Perfect timing after yesterday’s post:

The only person I know who uses the term sex positive sucks dick for money. Which I’m sure you’d want your daughter to do in spite of the risks. Or rather, you’d blame the pervading nature of our sex negative society for the consequences rather than the seedy act of selling oneself. Personally I find the term idiotic. Sex is like any other powerful thing, it can be used in both positive and negative ways. Fucking for pleasure=positive. Fucking your sisters’ boyfriend because you’re pissed at her=negative. It’s a serious act with consequences. Seriously, grow up you chowderhead. Oh, and atheists are nothing but the photographic negative of religious zealots. And most gender and race issues only serve the purpose of dividing people and distracting them from more important economic issues.

I figured I should share, instead of be greedy and keep the hilarity to myself.

This afternoon the officers of the Secular Student Union at the University of Washington had a beginning of the quarter planning meeting. We discussed the sorts of events we wanted to plan for the fall quarter, but we had one issue.

Seattle is a little different from the rest of the country. It’s pretty godless already. And the atheists out here don’t tend to care about their atheism, because those who aren’t atheists are fairly benign and private about their religion.

Well, except the Mars Hill Church. We all rally together to sneer at them.

In the Midwest, atheists swarm to atheist meetings because it’s the only bit of sanity they get. It’s the only reprieve from the constant barrage of Christianity. It’s possibly the only chance you have to meet another atheist. Issues of separation of church and state are readily apparent when they’re being violated in your home town.

But in Seattle, most people are apathetic about these things. They’re not confronted with them on a daily basis – it’s easy to giggle at the silliness of religion when you think it’s relegated to other parts of the country and the world. So our club has been tiny recently.

The thing is, we disagree on how to get people interested in our club. Some officers think we need to focus on social events and not be aggressive about religion. But while social events are great, I don’t think it works as a draw in apathetic areas. In very religious areas, social events are your only chance of meeting other atheists and feeling comfortable about speaking your mind. But here, there’s no problem in meeting another godless person. Just walk down the street and say hello.

Maybe this is just the firebrand in me speaking, but I think we need to be more controversial. Not necessarily crazy – but we need to get out there and make it clear that religious privilege is an issue people should care about. That abstinence only education is religiously motivated and has been proven not to work. That the Catholic Church’s stance on condom usage in Africa has killed many people. That we have Christian Dominionists who want to be President. That we have the Discovery Institute itself sitting downtown, spewing its creationist garbage. Not everyone on campus is totally apathetic – they’ve just never been exposed to the reasons why many of us believe religion is a problem.

We’ll see how it pans out. School starts this week, and we’re thinking about letting people trade their souls for a cookie during the activities fair. If cookies don’t attract students, I don’t know what will.

I’m about to hop on a plane to the Midwest Humanist and Freethought conference! I’ll be yet again ranting about how religion treats women (Hint: not well).

I’m not going to lie. I know nothing about Omaha. I drove past it once on my way to an Ecology conference in Lincoln. I’m sure the locals will prove it’s awesomeness to me. Though we’re starting off with dinner at Herman Cain’s Godfather Pizza, so I’m a little wary… Is this like SSA’s field trip to the Creation Museum or something? Does every slice come with a free side of bigotry?

I know I have at least one reader in Omaha who can’t make stuff during the day. I’m not sure if I’ll have time for other meetups, but watch my Twitter feed for any announcements about bars we happen to be in. Knowing atheist conferences, it’ll probably happen.

Once I become Dr. McCreight, I can finally make as much money as a man with a bachelor’s degree.

Bah.

A lot atheists automatically think of Mormonism and Islam when you mention “polyamory.” It tends to conjure up images of oppressed women being forced into unwanted marriages with little say. That or HBO television shows.
But that’s really polygamy, which isn’t quite the same of polyamory. Polyamory is focused on love and consent. Though I’m not personally interested in it, plenty of people are much happier being in relationships with multiple people at the same time.

And I have no idea what the point of this post was other than clarifying that point. …So. Yep.

Are any of you in a polyamorous relationship? What sort of reactions have you had from the atheist community? From religious communities? Are there any frustrations you typically run into?

This is post 34 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.

Woooo Capitol Hill Block Party!

Yes, I am very foolish. Who needs sleep the night before you’re not going to sleep?!

Whoever made my TAM badge has to be a blog reader:

Seattle, Indiana? Noooooooo!

I feel like this is an abuse of my blogging powers…but oh well, what fun is having lots of readers if you don’t ever try to crowd source them?

The lease on my spider-infested apartment ends August 31, and I’m moving to Capitol Hill with my friend. We’ve been doing the typical internet searching, but a lot of places in Capitol Hill don’t advertise online because they’re in such high demand. So please let me know if you’re moving out of a great place, your friend is, or maybe you just saw a vacancy sign while walking around. We’re looking for a two bedroom place for less than $1500 a month that at the soonest is available Aug 1.

And if you have any general tips about moving, moving in Seattle, or Capitol Hill, feel free to leave those too! Thanks :D

Nephew (almost 4 years old): What’s the first number in ninety?
Me: Nine. That’s why it’s nine-ty.
Nephew: What’s the first number in eight?
Me: There’s only one number in eight, that’s eight.
Nephew: What is one?
Me: …Is that a philosophical question?

You know you’ve been in science too long when answering questions asked by 4 year olds becomes hard. “Why is the sky blue? Well…..”

From Politico:

Speaking at the National Catholic Prayer breakfast, Newt Gingrich on Wednesday warned Catholics that Europe’s “crisis of secularism” — spawning a “government-favored culture to replace Christianity” — has seized the United States.

“The American elites are guided by their desire to emulate the European elites and, as a result, anti-religious values and principles are coming to dominate the academic, news media and judicial class in America,” he said in Washington.

Gingrich lashed out against the “secular pressures” that have led scientific publications to replace Anno Domini (A.D.) with the Common Era (C.E.), banned school prayer and struck out “one nation under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Aaaanndddd the problem is what exactly? Sounds fabulous to me!

Religious paranoia that they’re losing the battle: a sure sign the secular movement is doing something right.