Freethought activities of this past week

Let me say from the outset that I had to miss most of the freethought activities of the past week. On Wednesday there was the monthly meeting of ALGAE at the White River Fish Market. I understand that there were five people there. I was at home busy working on an index.

Saturday morning Jan and I drove to Springfield to visit my parents. While we were away, there was a HAT Food & Fellowship gathering at a Mexican restaurant just north of downtown Tulsa. I heard there were about ten people at the F&F. Most of those at the F&F went to the open house at the new Tulsa Peace House following the meal.

We headed back to Tulsa Sunday morning and got back just in time for the Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous gathering at 2pm at Border's on 21st Street. There were six of us there. I read two selections from Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris. This book was just recently published.

It seems that (based upon our conversation today) many atheists in the Tulsa area are intimidated by the heavy Christian presence, so much so that they stay "in the closet" and do not let others know they are an atheist. If three percent of the population is atheist (as surveys indicate), then we have 12,000 atheists in the Tulsa area. We talked a bit about the stigma associated with the word "atheist." Some there expressed a desire to be more outspoken but admitted to being intimidated. We noted that some atheists are even afraid to use the word "atheist," preferring instead to use a euphemism. Many topics were discussed. I did not take notes. If anyone wants to append some remarks to this posting about what we talked about, please do.

The meeting lasted quite some time, about an hour and three-quarters. It seemed that we all did not want to leave each other's company this afternoon. The camaraderie was strong among this small band of atheists. At least I felt it to be that way. Before leaving and going our separate ways, we decided that for the meetup next month (October) we would go together to see a movie, perhaps an indie film at AMC20. After the movie is over we will go to the nearby Panera Bread for a meal and some conversation about the movie.