Secular Student Alliance board member Matthew LaClair is the author of an Op-Ed piece in today's edition of the LA Times.  In it, he talks about the recent controversy where a nationally used American Government textbook was found to contain several mistakes and conservative bias.  Matthew, with the help of the Center for Inquiry, alerted the publishers of the book (along with the media) about these problems.  The full report can be found on the Center's website.

Matthew urges students to not remain silent when these misstatements occur.  He writes:

What is most distressing is not that some public school teachers preach their religion, or that some authors put politics ahead of education. It is that it is so rare for anyone to call them on it. This text is widely used. Yet to my knowledge, no one has challenged these incorrect and misleading statements.

From friendlyatheist.com

A few weeks ago, Jennifer at Purdue University threw out the idea of having people swap their Bibles (or other religious texts) for novels: Fiction for Fiction.

The event took place recently and Jennifer gave us an update:

We ended up receiving a bunch of books, mainly Bibles or other Christian spiritual books. We also had people turn in a Book of Mormon, the Tanakh, and two Bhagavad Gitas. While we did get a lot of glares or confused looks from people passing by, we also got a ton of smiles. It was great to have people come up and thank us for having the event (since Purdue almost always has people passing out Bibles or preaching). A lot of theists (mostly Christian) came up to ask what we were doing. Once we explained that we were trying to promote critical thinking of what you read (and that we weren’t burning the books), many of them supported our message. On our second day we were actually set up next to a Baptist group handing out free popcorn, but they were the nicest of all.

Mobilizing Students for a New Enlightenment ... thanks to you

Support the SSA Single donation U.S. Mail donation form (.pdf) Monthly recurring donations $50/month $20/month $10/month $5/month PayPal account required. You'll be prompted to create a new account if you don't have an existing one. WE are young people who ... Talk about ideas seriously. Live ethical & fulfilling lives without the supernatural. Think it is more important that we can live together than that we all agree. See democracy as an ideal worth living up to. Believe science and reason lead to more reliable knowledge than faith. WE are members of the ... The Secular Student Alliance is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. All donations are tax-deductible in the U.S.

Apr. 3, 2008 It isn’t often that a non-profit leader has the opportunity to report that his organization has grown more than 84% in a single year. But that's exactly what I have the pleasure of doing today. Since this time last year, the campus affiliate base of the Secular Student Alliance has increased 84%, from 70 active groups in 2007 to 129 groups as I write this e-mail. This phenomenal growth is great news for the SSA – it means we’re reaching previously unimagined heights in our mission 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. But as chair of the board, I realize it also represents a daily challenge for our tiny staff as they struggle to meet the needs of a much larger than expected crop of freethinking young adults preparing to move into leadership roles in business, government, education, and culture. The SSA must raise $30,000 by June 1st to keep this momentum going. And we have a $4,000 head start toward our goal, thanks to the generosity of two donors. But there is another exciting development, made possible by a third generous supporter. Every donation that reaches the SSA by April 11th will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $3,000. Your gift can go twice as far, just by giving it now. The $100 that would have covered speaker expenses for one campus group can now be leveraged for a second speaker on a second campus. The $500 that would have funded a regional activist training session for campus leaders can now be cloned in another region of the country. The matching funds for a $1,250 donation will allow us to hire an intern for an entire summer. (You should see the amazing resumes we've been receiving.) But every gift, large or small, is very noticed, very appreciated, and very carefully spent at the SSA. If you can't support us at one of these levels, please consider an amount that's comfortable for you. Your donation will be precious to us no matter what its size. Every bit of our work at the SSA is funded by atheists, agnostics, humanists, and other freethinkers who care about secular youth. We are an independent, democratic organization which would not exist except for the generosity and loyalty of our many friends in the freethought movement. Please click one of the donation options in the sidebar by April 11th to take advantage of the matching funds. Thousands of bright, young freethinkers are counting on your support to bring about a more rational future guided by secular values. With thanks, Hemant Mehta, Chair Secular Student Alliance www.secularstudents.org P.S. I almost forgot to mention the vital role played by SSA affiliate groups on college campuses. They provide a welcoming and stimulating community for students without supernatural beliefs, some of whom are open about their worldview for the first time in their lives. But there is still so much progress to be made! Please click one of the donation options in the sidebar so we can do more to bring this experience to every freethinking student.

37 Cities to Feature Movie Theater Event Focusing on Need for Church-State Separation in 2008 Elections

The Secular Student Alliance is proud to promote the First Freedom First program: “Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Separation of Church and State…But Were Afraid to Ask” March 26.

Actors, musicians and comedians will join church-state community members across the country on Wednesday evening, March 26, 2008 to put church-state separation on the national agenda during the 2008 election season.

Peter Coyote, celebrated Hollywood actor and filmmaker, will emcee the program, which will include such special guests as The Bacon Brothers (featuring actor Kevin Bacon and his brother Michael), actors Michael J. Fox; Jack Klugman; James Whitmore; Wendie Malick; Dan Lauria; and Catherine Dent; comedian and Air America host Marc Maron; singer/songwriter Catie Curtis and satirist Roy Zimmerman.

From front to back: Ryan Iacovacci, Peter Baker, Benjamin Brown and Kenan Arodak debated funding for the Atheist Student Alliance at Tuesday's SG Senate Meeting. ORACLE PHOTO/MIKE WILSON

This story originally appeared in the Oracle (the campus newspaper of the University of South Florida) on 3/19/08, and is used by permission.
Article by Candace Kaw, Staff Writer for the Oracle.

The Secular Student Alliance is seeking applicants for its Southern California Campus Organizing Internship (COI). This internship pays $10/hr. and all expenses are covered. This internship will require approximately 10 hours a week. The internship will start in late March or early April and last through early June of 2008 with an option to extend the internship or restart it in the fall. We are willing to be somewhat flexible in terms of time and stipend to meet academic requirements.

While approximately half of the work for this position can be done from any location of the Campus Organizing Intern's choosing, the other half will involve working directly on campuses in Southern California. Again, all travel costs will be covered. The position offers a highly flexible schedule.

The Campus Organizing Intern 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 Southern California to improve their operations, provide them with resources and network them with each other and the broader secular movement. SSA senior staff will provide training, direction, and assistance with all of these tasks. The COI 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.

From FriendlyAtheist.com:

There’s a project I’ve been interested in doing for some time, and I finally was able to complete it this weekend. (I actually did it a number of years ago and wanted to see if anything had changed since then.)

Before you read further, try to guess the number of Christian groups at any one large college campus. Also, try to guess the number of atheist groups, Muslim groups, Jewish groups, etc.

UCLA's Greg Graffin to Be Honored for Lifetime Achievement in Atheism, Punk Rock, and Science

"Cultural Humanism" Awardee is Seminal Punk Singer, Earned Ivy-League PhD in Evolution

CAMBRIDGE, MA­ — Harvard University's prominent community of atheists and agnostics is poised to honor a rock star and scientist whom they argue is an ideal role model for the nation's millions of non-religious youth.

The Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard has gained considerable national attention in the past year for its unique approach to building a culture and community for the non-religious, and this April 26 it will give its highest honor, the "Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism," to a unique figure: Dr. Greg Graffin, frontman of the influential punk rock band Bad Religion. Graffin, whose "day job" since 1980 has been recording and extensive worldwide touring with a band boasting such hits as "How Could Hell be Any Worse" and "American Jesus," earned his PhD in Zoology at Cornell and is a member of the UCLA's Faculty in Biology, teaching Life Sciences courses covering Darwin and natural selection. Graffin will give an acoustic performance after accepting the award.

"I always put education high on my list of priorities because I thought, Wouldn't it be neat if you can have a singer of your favorite band who also has something more to offer than looking cool -­ which I don't -­ or dressing cool -­ which I don't;" Graffin said. "Those are the things that I try to inspire young people to do, whether it is in the lecture hall or on stage on the Warped Tour."

But Bad Religion, considered among the most influential modern punk bands, has been known for inspiring young people towards a particular set of ideas: those of atheism and Humanism. Graffin's lyrics make plain his passionate disbelief in God. Yet the Harvard Humanists cite his faith in the ability of music and science to improve the world as making the singer unique.

From Friendlyatheist.com:

A bill just passed through the Oklahoma House of Representatives that allows students to express their religious viewpoints without being penalized for it.

On the surface, House Bill 2211 (RTF file) sounds like a nod to religious freedom. A good thing.

However, this legislation actually has the potential to be disastrous. Says Dave McNeely of The Edmond Sun:

If a student’s religious beliefs were in conflict with scientific theory, and the student chose to express those beliefs rather than explain the theory in response to an exam question, the student’s incorrect response would be deemed satisfactory, according to this bill.

The school would be required to reward the student with a good grade, or be considered in violation of the law. Even simple, factual information such as the age of

the earth (4.65 billion years) would be subject to the student’s belief, and if the student answered 6,000 years based on his or her religious belief, the school would have to credit it as correct. Science education becomes absurd under such a situation.

In other words, the {included} cartoon would be describing acceptable classroom work!

By Leslie Zukor 

Does your group’s website get zillions of hits a day?  Have you raised $1,000 for children with cancer?  Is your club simply superlative when it comes to lectures held, achievements earned, and fabulous secular fun had?  If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then you should submit a Best Award application. 

Members of UCLA's Bruin Alliance of Skeptics and Secularists pose with their award for
Best New Affiliate in 2007.