Food for Freethought 2010
What is “Food for Freethought”?
Food for Freethought, inspired by the Center for Inquiry’s Campaign for Free Expression, is a food drive that also encourages freethought, freedom of expression, and free inquiry. We plan to accomplish this by giving “Banned” and Freethought books away in exchange for non-perishable food donations that will be going to Food Bank of the Rockies, during “Banned Books Week”, September 27 – October 2 (specific dates below). Our goal is to raise an enormous amount of food for those in need. Most food drives are done during the holidays and tons of food is raised and distributed. That is all well and good, but what about the majority of the time that it isn’t the holiday season? The hungry don’t stop being hungry after the holidays, they are hungry now too! Given the existing goals of Metro State Atheists, it is only natural that we would attempt to help the hungry by promoting freethought, freedom of expression, and free inquiry. With the proper support, we can have an immeasurable positive community impact!
The event will be taking place at the Auraria Campus (1201 5th St, Denver, CO 80204). September 28-30th, 9am-4pm (Times Subject to Change)
Metro State Atheists will have SIGNED COPIES available at Food For Freethought 2010 by the following authors:
Hemant Mehta , Daniel Dennett , James Randi, Michael Shermer, Dan Barker, and…RICHARD DAWKINS!. If you’d like to obtain any of these signed copies, donate food!
Largest donors receive signed books!
Metro State Atheists would like to formally thank the above and the following groups for their support:
The James Randi Educational Foundation
The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science
The Center for Inquiry
Secular Student Alliance
Skeptic Magazine
Freedom From Religion Foundation
How can I help?
AMAZON.COM Wishlist
Click here and check out the Food for Freethought 2009 wishlist. From there you can buy the books directly and they will be sent to us!
A special thanks to Tanya J. Higgins of Boulder, CO for setting this up.
Donate Books:
If you have any of the books on the banned book list (http://banned-books.com/bblist.html) and would like to donate it to the cause, please email Joel Guttormson at metroatheists@hotmail.com to set up pick up/delievery of your donation.
Light=God
Someone sent us this link to a forum, on Godlike Productions web page, about the “LIGHT CHANNELS WORLD MOVEMENT.” Its capitalized, so you know they mean business. The informative link begins with the following:
“On 26 FEB 2009 a Mega Event is arranged at Bangalore…
This is a Movement in Conscience. A Movement to make this world a beautiful place to live in Peace and Love. This is a Movement of Light without any sermons, banners or boundaries. Everyone and anyone is invited to join to make this the greatest Movement ever built.”
Not much to complain about here. I don’t see anything wrong with trying to bring about a paradigm shift for peace and love. If your not sure what a “Movement of Light” means, just wait, they do get to that a little later. In the next few lines, though, things start to get a little weird.
“Let us spread this to millions and millions of beautiful people who are waiting for a World Leader to lead the humanity away from wars and conflicts at all levels, away from the darkness in thoughts and emotions to the New Age of Light. This Movement is backed by the World Leader who will appear to all of us at an appropriate time and is now actively working at the Astral plane.”
A world leader? I think that’s the last thing me need. Appointing a supreme ruler generally doesn’t bode well for the masses, at least according to history. Although, not many dictators, emperors, and monarchs had experience on the Astral plane. Perhaps I should put that on my resume. This is starting to sound very…cultish. I get the distinct feeling this mysterious World Leader is a chubby white guy from Oklahoma with no college education and loads of charisma (why is it never a women leading these nutty cults?). I could be wrong though. Perhaps our supreme leader will bring peace on Earth in the near future. However, I doubt it. The only way to ensure world peace for humanity would be to eliminate all of most of our species, either through extermination or artificial selection, or perhaps mandatory lobotomies. But hey, I could be wrong. How do we convince this brilliant astral entity to grace humanity with his/her/its wisdom?
“All that we have to do is to just channel and spread the Light which is above us in a subtler realm daily for seven minutes when we wake up and go to bed.”
Well it sounds easy, but how do channel this magnificent realm?
“Do not worry about any technique. A plain request is enough. The Light will flow through us. The Light has Intelligence, Power and the Future. The Light has everything.”
Well, before I invite this Light to flow through my innards, maybe you could tell me more about it. I mean, what is the Light, anyway?
“Light is the Creative Intelligence behind the Creation. Light is the formless God. Light carries within it Love, Wisdom and Energies. This Light is not the physical light. It is very subtle and pervades the higher subtler realms. It can be accessed by thought, Meditation and by extending our Awareness.”
Ah, so Light=God. Well lets just call it what it is then. Go back and read the quotes, but this time replace Light with God. How does it sound? Sounds like plain old theism to me, mixed with a hint of New Age western gibberish. There is nothing unique or special about the message here. The message is nothing more than “Believe in Light God, it will solve all our problems.” Face it folks, there is no quick and easy answer to world peace.
– Chalmer
Joel Guttormson debates radio show host Bob Enyart (AM 670)
From Theology Online:
“Atheist Billboard spokesman, Joel Guttormson, (“Don’t Believe in God, You’re Not Alone”) will debate Radio talk show host Bob Enyart this Wednesday on Bob’s radio and Internet show (AM 670, Internet www.KGOV.com) .
Both sides have been sent information on the other (Bob’s show with his interview of Dan Barker was sent to Joel, and Joel’s website https://metrostateatheists.wordpress.com/ was sent to Bob).”
The show will at 3pm MT, Wednesday January 7th.
Here is the link to Bob’s interview with our friend Dan Barker.
Commentary on the show can be viewed by using the links below:
Joel’s Commentary
Chalmer’s Commentary
Metro State Atheists
Sam Singleton Quote
“Some atheists say that they can’t be angry at God because he is not real. I say the fact that God is fictitious doesn’t stop more than half the people on earth from believing in him, so why should it stop me from being mad at him?” – Sam Singleton Atheist Evangelist
Science In The News: Dec 30, 2008
Earthquakes on the rise at Yellowstone.
“Scientists wonder if the shaking might presage a larger event. This month’s swarm is the most intense in this area for some years, scientists said. It is centered on the east side of the Yellowstone caldera, a giant basin created in a colossal eruption some 620,000 years ago.”
“From sneers to full-blown smiles, our facial expressions are hardwired into our genes, suggests a new study.”
Food safety and nanotechnology.
“A microscopic biological sensor that detects Salmonella bacteria in lab tests has been developed by an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist and university colleagues. The sensor could be adapted to detect other foodborne pathogens as well.”
Victor J. Stenger Quotes
Pulled these from Positive Atheism’s Big List of Victor J. Stenger Quotations
But, as we have seen, movement does not require a mover, and modern quantum mechanics has shown that not all effects require a cause. And even if they did, why would the Prime Mover need to be a supernatural anthropomorphic deity such as the Judaeo-Christian God? Why could it not just as well be the material universe itself? — Vic Stenger, discussing Aquinas’s adaptation of Aristotle’s ideas as “proof” of the existence of God, Physics and Psychics (1990) p. 88
Scientific evidence for God’s existence is being claimed today by theists, many of whom carry respectable scientific or philosophical credentials. “He” who is neither a “she” nor an “it” supposedly answers prayers and otherwise dramatically affects the outcome of events. If these consequences are as significant as believers say, then the effects should be detectable in properly controlled experiments.
— Victor J Stenger, Has Science Found God? (draft: 2001), ch. 3
In short, evolution is as close to being a scientific fact as is possible for any theory, given that science is open-ended and no one can predict with certainty what may change in the future. The prospect that evolution by natural selection, at least as a broad mechanism, will be overthrown in the future is about as likely as the prospect of finding out some day that the Earth is really flat. Unfortunately, those who regard these scientific facts as a threat to faith have chosen to distort and misrepresent them to the public.
— Victor J Stenger, Has Science Found God? (draft: 2001), ch. 2
And, yet again, because I can predict the line of criticism that this book will generate, I need to make it clear up-front that I am not claiming that the absence of evidence eliminates all possibilities for a god to exist in every conceivable form. And, I am not evaluating all the theological and philosophical arguments for or against God. I am simply evaluating the scientific arguments and claimed scientific evidence for a deity according to the same criteria that science applies to any extraordinary claim. I conclude that, so far, they fail to meet the test.
— Vic Stenger, on life growing up in New Jersey, in Has Science Found God? (draft: 2001)
To most theistic believers, human life can have no meaning in a universe without God. Quite sincerely, and with understandable yearning for a meaning to their existence, they reject the possibility of no God. In their minds, only a purposeful universe based on God is possible and science can do nothing else but support this “truth.”
— Vic Stenger, Has Science Found God? (draft: 2001)
Any strategy that attempts to reinforce faith by undermining science is also doomed to failure. Showing that some scientific theory is wrong will not prove that the religious alternative is correct by default. When the sun was shown not to be the center of the universe, as Copernicus had proposed, the Earth was not moved back to that singular position in the cosmos. If Darwinian evolution is proved wrong, biologists will not develop a new theory based on the hypothesis that each species was created separately by God 6,000 years ago.
— Vic Stenger, Has Science Found God? (draft: 2001), Preface
Quotes About Religion
Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise. – James Madison
This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it. – John Adams
Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies. – Thomas Jefferson
Man is a marvelous curiosity…he thinks he is the Creator’s pet…he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watch over him and keep him out of trouble. He prays to him and thinks He listens. Isn’t it a quaint idea. – Mark Twain
All thinking men are atheists. – Ernest Hemingway
It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God, but to create him. – Arthur C. Clarke
A man is not moral because he is obedient through fear or ignorance. Morality lives in the realm of perceived obligation… – Robert Ingersoll
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. – Karl Marx
The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. – George Bernard Shaw
Creationists make it sound like a ‘theory’ is something you dreamt up after being drunk all night. – Isaac Asimov
We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. – Richard Dawkins
“The time for respecting religous beliefs of that sort has long past”-Sam Harris at Idea City 05
“Thou shalt not take anything on faith”-Penn Jillette
“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.”
— Stephen Roberts
“Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.”
— unknown
“Only Sheep need a shepherd!”
— unknown
“God is not dead. He is alive and working on a much less ambitious project.”
— graffito (1975), quoted from Jonathon Green, The Cassell Dictionary of Cynical Quotations
“Appraise the Lord: Tax church property.”
— bumper sticker
“Humanity without religion is like a serial killer without a chainsaw.”
— unknown
“Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.”
–Don Hirschberg
“Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest”
–Denis Diderot
“The philosopher has never killed any priests, whereas the priest has killed a great many philosophers.”
— Denis Diderot
“the trouble with theocracy is that everyone wants to be Theo.”
— James Dunn
“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.”
–Napoleon Bonaparte, French emperor (1769-1821).
“The church says the earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the church.”
–Ferdinand Magellan, (1480–1521), Portuguese navigator: discoverer of the Straits of Magellan 1520 and the Philippines 1521.
“Clearly the person who accepts the Church as an infallible guide will believe whatever the Church teaches.”
— Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) Roman Catholic philosopher
“Don’t you know there ain’t no devil, it’s just god when he’s drunk.”
— Tom Waits
“An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support.”
— John Buchan
“The atheist does not say ‘there is no God,’ but he says ‘I know not what you mean by God; I am without idea of God’; the word ‘God’ is to me a sound conveying no clear or distinct affirmation. … The Bible God I deny; the Christian God I disbelieve in; but I am not rash enough to say there is no God as long as you tell me you are unprepared to define God to me.”
— Charles Bradlaugh, ‘Plea for Atheism’
Eskimo: “If I did not know about God and sin, would I go to hell?”
Priest: “No, not if you did not know.”
Eskimo: “Then why did you tell me?”
— Annie Dillard, ‘Pilgrim at Tinker Creek’
“I give money for church organs in the hope the organ music will distract the congregation’s attention from the rest of the service.”
— Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)
“Gods always behave like the people who created them”
— Zora Neale Hurston
“Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.”
— Chapman Cohen
“Pray: To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.”
— Ambrose Bierce
“I still say a church steeple with a lightening rod on top shows a lack of confidence.”
— Doug McLeod
“We must respect the other fellow’s religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.”
— H. L. Mencken
“Men never commit evil so fully and joyfuly as when they do it for religious convictions”
— Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
“Man has never been the same since God died. He has taken it very hard.”
— unknown
“The world holds two classes of men – intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.”
— Abu Ala Al-Ma’arri (???? – 1059)
“No philosophy, no religion, has ever brought so glad a message to the world as this good news of Atheism.”
–Annie Wood Besant (1847-1933)
“Hey, let’s get serious… God knows what he’s doin’ He wrote this book here And the book says: ‘He made us all to be just like Him’, So… If we’re dumb… Then God is dumb… (And maybe even a little ugly on the side)”
– -Frank Zappa
“God created man in his own image. And man, being a gentleman, returned the favor.”
— Rousseau
“You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do.”
–[from Usenet]
“Atheism is a non-prophet organization”
— unknown
“Organizing atheists is like hurding cats”
— Madalyn Murray O’Hair
“In the absence of fear there is little faith.”
— Michael Pain
“If atheists are deaf to the word of God, then theists are blind to the ways of man.”
— Michael Pain
“You’ll never find a dead Christian in a foxhole who didn’t pray.”
— unnknown
“On the sixth day, God created man. On the seventh day, man returned the favor.”
— unknown
“Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.”
— unknown
“For god so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son,
that whosoever would believe in him would believe in anything.”
— unknown
“Theists think all gods but theirs are false. Atheists simply don’t make an exception for the last one.”
— unknown
“Fundamentalism means never having to say ‘I’m wrong.'”
— unknown
“Give a man a fish, and you’ll feed him for a day;
Give him a religion, and he’ll starve to death while praying for a fish”
— unknown
“You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches, demons, sticks turning into snakes, food falling from the sky, people walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories, and you say that we are the ones that need help?”
— Dan Barker, Losing Faith in Faith
Calling Atheism A Religion…
“Calling atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color” – Don Hirschberg
Thomas Jefferson On Religion
“To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, God, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by Locke, Tracy, and Stewart. At what age of the Christian church this heresy of immaterialism, this masked atheism, crept in, I do not know. But a heresy it certainly is. Jesus told us indeed that ‘God is a spirit,’ but he has not defined what a spirit is, nor said that it is not matter. And the ancient fathers generally, if not universally, held it to be matter: light and thin indeed, an etherial gas; but still matter.” August 15, 1820 in a letter to John Adams
Was Hitler An Atheist?
See for yourself.
“My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the Jewish poison. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice… And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.”
-Adolf Hitler, in a speech on 12 April 1922 (Norman H. Baynes, ed. The Speeches of Adolf Hitler, April 1922-August 1939, Vol. 1 of 2, pp. 19-20, Oxford University Press, 1942)
Metro State Atheists 