The Banquet Dinner was set up in the ballroom where the speakers had been. Only, we now had tables. My wife and I found a place to sit and had dinner. To our left was couple from Louisiana and to my right was a couple from Arizona.  The gentleman was a retired doctor and very strong advocate of woman’s rights. We had a great dinner consisting of awesome conversation with fellow freethinkers.

The drawing for “clean” money was fun – no I didn’t win.  Clean money is money produced before 1954 when the United States mint printed “E. Pluribus Unum” instead of the offensive “In God We Trust” which most uneducated right-wing theocrats think was used all along. The foundation had several young people draw the winners – the youngest being only two years old.

After the drawing, Dan Barker and Pulitzer Prize cartoonist Steve Benson provided the evening’s entertainment with “Tunes and Toons.”  Basically it was Steve Benson’s amazing artwork with Dan Barker’s phenomenal piano playing. It also included humorous banter between the two of them.  I can honestly say it as probably the highlight of the evening. Dan’s piano playing always leaves me awestruck. Combine that with an award-winning illustrator and you have Tunes and Toons. The final cartoon was a picture of John Lennon making a peace sign with one of his hands.  The Twin Towers were behind him burning with the smoke rising forming the word “Imagine” in the clouds while Dan played his rendition of John Lennon’s classic Imagine. That image, along with the song, pretty much summed up the weekend.

Welcome back freethought fans. Day one of the Freedom From Religion National Convention was a really moving and exciting day. But all of that was just a warm up for day two.

Today’s festivities started out with the traditional NonPrayer Breakfast. Sadly we decided to sleep and instead opt for the free breakfast at the Governor’s Club Lounge that our “deluxe” room entitled us to. I did make it for the presentation of the Thomas Jefferson Student Activist Award. This year award was presented to Indiana student Eric Workman.

When the presentation started and Eric walked up to receive his award I thought it was going be boring and I started to get up to leave;  however, when he did speak, I was blown away. This brave young man stood up to his entire high school, the school board, all of his peers and even the community, as a whole. There was going to be a Christian prayer at his graduation and he objected to it. He called the ACLU and was the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the school district. It was hell for him and his family. In the end, he won. However, that wasn’t the end of the matter. At his graduation where spoke as valedictorian, he took on the issue and gave a direct affirmation of state and church separation – despite protests from the audience. Talk about bravery.

Later in the morning I attended a presentation by FFRF staff attorneys Rebecca Markert and Patrick Elliot. The amount cases they take on each year is truly astounding. The heart of FFRF is, of course, writing letters and filing lawsuits against those who would try to bring religion into where it does not belong. Their success rate in protecting the constitutional separation of state and church was both enlightening and inspiring.

My wife and I went outside to the framer’s market around the state capitol. It was beautiful fall day. I felt very lucky to be at the steps of the state capitol attending a conference on freedom while purchasing food from local growers and bakers. Afterwards we had a spot of lunch at the hotel and then went back to the conference for the afternoon activities, which would prove to be the best yet.

Julia Sweeney stole the day with her intelligence, charm and wit. We were treated to a reading from her up-and-coming book which she is writing. Some of it was so funny that we literally were crying from laughing so hard. After having seen Letting go of God, her amazing tale of atheist discovery, I can honestly say that Sweeney is one of the best spokespersons for rational thought. Here is someone who was a believer and did everything she could to believe. But the more she tried, the farther removed she became. But, what separates her from others is that she has the unique ability to take a very serious subject and reduce it to a laughable, yet poignant soliloquy. He approach and delivery are both deceptively effective. They work where sometimes harder logic fails. Julia Sweeney solidifies herself as one of our best storytellers.

Next we had Madison cartoonist Mike Konopacki. His presentation was slower and dryer that we would have liked. However, he did acknowledge that after Julia Sweeney, he was going to be a bit of a “downer.” Konopacki basically took Christianity to task with images showing all of the bloodshed that it was responsible for. He created a pamphlet with his artwork juxtaposed against passages in the bible that Christians had used to justify their insidious defamation of humanity

The second Emperor Has No Clothes Award was given to Cenk Uygur. Like Ayaan Hirsi Ali the night before, Cenk is a maverick who has made a stand to expose religion for what it is. He delivered a riveting, humorous, tirade against the inconsistencies and offensive nonsense of all major religions. He also went on to point out that all of the horrors currently committed by the faithful demands a response and challenged everyone present to fight the religious with logic, reason, and truth whenever the opportunity presents itself. For example, the bible clearly states that you should never eat shellfish. So, whenever you get the chance, you should ask a Christian or a Jew if they really don’t eat shrimp and what issue their god has with eating shrimp.

Cenk is the host of The Young Turks, the largest on-line news show in the world. Even though is audience is huge, he was able communicate at a level that everyone could relate to. A very powerful and intellectually motivated speaker, he really empowered the audience.

That’s it for now.

Greetings freethought fans.  I’m here at the Freedom From Religion’s 33rd Annual Convention. About 700 of us are gathered at the Concourse Hotel in downtown Madison Wisconsin.

Last night the opening ceremony included a wonderful video message from Wisconsin Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton. Lawton gave a very positive and powerful welcome thanking FFRF for all of it’s work. Lawton is a big proponent of state and church separation. She, no doubt, has received a lot of flack from acknowledging a “heathen” group. Kudos to her!

Journalist Linda Greenhouse gave a very interesting speach about the Supreme Court and rulings regarding separation issues. Greenhouse, a brilliant author and journalist has been covering the Supreme Court of 30 years. Her talk was enlightening.

The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the Emperor Has No Clothes Award. This year presented to author /activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Hirsi Ali gave an absolutely wonderful and highly moving acceptance speech. She gave a moving and telling account of her trials and the trials of women, in general, in Muslim countries. As she recounted the actual fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes. She is the little child at the end, of course, that tells the truth and exposes the emperor as actually having no clothes. What’s fascinating is that as a young child growing up with a reform Jewish education, I too was exposed the fable. However, the Jewish religion had hijacked the fable for it’s own self-serving purposes. You see I was taught that the little boy was actually a Jew exposing the Christian believers and their god as false. The Jewish god is the only god and Hans Christian Andersen wrote the fable to illustrate that. For many years I grew up actually believing that lie. Now, as an adult atheist, it gives me great satisfaction to hear this wonderful fable understood as it was meant to be understood. Courageous pioneers like Hirsi Ali are indeed the deserving recipients of awards like the Emperor Has No Clothes Award. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a beautiful, articulate, engaging individual who is a credit to all women and freethinkers everywhere. Her speech brought many present to tears with her lucid antidotes.

At the book signing which followed her speech, my wife and I had the pleasure of meeting Hirsi Ali. It was an honor.

The first day was really entertaining and educational.  More later.

Another year; another 9/11 celebration; another chance for the religious to celebrate their ignorance. This year we have the added excitement of Terry Jones and his Koran burning stunt. Jones, who immigrated here from Germany just two years ago and set up his little slave-labor camp in Florida, is doing all he can to alienate the Islamic community. For the record, Jones has a constitutional right to criticize, mock, and yes, burn, any book he wants. However, the message sent is one that is abhorrent to most civilized people. The Koran is a terrible book of nonsense, true. But then, the Judeo-Christian Bible trumps the Koran any day when it comes to horror, lies, rape, incest, murder and the like. Being an atheist I would much rather burn a Bible, than the Koran. But that’s just me. However, I am also a humanist and I realize that publicly destroying something that is special to someone is a selfish, nasty act that will only bread hatred and discontent. The global mess that is ensuing is the fault of the western media. Making a big deal out of nothing is what is happening. A Baptist church did the same thing two years ago and no one even commented on it. One religion picking on another. Same old story.

Another bit of nastiness this year is the Awakening Awareness Alliance’s Cry Out America. Here we have right-wing Christians encouraging all Americans to pray to their god. This is the second year this group as done this public prayer fiasco. Unfortunately many naïve Americans are falling for it and will be participating in their activities on 9/11. For the ignorant, this is a strictly evangelical Christian right-wing hate group that believes the United States should be a Christian nation. They are against the 32 million of us non-theists and of course very anti Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc. They want to transform the United States in their warped Christian worldview. Don’t let them!

We rational non-theists must stand firm and resolute in pointing out that 9/11 happened because of religion. It is religion that killed the innocent and it is religion that is killing people in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and even here in the United States right now. And, rest assured,  it will be religion that will kill many more people after this year’s round of 9/11 foolishness is over. Stop the madness! Stop religion. Not one group or sect, but all religions. Then, and only then, will we have chance to create a better world, free from the hatred forced upon us all by the deluded godmongers.

Remember 9/11 – Without the Prayer Please! (Previous post click here)

Julia Gillard, the Prime Minister of Australia, is also the first female Prime Minister, and more importantly, the first openly acknowledged atheist Prime Minister. As an atheist, Gillard does not believe in deities, saints, or other make-believe entities. However, as Prime Minster she needs the support of the Christian majority to stay in office. So, yesterday she publicly acknowledged the canonization of Mary MacKillop and pledged money for a celebration party. MacKillop was a nun in the 19th Century that helped poor and orphaned children. She will be the first Australian Saint.

“Whether you believe Mary MacKillop’s a saint, whether you believe she was a great Australian pioneer providing education to kids who needed it, whether you believe both, this is a great moment to celebrate.”

–Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard

Gillard obviously does not believe in saints but does recognize the prestige of having an Australian Saint.  This will go a long way to helping her to get re-elected in two weeks.  Gillard is to be commended for her efforts in putting things into proper perspective and maintaining a balance. The saint thing is a big deal for the Catholics, so she is letting them have their day, and then she will move on to other things – like running the country. As the nation’s first atheist leader she does need to tread carefully. She has found a way to placate the theists and still maintain her rational world view. I admire her courage and still acknowledge her conviction and honesty. More importantly I admire the people of Australia for allowing her to be their leader in the first place!

In a rather scathing editorial released on Monday in Slate (click to go to article), award-winning author Christopher Hitchens blasted actor Mel Gibson as a fascist and a racist whose behavior is consistent with the right wing of the Catholic Church. Hitchens makes the inescapable conclusion that Gibson’s extreme religious views leave no tolerance for anyone else’s views and that he should be the “poster child” for the Catholic Church itself. Personally I agree with everything Hitchens says; however, I would go one step further. You see it’s not just the Catholic Church. No, it’s religion period! We all know the horrific atrocities the Catholic Church is responsible for and continues to perpetrate each day. Catholics are bad, but they are not the exception. Almost every major religion discriminates and abuses people. Women, in particular usually get the worst of it.

Orthodox Jewish women are never allowed to question their mates or speak in temple. In fact, they are not even allowed to sit with men – they must sit in the back of the synagogue as second-class citizens. In Judaism, women are always second class.

Muslim women are so discriminated against that one could fill volumes speaking about the mental and physical abuse they must tolerate each day. From genital mutilation and full-body stoning for nothing more than allow part of their flesh to be seen by another to being sold into slavery for their entire lives, it really sucks to be a Muslim woman.

I could go on, but you get the point. It is religion itself that makes people do these bad things. It is belief in the objects of the religions – the gods. It is the unquestioning, relentless, dogmatic, mindless adherence to age-old hypocritical abusive and destructive behavior that only religion can create. Mel Gibson is scum, but he is no worse than any other religious pundit who feels their actions are justified by their deity de jour. This is just one more of an infinite number of reasons why you can not be moral with religion.

You want to see just how “moral” religion can make you? Take good look at Mel Gibson. He is religion incarnate.

How perfect is this? In the ultimate display of religious irony, a 62 foot statue of Jesus at the Solid Rock Church in Monroe Ohio was set on fire and destroyed by lightning on Monday night. Firefighters were helpless to stop the blaze from completely destroying the savior. I’m sure the church leaders were busy praying their fool heads off, but to no avail – Jesus was toast. Now if I were religious, and I witnessed a “sign from above,” the destruction of the object of my religious belief, I would probably want to re-examine my beliefs. Don’t you think? Perhaps Jesus is mad and the half million dollars, or whatever that went into making the statue, should have gone into helping those less fortunate. Or maybe there is no Jesus and Allah, or Vishnu, or Zeus, or Thor, or any of the other 200 gods that are worshipped today finally had enough and torched the false god. Or, even better yet, all the gods are real and they are beginning this huge fight and Jesus lost the first round. Either way, the last thing I would probably want to do is rebuild the statue. Well guess what? That is exactly what they doing. Yep. They are going to replace the statue that was destroyed from above with another one. Gotta love it.

The Center for Inquiry just announced that it has accepted the resignation of Paul Kurtz, the center’s creator. Over the past few years there has been a rift between Kurtz and Ronald Lindsay, the current President. Kurtz was replaced by Lindsay in 2008. Since that time the Center for Inquiry and its affiliate, the Council for Secular Humanism have been getting more involved in politics and First Amendment rights issues. There has also been a harsher tone that the Center has exuded than in the past. Kurtz originally posited the idea of Secular Humanism, and remains its loudest proponent. However, the current Humanism practiced by the Center for Inquiry is a strong departure from Kurtz’ original idea. The recent Blaspheme Day comes to mind. Kurtz has always maintained a more tolerant tone was necessary. The Council for Secular Humanism has always been seen as a “think tank” rather than an activist organization. One could argue that Kurtz’ original vision has been corrupted. However, there is another way of look at this too.

Over the past few years, both the Council for Secular Humanism and Center for Inquiry have participated in events with other freethought organizations. That is something that was never done in the past. What once existed as an esoteric elite “club’ is taking a stance on issues affecting freethinkers and is getting a whole lot more exposure. To me, all of this is good. I do not want to take anything away from Kurtz. Paul Kurtz remains one of the most important philosophers alive today. His accomplishments are legendary. Besides founding the Council for Secular Humanism, the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, publishing Free Inquiry and the Skeptical Inquirer, Kurtz owns one of the largest independent printing companies in the word dedicated to publishing relevant works having to do with science and freethought. Paul Kurtz will always be remembered as a maverick that made a positive permanent mark on the world.

Almost two decades ago I read my first issue of Free Inquiry. It was the first time I had heard of the word Humanist. I was also introduced to authors like Richard Dawkins, and of course Kurtz himself. That one issue opened my eyes and my mind. I was no longer alone. The fact that there were other people who felt the same way I did about religion and morals and life in general, gave me a new sense of hope and of purpose. I thank Paul Kurtz for that. However, the times are changing. Albert Einstein once said, “Life is but one evolution after another. Not to change is to stand still and be passed by.” Kurtz’ vision of freethought centers around the world has been realized. But some of his archaic views and positions need to be updated. Educating the public that one can be good without a personal god is indeed of prime importance. But the dogmatic, violent religions still exist and still cause harm. The positive message of Secular Humanism cannot be heard over the shouts of the religious zealots. We do need to fight back. The current direction of the Center for Inquiry is not only correct, but necessary for its future survival.

It would appear that Kurtz’ departure was not amicable (at least for him). This is a most unfortunate circumstance. Just as I am grateful for his existence, I wish Kurtz the best in all of his future endeavors. And, with an eye toward the future I also applaud the center on its forward thinking direction and plan to be a part of the current revolution.

Official CFI statement can be found here.

With the announced retirement of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, many of our constitutional rights are literally at stake. Since he was appointed in 1975, Justice Stevens has been one of the strongest supporters of our first amendment rights. He has consistently ruled in favor church-state separation whenever it was challenged.

It is critically essential that President Obama appoint a replacement for Stevens that shares his resolve for individual rights and freedoms. The Supreme Court is currently leaning to the right of center with many recent appointments and clearly supporting the religious majority in this country. This was not the intention of our Founding Fathers. Deplorable god-mongers like Scalia and Thomas have literally been preaching form the bench. Scalia has repeatedly stated that United States is Christian nation. He apparently has never read Article Six of the Constitution or the Treaty of Tripoli.

This appointment is the single most important decision that Obama has had to make in his presidency. It is a decision will carry ramifications for years to come. Depending on who Obama does pick, we should be ready to advise our senators to either confirm or reject the appointment. This one single appointment could very well mean the difference between continued religious freedom in this country or having things like prayer in public schools become law. I urge everyone to pay close attention to this matter of the next few weeks and act accordingly.

In a truly remarkable move, the National Science Board edited a report indicating America’s science literacy. The edit removed any mention of how Evolution and the Big Bang are understood and perceived. The original report listed that the United States scored below most of the rest of the industrialized world in regard to the both Evolution and the Big Bang. The National Science Board oversees the National Science Foundation.

The board citied that the data was making people chose between science and religion and so they opted not to include it. In other words, religion now plays a dominant role in deciding what is not just taught, but what is reported, as well. This is absolutely incredible! Both Evolution and the Big Bang are scientific facts. Religion is a “belief.” A belief is something that does not have, nor does it even attempt to provide any evidence or explanation for the statements that are issued. People are supposed to suspend all rational inquiry and logic and accept whatever is stated by the religion as true – even if it is a fabricated lie. Currently the United States falls behind most other technologically advanced nations in our science education and in the general public’s scientific literacy. A report is compiled to explain this and now it is suppressed because it may “offend” the uneducated religious.

I urge everyone to call/write/email/whatever your representatives and let them know this is disturbing and that you are upset. Religion has no place what-so-ever in the formal education of our children. The incontrovertible fact that American education is failing should not be covered up. It needs to be exploited so that we can correct the damage before we devolve into a dark age of ignorance while the rest of the world passes us by. The removed chapter is available for download here.

For the record, 13.7 billion years ago everything that is now our observable universe came into being in a sort of explosion that we refer to as The Big Bang. The planet earth is 4.6 billion years old and the human species evolved from common ancestors that we share other species millions of years ago through a deliberate and specific process of evolution by Natural selection. These are facts. If you have a problem with these facts, then you or either ignorant or a fool. If you are ignorant, you can learn. If you are a fool, you are a detriment to society and serve no purpose other than to waste oxygen.