Reverend Jon Weyer's talk at Purdue

So as you all know, last night Reverend Jon Weyer came and gave a talk at Purdue called Kicking the Christian Strawman: What Christians are really like. It was nice to have Jon come to Purdue, since we met at the Secular Student Alliance conference and have chatting since then. It was really interesting, especially to us atheists who weren’t raised in Christian households. I kind of live in a self-reinforcing atheist bubble here at Purdue, so it was great to hear what Christians were really like from an actual Christian, not a raving atheist.

During the course of the night, he went a bit into why he believes what he believes. I have to say, this was the most enlightening part. A member asked about people who take the Bible literally, and his response was the first answer I’ve heard that finally made sense. That parts of the Bible are meant to be metaphorical, but they aren’t just arbitrarily choosing what parts they like – that there are contextual clues to help us figure that out.

The more he talked, the more…I don’t know, it felt like something had clicked. Like that spiritual experience everyone says they feel? Like how they say if you just open your mind a little you’ll see the way? I…felt that. Maybe I hadn’t felt it all along because I was raised atheist, but I realized that Christianity isn’t all about people riding on dinosaurs and Jesus performing magic tricks.

…I dunno, I’m feeling pretty confused right now. I need to do some introspection before posting any more. It’s just strange – for the first time ever, I had that nagging feeling in my gut that maybe this God stuff is right.

Reverend Jon Weyer’s talk at Purdue

So as you all know, last night Reverend Jon Weyer came and gave a talk at Purdue called Kicking the Christian Strawman: What Christians are really like. It was nice to have Jon come to Purdue, since we met at the Secular Student Alliance conference and have chatting since then. It was really interesting, especially to us atheists who weren’t raised in Christian households. I kind of live in a self-reinforcing atheist bubble here at Purdue, so it was great to hear what Christians were really like from an actual Christian, not a raving atheist.

During the course of the night, he went a bit into why he believes what he believes. I have to say, this was the most enlightening part. A member asked about people who take the Bible literally, and his response was the first answer I’ve heard that finally made sense. That parts of the Bible are meant to be metaphorical, but they aren’t just arbitrarily choosing what parts they like – that there are contextual clues to help us figure that out.

The more he talked, the more…I don’t know, it felt like something had clicked. Like that spiritual experience everyone says they feel? Like how they say if you just open your mind a little you’ll see the way? I…felt that. Maybe I hadn’t felt it all along because I was raised atheist, but I realized that Christianity isn’t all about people riding on dinosaurs and Jesus performing magic tricks.

…I dunno, I’m feeling pretty confused right now. I need to do some introspection before posting any more. It’s just strange – for the first time ever, I had that nagging feeling in my gut that maybe this God stuff is right.

Zombies live forever…and so will you!

“Zombies live forever…and so will you!” That’s the slogan I saw on the chalkboard in one of my classes today, followed by a date, time, and location. Hmm, vague yet intriguing slogan, with no identifying information? I turned to my friend Ben.

“I totally bet that’s a religious group.”

And after five seconds of Googling, I found out I was right. Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship at Purdue is putting on the event. I have to give them props for their marketing. Humans versus Zombies (effectively a giant, nerdy, insane game of tag involving nerf guns) just got done at Purdue. It was incredibly popular, and they’re working off of our zombie fascination. And the whole dishonest lack of information about what the event is really about – ah, ingenious and typical religious marketing (and not to mention, against Purdue student organization rules).

But I have to say, I’m pretty excited. I never knew that Christianity preached that we all turn into zombies when we die! Well, other than Zombie Jesus, of course. On the other hand, zombies aren’t really alive, so maybe they’re a tad bit confused…

Sex, Catholicism, and Snarky Atheists

The Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers of University of Illinois has come up with a brilliant event for Good Friday:

CHAMPAIGN – For many Christians, the Friday preceding Easter Sunday is one of the holiest days of the year.

This is precisely why the student organization Atheists, Agnostics, and Freethinkers (AAF) has chosen this day to raise awareness about the Roman Catholic Church. The group plans to set up a booth on the Quad on Good Friday and disseminate information about the Church’s policies, especially those related to contraception and HIV/AIDS. Accordingly, the group will also be distributing free condoms.

“People often regard religion, and specifically Christianity as a force for good in the world,” said Mathew Rayman, an officer from AAF. “Just over a year ago, the Pope told Africans that condoms actually help to propagate AIDS rather than prevent it. Statements like these are irresponsible and illustrate the disconnect of the Vatican hierarchy from reality.” Two thirds of the estimated 33 million people with HIV/AIDS live in Africa.

The Catholic Church has always been fundamentally opposed to contraception, and Pope Paul VI reinforced this in the 1968 doctrinal letter Humanae Vitae (Latin, “Human Life”). According to the American Red Cross, consistent and correct condom use greatly reduces the risk of contracting HIV. AAF hopes to raise public awareness of these issues and promote productive discussion.

This is an awesome idea. My only complaint is that they didn’t advertise sooner, so groups like mine could have similar events. I think this is a perfect example of a good controversial event: it’s sure to piss some people off, receive media coverage, and get people talking – but it also has a purpose and a very important message. It doesn’t exist for the sole reason of offending.

Great idea, AAF – hope it goes well!

(Via Skeptic Money)

Event at Purdue: Kicking the Christian Strawman

If you’re in the West Lafayette area, you may be interested in an event we’re holding next week!

Kicking the Christian Strawman: What Christians are really like
Talk and Q&A w/ Rev. Jon Weyer
Wed, March 31
6:00 pm in PHYS 223
Free, Open to public

Atheists spend so much time trying to get religious people to understand them, so now it’s time for us to learn a little more about Christianity. Jon has a lot of experience cooperating with atheist groups, so hopefully his talk will:
– Help us understand how Christians view the world
– Help us understand American Christianity
– Debunk stereotypes about Christianity & Christians

Rev. Jonathan Weyer is a campus minister with the CCO at The Ohio State University and an ordanied minister with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. At Ohio State, he started a group called “The Thomas Society” that seeks to honestly discuss questions about God, the nature of reality, and how people ought to live their lives. He has worked extensively with the Students for Freethought and SSA board member Ashley Paramore to create an atmosphere of cooperation and dialogue between Christians and Atheists at Ohio State. As a part of this work, they are taking service project trips to New Orleans over spring break, hosting joint group discussions, and events that including bringing Hemant Mehta to campus. He lives in Columbus, Ohio with his wife and three kids. To relax, he likes to write novels that scare people, sometimes intentionally. Jonathan also writes the blog for the Thomas Society

Sponsored by the Society of Non-Theists

I met Jon at the Secular Student Alliance conference last summer, and he is a wonderful guy who’s sure to give an interesting talk. And don’t worry, this isn’t some secret way for him to convert us all. At least, I don’t think so…hmmm

Raised without sexual guilt?

Hey everyone. I’m joining the formspring.me bandwagon, as it’s a good source for blog fodder. Basically you can go here to ask me anonymous (or not anonymous) questions on anything you’d like. I won’t promise to answer everything, but I’ll try. Ones that I really like will become an official blog post, like the one below.

I grew up fundamentalist. I’m also naturally pervy. I lived with a lot of guilt and shame, especially regarding masturbation. What’s it like not to have to live with that? Did you have any guilt at all about your normal sexual leanings?

While I grew up in a fairly secular environment, I wouldn’t say my upbringing was completely guilt-free. My parents actually never had “The Talk” with me, and sexuality was just a very awkward subject. Most “sexual morals” that I learned from them came in the form of rants about other people. My dad was a special education teacher at a city school, and stories about students who ruined their life by getting pregnant were all too common. I remember sitting at the dinner table while he told us how one of his freshman girls was pregnant with her second child, and how she could never come to school because she was so busy taking care of the first. It was never explicitly said, but the message was “Don’t fuck up your life by getting pregnant.”

And to be honest, that’s still a mantra I hold today. I never really felt guilty about sexual things I did, even when I was fooling around back in high school. I never went all the way – but not because I wanted to wait until marriage, or so that I could claim to be a “technical virgin” – I just logically knew I wasn’t ready to deal with the consequences. The way I saw it, once I was 18 and away at college, I’d be able to buy birth control. And if that failed, I’d be able to get an abortion without requiring parental permission or something. Really, I just put off sex until I knew it could be my little secret.

I used to think you should only have sex with people you really love, but now I realized that’s just what society was telling me I should think. I’m personally not into random hookups with strangers, but I have no problem with casual sex or friends with benefits. As long as everyone involved is on the same page and no one gets hurt, I see no problem with it.

I kind of feel bad for people who were raised in anti-sex environments. Trained guilt is insanely hard to get rid of. I really can’t fathom how people feel guilty about masturbation, or sex before marriage, or multiple partners, or same sex fantasies, even when they can rationally tell themselves it’s okay. It really just sort of sucks. Sometimes I’ll feel a momentary twinge of guilt knowing the majority of society thinks I’m some naughty slut – but you know what? I enjoy getting some, and they can all fuck off.

And that’s really how I deal with any guilt. If I’m not hurting myself or anyone else, then my sexual acts and fantasies are none of your goddamned business. Well, I’ll talk about it if you’re actually pro-sex – but if your goal is to judge me and make me feel bad about myself, then you’re wasting your time.

Indiana high school student sues over graduation prayer

Ah, always good to see freethinkers in Indiana! Or at the very least, young people who support the separation of church and state:

A Greenwood High School honor student who learned in class about court rulings striking down school prayer has found a real-world application — his own graduation ceremony.

Eric Workman’s lawsuit, filed Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, challenges the high school’s practice of allowing seniors to vote on whether to have a student-led prayer at graduation.

ACLU attorney Ken Falk said allowing the vote and even having the prayer run afoul of U.S. Supreme Court rulings that found prayers at public school-sponsored events to violate the First Amendment.

“This is particularly egregious when it’s coming from a student who’s going to be sitting on the stage,” Falk said. Workman, 18, is ranked first in his class, the lawsuit says.

Good for him! It can be difficult to deal with small religious towns in Indiana, and this kid is probably getting a lot shit for what he’s doing. So I send kudos his way for helping keep church and state separated!

Of course, not everyone is as understanding…

The Rev. Shan Rutherford, pastor of Greenwood Christian Church for more than three decades, said he disagrees with the proposition that such a prayer would violate a student’s rights.

“If I lived in a Muslim nation, a Hindu nation or anything else, I would expect to go along with the majority,” Rutherford said. “He’s trying to go with minority rule. To me, that’s wrong in a democracy, one that was founded on Christian principles.”

“If you don’t agree, I don’t think you should try to stop other people from exercising their rights.”

Rev. Rutherford, I think you need to sit in on that government class Workman learned so much from.

Anyone who still claims that America was founded on Christian principles shows how little they know about our government’s history, since that trope has been destroyed over and over. But worse than that is his failure to comprehend the idea of “majority rule, minority rights.” Just because Christians are in the majority doesn’t mean they get to have everything their way, especially when it infringes upon the rights of the minority. Removing a school prayer doesn’t make it an atheist ceremony, representing a majority of Americans – it makes it a secular ceremony, representing everyone. I would be just as a against someone getting up on stage an talking about how there is no God, religion is stupid, and anyone who believes in God is deluded. That would be totally inappropriate for a public school graduation, just as a prayer would.

Ah, Christian persecution complex. Lovely, isn’t it?

(Hat tip to Tom)

Send an Atheist to Church: Final results

The results are in! During our Send an Atheist to Church event, the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue University raised…

$362.95 for Food Finders Food Bank!

That is so amazing! I wasn’t sure if we’d even raise $100, but we blew past that goal!

And for those of you who are wondering about the more competitive side of the event, here are the donation results per denomination:
The Episcopalians had the highest amount, just barely beating the Baptists by six cents! Representatives from both of those denominations stopped by and made big donations, which helped put them in the lead. $37.34 was also donated to just a general fund that didn’t represent a specific denomination – some people didn’t want to send us to any religious service, haha. I guess the Episcopalians and Baptists will have a lot of atheists coming their way soon…

Thanks so much to everyone who donated and to everyone who helped organize the event. I would call this a huge success!

I'm just a stupid undergrad, apparently

I stopped by our Send an Atheist to Church event between my classes to see how it was going. A professor (I won’t say from which department, don’t want to identify him) was debating with club members working the table. He had initiated the discussion, and I wasn’t paying much attention until the topic turned to evolution.

It was a bit odd. He mostly accepted evolution, but believed that Intelligent Design was a better explanation for what guided the process. He argued that atheist philosophers and scientists outright rejected ID, and it never gets a chance to be debated or discussed.

(Not exact quotes, but fairly darn close)

Me: That’s because ID isn’t scientific.
Him: Yes it is.
Me: No it isn’t. Name one testable prediction for ID.
Him: Well there a many, but the complexity of structures like flagella.
Me: First of all, it has been explained numerous times by numerous people how the flagella could evolve in a stepwise natural fashion. Second of all, that’s not a way to support or falsify ID. It would falsify evolution, but that doesn’t mean God is the answer.
Him: Well all the great scientists were religious. Newton’s religion helped him figure out physics.
Me: …You can be religious and be a scientist. That doesn’t mean your religious beliefs are correct too.
Him: Well, how about Francis Collins? He was the head of the Human Genome Project and is the head of NIH.
Me: That’s just argument from authority. He’s brilliant at genetics, but that doesn’t mean he knows everything about evolution.
Him: Are you head of the NIH?
Me: No, but I study genetics and evolution.
Him: Do you have a PhD?
Me: I’m going to start working toward my PhD in the fall, maybe you’ll listen to me in five years.

Seriously, how demeaning. Yep, I’m just a dumb undergrad. Obviously I have no say on anything because I don’t have a PhD and I’m not the head of NIH, even though evolution is an easy enough concept for teenagers to understand.

I was pretty much done with him at that point. He may as well have said “little girl, go back to your corner and shut up.” What a disrespectful way to treat a student, especially when you are the one who has no idea what he’s talking about.

I would be sorry for anyone who was in this guy’s class. Disagree with him? Nope, you’re just dumb and immature. Come back when you have more letters after your name.

I’m just a stupid undergrad, apparently

I stopped by our Send an Atheist to Church event between my classes to see how it was going. A professor (I won’t say from which department, don’t want to identify him) was debating with club members working the table. He had initiated the discussion, and I wasn’t paying much attention until the topic turned to evolution.

It was a bit odd. He mostly accepted evolution, but believed that Intelligent Design was a better explanation for what guided the process. He argued that atheist philosophers and scientists outright rejected ID, and it never gets a chance to be debated or discussed.

(Not exact quotes, but fairly darn close)

Me: That’s because ID isn’t scientific.
Him: Yes it is.
Me: No it isn’t. Name one testable prediction for ID.
Him: Well there a many, but the complexity of structures like flagella.
Me: First of all, it has been explained numerous times by numerous people how the flagella could evolve in a stepwise natural fashion. Second of all, that’s not a way to support or falsify ID. It would falsify evolution, but that doesn’t mean God is the answer.
Him: Well all the great scientists were religious. Newton’s religion helped him figure out physics.
Me: …You can be religious and be a scientist. That doesn’t mean your religious beliefs are correct too.
Him: Well, how about Francis Collins? He was the head of the Human Genome Project and is the head of NIH.
Me: That’s just argument from authority. He’s brilliant at genetics, but that doesn’t mean he knows everything about evolution.
Him: Are you head of the NIH?
Me: No, but I study genetics and evolution.
Him: Do you have a PhD?
Me: I’m going to start working toward my PhD in the fall, maybe you’ll listen to me in five years.

Seriously, how demeaning. Yep, I’m just a dumb undergrad. Obviously I have no say on anything because I don’t have a PhD and I’m not the head of NIH, even though evolution is an easy enough concept for teenagers to understand.

I was pretty much done with him at that point. He may as well have said “little girl, go back to your corner and shut up.” What a disrespectful way to treat a student, especially when you are the one who has no idea what he’s talking about.

I would be sorry for anyone who was in this guy’s class. Disagree with him? Nope, you’re just dumb and immature. Come back when you have more letters after your name.