I guess it’s that time of year — the Freethought Festival is taking place in Madison this weekend. Go!
Third Annual Freethought Fest To Draw Crowd This Weekend
The UW-Madison student organization Atheists, Humanists, and Agnostics is holding their third annual Freethought Festival this weekend, set to take place at two venues in Madison, WI. The Freethought Festival is a free, student-run secular conference held annually in Madison, Wisconsin. Authors, bloggers, activists, and scientists from around the country come to speak on secular and scientific issues.
The event’s headliner is Dan Savage, the prominent gay rights and atheist who
founded the It Gets Better Project and creator of the “Savage Love” advice column and podcast.Freethought Fest will also include a debate between Dan Barker, the Co-President of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and Matt Slick, the President of Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry, on the subject “Does God Exist?”
“Freethought Festival will give the spotlight to many prominent atheists who are making positive differences in the world,” AHA President Sam Erickson said in a statement. “It will be exciting to be a part of that and hear all of the speakers share their experiences and perspectives.”
Along with Barker and Savage several atheist activists will speak, including comedian Jamie Kilstein, fellow Co-President of the Freedom From Religion Foundation Annie Laurie Gaylor, parenting expert and author Dale McGowan, three-time Emmy winner Jay Rosenstein, and blogger/author Hemant Mehta.
Freethought Fest is open to everybody, free to attend, and has a predicted attendance rate of approximately 1,100.
AHA is one of the largest atheist college groups in the world, and is proud to provide a safe space to nonreligious people on campus where they can express themselves and connect with other nonbelievers, while promoting the discussion of religion on the UW-Madison campus.
“We wanted to create an event that would enrich the UW Campus and inform as well as entertain members of the UW Community,” Erickson said.
The event is funded by AHA through an annual operations budget received from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. AHA is proud to put on an event that will draw a wide range of attendees from the UW community while promoting freethought, secularism, and skepticism.
For more information, please visit freethoughtfestival.org
I went the last couple of years and this Madison event is a blast. Can’t go for various reasons this year, but yes, the talks are always good, the energy is always high, and the people — are amazing. Plus, it’s in Madison, Wisconsin. Good places to eat, lots of places to hang out, and everyone mingles happily with everyone else.
I love to go to freethought conventions and talk shop.
I’d love to go, but I don’t get normal weekends like everyone else. I went to a local RPG convention two weeks ago and I had fight tooth and nail to get Saturday and Sunday off for that.
Much as I admire and approve of this kind of thing I must point out that it should really be unnecessary.
But the sad fact is that superstition is generally inculcated from birth. And is pervasive. How sad it is that
we have accomlished such astounding inellectual feats as the theories of evolution, quantum mechanics and plate tectonics, and still most people cling to make believe ?
I live in Madison now. I could theoretically attend this as I’m not scheduled for work this Saturday…but am afraid of doing Slick serious physical harm. Let’s just hope Barker studies well and kicks the shit out of Slick in public.
That fucker’s name is perfect, he sounds like a pool of filthy engine oil. :)
“And now, our special guest sleazy unctious plausible gangster defence-attorney apologist will explain why Jesus loves atheists and wants you all back. Please welcome…… Matt Slick!!”
Seriously?
What’s the freakin’ point? Does anyone expect anything illuminating or interesting to come out of this?
I don’t know. Maybe a discussion on which arguments for or against offer useful pursuits and which don’t could be interesting, but come on, is Matt Slick going to say anything that is going to be of interest to us? Is watching Barker jab a tar baby going to be uplifting?
Oh, I dunno. Maybe it’s just the mood I’m in but I snortled at reading this. Can’t we all picture exactly almost to the sentences how both sides of this debate is going to go? Oh well, maybe I’ll be surprised.