Bible quotes on rifle scopes and other interesting things

The Tulsa Atheist Meetup (TAM) met today at the Agora Coffee House starting at 1 pm.

Kenny began by telling us that the editorial staff at the Tulsa World loves to get letters from our membership. He encouraged us to continue writing, but to be sure to observe the 250-word limit on letters.

He also noted the earthquake in Haiti, and said that money would be donated to aid the victims at an upcoming meeting at Randy's. The meeting will be on February 12, Darwin Day. Donations most likely will be directed toward setting up a program for birth control. The island is dominated by Catholics and has not received much in the way of education regarding birth control.

Our ads on Cox Cable are now being handled by the Dallas office. Kenny plans to run more ads in the coming days.

He noted that the National Day of Reason will be coming up on the first Thursday in May -- same as the National Day of Prayer. Some kind of activity will be planned for that day.

Briefly mentioned was the issue of tax exemption for housing allowances provided to clergy. I received no tax exemption to help with my house payments. Are the clergy any more deserving than I?

One of our guests talked about the use of sign language; however, at that time I was moving around and missed his point. If anyone remembers the point he was making, I invite you to add a comment below.

Then the conversation moved to symbols in Christianity and Constantine. One person noted that people will do (unethical) things from religious motivation that they otherwise would never do.

The discussion then moved on the Cain and Abel. Once again, I ask for your help in recalling the details of this discussion.

What do you think of when you see the initials CFI: Certified Flight Instructor or Center For Inquiry?

Then there was some discussion of "coming out as an atheist." Some atheists who have not hidden their atheism have suffered repercussions; others have not.

Bill told about his effort to get authorization of a license plate with the words "In Reason We Trust" on them. Some state legislators assume such a plate is anti-religion. Such an assumption puts God on one side and reason on the others. Are God and reason mutually exclusive?

We currently have a billboard on the west bank of the Arkansas River with a message saying you can be good without God -- millions are. The billboard will most likely stay up until another group rents the space.

Mention was made regarding the infiltration of the U.S. military by fundamentalist Christians. That is where the phrase in the title of this post comes in: "Bible quotes on rifle scopes." I will need to Google that to see what that is about.

One attendee mentioned that there is a TED lecture by Robert Sapolsky on the motivation (of Muslims) for martyrdom. Someone else mentioned that Christian Sidehugs are becoming a problem (to Christians) to be dealt with.

The role of money in religion was talked about. Take away the money and the motivation is gone, said one member.

Finally, Kenny asked the group what they thought about the new structure of out meetings. No one objected, and a few voiced their approval. The structure which grew out of a meeting we had some months ago at the Promenade has been scraped in favor of allowing the new Organizer, Kenny, to run the meetup as he sees fit.

We had a great showing of atheists today, and we hope to see as many at the February meetup.