun secular event, or picking up some Secular Swag and showing off.
Chicago was treated to quite an event this year. No, not playoff action from both baseball teams, but the inviting friendliness of the 2008 Freedom From Religion Foundation. Featured speakers included Webster Cook of "Crackergate," Jim McCollum on ending religious instruction in schools, and Daniel Dennett among others. FFRF conferences are a great way to meet fabulously friendly people and brush shoulders with the likes of Daniel Dennett and Dan Barker. Ashley Carter from the Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers at UIUC provides the play by play. Read more...  Boise State SSA was asked to remove a banner at a tailgating event that is used to advertise school groups. The banner read, "Outgrown your imaginary friend?" It was removed after complaints from other students. This act was viewed as censorship, according to the Boise State SSA, and the story made it to the front page of the school paper. You can read that article here. Read Boise State SSA president, Lloyd Lowe's response here.  Do you want to show your Secular Student Pride? Want an easy way to get T-shirts and other gear for your group? The SSA can help!
We're betting you didn't know that we had a Cafepress store. Even we've kinda forgotten about it...until now! We've updated the products, added some new stuff, and got rid of stuff that no one wants. Check it out: http://www.cafepress.com/secularstudents. The logo that we use is the same Secular Student Alliance logo that many student groups use as their own. So, if your group uses that logo and needs some buttons or t-shirts, now it's easy! Even if your group has its own logo and t-shirts, there's still plenty of things that you might want to take a look at. For example, who doesn't need an atheist BBQ apron? Plus, we'll be adding items as we think of them or you request them, so keep checking back and let us know what you want to see! Read more...  Andrew Cederdahl writes, "Americans United for Separation of Church and State has the perfect tool for working to uphold the just position of pulpit neutrality. It’s called the “Project Fair Play Initiative.” A great resource for any secular student group, the AU initiative includes a letter from Rev. Barry Lynn decrying illegal pulpit activity, a FAQ in which religious leaders can consult on the issue, and most important, a way to report violations so that they can be dealt with professionally."  Dartmouth student Alex DiBranco continues her three part article with number two. Find out about how different atheists define themselves. There are secular humanists, Quaker atheists, even atheists who consider themselves spiritual. Stick around for the second section on arrogant atheists. Her analysis is through, including thoughts from fellow students and her own opinions.  You are busy. How do you stay up to date with the latest secular events? Lucky for you, the SSA has a simple Google Calendar to keep you informed. Subscribe to its RSS feed, or grab the iCal file, simple!  Youth Against World Youth Day organized and executed an effective protest of Pope Benedict XVI's recent visit to Melbourne, Australia on July 13. Jason Ball, President of the University of Melbourne Secular Society and a Youth Against World Youth Day Spokesperson expressed several concerns about the Pope's visit, including the government's endorsement of Catholicism, harmful Catholic policies, and shocking new laws which limit speech.  Dan Barker continues his article on how to talk to a fundamentalist with the bible and morality. It's a good idea to familiarize yourself with a handful of biblical contradictions and history. Fundamentalists like to argue about the source of morality. How do you fight that? Convince them you are happy and ethical. Who better to teach you about fundamentalists then Dan Barker? Read more... Lynda Hartunian stops by to provide some insight into the creation of The Great American God Out. "The idea behind the Great American God-Out! came to me as I was writing an article about godlessness. I was trying to think of things people could actually do, as opposed to just say, to get others to understand life without theism. It started as a joke, namely, a day modeled after the Great American Smokeout (wherein people are asked to give up something unhealthy for just one day.) But it quickly turned in to a movement via positive feedback from the Dawkins social network and responses from various other rationalist groups around the USA and the world!" Read more...  Last night, October 22, 2008, in Northern Kentucky, a rather remarkable thing happened. At Northern Kentucky University, within the shadow of the Creation Museum, in a mock trial, a jury of the entire audience overwhelmingly voted on the side of Evolution and against the teaching of Intelligent Design in the public schools.
Some had opined that it was foolish to hold such an event—that the vote would be overwhelmed by the fundangelicals, that Evolution would lose, and that this would be harmful for the future of education in Kentucky. Well, that did not happen. The opposite happened. By Edwin Kagin Read more... Ian Bushfield, president of the University of Alberta Atheists and Agnostics, reviews Bill Maher's new documentary: Religulous. His review originally appeared in The Edger, which is at least as awesome as Religulous: check it out at theedger.org. Read more... |
