The SSA only exists because of your support. Please donate today. Secular shorts: Darwin Day is coming soon! Check out DarwinDay.org for ways to celebrate! Going somewhere? Support the SSA by using our Travel Gateway. Do your shopping at Amazon.com and support the SSA! 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 Content Manager: Frank Bellamy Editors & Assistants: August E. Brunsman IV, Ait Chapel, Amanda Knief, Lyz Liddell, Hemant Mehta, Luis A. Morán Morales | So this is eMpirical 42 and, as all really hoopy froods know, this is the answer. Alas, we still don't know what the question is. Someone in our office suggested that it might be "what is the square root of 0.44 times the number of campuses in the United States which still need an SSA affiliate group?" For those of you who don't have a brain the size of a planet, that makes for about 3,960. Thrilled though we are that everything might be about us, we're still withholding final judgment. Philosophical quandaries aside, we have just added our 200th (and 201st, and 202nd, and 203rd...) campus affiliate group! We're delighted to have grown so much and that there are more opportunities for secular students than ever before. Things are in full swing as students settle into the winter/spring term! Darwin Day is coming up fast, as well as our Northern California Leadership Summit. You won't want to miss these great opportunities! Plus, we're seeing students branch out into projects and undertakings bigger and better than ever. Check it out! Not a student? You can still become a member of the Secular Student Alliance and support young freethinkers. There has never been a more exciting time to get involved! We're excited to announce the full schedule for the Northern California Leadership Summit! Check out these speakers and talks, and make sure you register for the summit! Read more... 
On January 12, 2010, a catastrophic 7.0-magnitute earthquake struck the impoverished nation of Haiti. We help you find secular charities to help support those Haitians in dire need. Read more...  Darwin Day is coming up sooner than you might think, and you don't want to miss the opportunity to celebrate the 201st birthday of the biologist who reshaped our understanding of the origins of life. Read more... Last fall, we held the first-ever Secular Student Alliance Student Membership Drive. We had 28 groups participate, and we're excited to announce the groups who were able to recruit the most members! Read more... The Secular Student Alliance is pleased to announce that we have added popular blogger Greta Christina (Greta Christina's Blog) and author Dr. Darrel Ray ( The God Virus) to our Speakers Bureau. Read more...  Dr. Michael Newdow is leading the Newdow v. Roberts lawsuit, regarding the inclusion of the phrase "So help me God" in the presidential oath of office. University of Pittsburgh student Sarah Silverman was able to attend the oral arguments in the case's appeal. Read more... 
In a surprisingly progressive move, the mayor-elect of South Portland chose to have the invocation at his inauguration given by a secular humanist, SMASH leader Andrew Lovley. Read more...  Should secular humanists be delivering invocations at public events? Frank Bellamy argues against furthering an institution that might better be laid aside entirely. Read more...  Should secular humanists be delivering invocations at public events? Andrew Lovley makes the case for why they should and how doing so is a benefit to society. Read more...  Cameron DeHart, a freshman at the Ohio State University, was one of our two 2009 fall interns. He shares his experiences working with the Secular Student Alliance office. Read more...  Mid-November 2009 brought a host of interested atheists and other secularists to the Springfield campus of Missouri State University to partake in Skepticon II, a two-day event featuring best-selling authors and freethought experts. Read more...  In the fall of 2009, the FreeThinkers at the University of South Florida were joined by two off-campus organizations to raise awareness about the importance of freedom of speech during Banned Book Week. Read more...  Arthur Jackson describes the Humanist Community in Silicon Valley's involvement in the Secular Student Alliance's Northern California Regional Campus Organizing project, and the program's unexpected success. Read more...  The Evansville Courier & Press published this article featuring the Agnostics and Atheists Club of North High School, one of our campus affiliate groups. Reprinted with permission. Read more... |