Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous

FreeOK coming July 30

2011-06-27T15:03:00.005-05:00

A meeting of the Tulsa Atheist Meetup was held in the Fontana Center at 1 pm, Sunday, June 26. There were about 40 people present for this meeting.

The meeting began with a showing of a fairly new promo we have been running on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqbitu-bV5o.

Then there was some conversation about the success of the equal marriage amendment in New York state. Someone suggested that we might ally ourselves with the gays, but someone else said that gays were not necessarily non-believers, and that, in fact, may gays have found refuge in certain churches. The LGBT community is supported by certain liberal churches.

Two gay women in attendance said that they were at the meeting today thanks to a book written by Carlton Pearson which had influenced their thinking on religion.

A man named Kevin (didn't get his last name) spoke as a representative of Camp Quest. He thanked our group for the financial support given to Camp Quest. The are now 11 such camps throughout the U.S. They are a secular version of Boy Scout camps.

A letter was ciurculated which had beewn received from the Eastern Oklahoma Food Bank thanking us for a donation of 603 lbs. of food. Many units of bood were donated the same day by atheists.

Will talked about signs of heat exhaustion since the group was going to picking up trash following the meeting in the area designated for the group by the state Adopt-A-Highway program.

Another short video was shown promoting FreeOK. FreeOK is the Oklahoma Freethought Convention which is schedule for July 30. You can view the video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DGOTvlEG2g.

Next, Bill Morgan, formerly on the faculty of ORU, spoke about Charity Water, a cause he works for. "Water changes lives," said Morgan. Bill D. said, in effect, any cause is a lost cause without population stabilization. See video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP51U_p-8jw.

TAM meeting 2.27.11

2011-02-27T23:30:00.002-06:00

This month’s Atheist Meetup was held on Sunday, February 27, 2011. There were approximately 30 people in attendance.

I was impressed by how well organized the meeting was and by the ability of William Poire to keep us focused on the agenda. A nice feature of today’s meeting was the addition of a printed program listing the upcoming events in March. Will listed himself “Interim President” in the program, but he did such a fine job, I wish he would consider taking the leadership for a longer period of time.

Have you found your niche yet in Tulsa Atheists? Do you see a need in the organization that you could fill? As the old Chinese proverb says, “Many hands make light work.”

One of the upcoming events will be “Secular Friends and Family” to be held this month at the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks. Admission for adults is $13.95. This event will be held on Sunday, March 13 at 1 PM. It is an opportunity for secular-minded people to get together and have a good time.

Of most immediate interest is the Roy Zimmerman performance scheduled for this coming Thursday evening at the Nightingale Theater, 1416 E. 4th St. That’s just two blocks east of Peoria. For a sampling of Zimmerman, watch this YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZmHC75FDqQ

February’s theme was Blacks in America; March’s theme will be women’s rights. Next month our speaker will be from the faculty of NSU and she will speak on women’s issues.

It was mentioned that two people are seeking to have the Pope investigated for crimes against humanity. How far they will get is still uncertain.

Bill brought up the perennial problem of children being indoctrinated into the religion of the parents. Mark mentioned that trying to take corrective action is frought with other problems, namely government interference in parental rights. The issue was bounced back and forth without any resolution.

The web site http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/ was mentioned as a source of assistance in creating additional advertisements. If you go there, be sure to check out the videos found there. They are some of the best I have seen.

Chris Proctor, who works with the astronomical observation post south of Mounds, attended today for the first time. He told of some of his experiences talking to church groups. Sometimes Chris will say something which does not square with the visitor’s religious views. To avoid getting sidetracked, Chris will steer them back to science and keep moving.

TAM meeting, 11-28-10

2010-11-28T23:02:00.003-06:00

There were about 20 people at today's TAM meeting. Kenny opened the floor for people to talk about their experiences with religious friends and neighbors around Thanksgiving. People were cautioned about exposing too much personal information about themselves on social networking sites.

Annie Laurie Gaylor will be in Tulsa around December 18 or 19. She will be at Randy's to accept an award for someone...we will need to designate that person soon. Earlier plans were to give an award to Mike Ritze (R-BA) in conjunction with the 10 Commandments monument on the state capitol grounds. But has the monument been placed yet? What is the hold up?

Bill mentioned pantheism and the World Pantheist Society. If everything is god, then nothing is god.

Bill Mahar will be coming to Tulsa soon. Mahar has done as much to promote atheism as anyone we could think of presently.

The Pope has been in the news with his relaxed stand on condom use. What a shocker! Now if he would only broaden his view to include all women, that would be real progress.

I missed the October meeting as I was recouperating from surgery, but it came as a surprise to me that Kenny was stepping down as organizer. He cited his job which takes him out of Tulsa frequently. The club has achieved a lot under his leadership. I am thinking specifically of the development of cable advertising and his organizing of the Free Tulsa Music Festival tabling effort. Kenny will still be a member of our group, just as I, the original organizer of the group, am still a member. Taking over for Kenny will be William Poire. William has been an assistant organizer for several months now. William spoke of the desire to set up some committees at the next meetup.

At the end of the meeting, a representative from the state Adopt-A-Highway program showed a video and answered questions about our participation in the program. The initial cleanup will happen soon. We are asked to clean up a section of Highway 169 from 21st Street to Admiral Blvd. (north side only). A sign crediting TAM for this effort will go up soon.

Second Day at Free Tulsa Music Festival

2010-07-31T20:52:00.002-05:00

Once again, I was at the Humanist booth at the Free Tulsa Music Festival today. I arrived shortly after 3 pm, and it was very hot at that time. At had been there half an hour when a young person came up to the table and started asking questions. Also at about the same time a second person came to the table and started talking with person number one.

Person number two was a like-minded freethinker. The two carried on a long conversation, each defending his side of the argument over the Bible, free will, evolution, church/state separation, and other related topics. I asked the young believer to look at www.skepticsannotatedbible.com when he got home. Can anyone view this site and still think that the Bible is the "word of God?"

Kenny once again provided food for those who worked the table. We had fixings for turkey sandwiches, cantaloupe, and watermelon.

It was a scorcher today, but fortunately we had a strong fan giving us a cooling breeze.

Kenny had my shirt ready which I had ordered from him. It is a baseball style jersey with a picture of the twin towers of the World Trade Center with the words "Imagine No Religion" superimposed upon the scene. Below that was the Tulsa Atheist logo.

At the Free Tulsa Music Festival

2010-07-30T23:33:00.001-05:00

From right to left: William Poire, Bill Dusenberry, and Bob Hooper.

TAM, 7-25-10

2010-07-25T19:54:00.002-05:00

It was close to 1 pm when Kenny called the meeting of the Tulsa Atheist Meetup to order. Kenny said he had purchased a canopy to be used at the Free Tulsa Music Festival next weekend to be held in the vicinity of Cain’s Ballroom. The portion due from HAT will be $66.67. A two-day ticket to attend the Festival will cost $15, but those working at the Festival get in free. Ticket price includes a t-shirt. Kenny said he would like to have more volunteers.

Our group will have a prime spot among the vendors. We will have two canopy tents. I assume the other tent will be that of HAT. If you intend to work the first part of either day, please be there at 2:30 pm.

The mid-month social gathering will be held at the Delta Café. A poll was taken to see how many people lived close to which Delta Café. The results were split almost evenly among the two locations. Check the TAM web site to find which location will be the one chosen.

Next Will spoke to the group. He is sponsoring the Atheist Hotline. He said our group now is on Facebook.

Nick Singer, president of Oklahoma Atheists, addressed our group. He said his group is made up mostly of young people who are activists. Plans for a gathering of both groups in Stroud could not be worked out, he said.

Next, Stan Young addressed the group. He spoke about a book titled Three Lives of a Warrior written by Phil Butler. He also referred to a Dana French, whose name I Googled. There were several people by this name, so if Mr. Young would like to include something about Mr. French, I invite Mr. Young to add it by attaching a comment to this blog entry.

Next, Bill Dusenberry spoke to the group. Bill spoke on the Boy Scouts issue and the hospitals issue. He mentioned that around September 1 a billboard will be erected calling attention to the fact that Oklahoma at one time had an atheist representing us in the U.S. Senate. He mentioned that Freethought Radio is available at AM 540. Dan Barker or Anne Laurie Gaylor will be making a trip to Tulsa in conjunction with a billboard to be erected at approximately 14th and the BA Expy. Plans are in the works to bring Rob Boston to Tulsa.

There was some discussion of 12-step recovery programs, the Secular Organization for Sobriety, and Alcoholics Anonymous. Three videos or books were cited by advocates within our group: Decoding the Language of God, Veiled Atrocities, and Why We Fight.

There was some discussion of our library and the absence of our librarian.

These are the highlights that caught my attention. As always, you are welcome to add your own comments by using the comment feature below

Street Tabling: A Learning Tool

2010-07-05T20:50:00.008-05:00

[The following article is taken from the July/August 2010 newsletter of the New York City Atheists.]

I recommend, for those who want to strengthen their confidence and skills in dealing with the public, that they consider joining our [New York City] street tabling group on Saturdays. In good weather, we pitch our tent at Columbus Circle, hang up our banners, set out our chairs and prepare to meet the public. It is only recently that I realized that street tabling is probably the most valuable tool we have in learning how to deal with, and communicate to, the non-Atheist community. You can get experience in telling people that you are an Atheist and why; you can rehearse your responses while answering the questions of the people who approach our table. Oddly enough, we get many new members via our street tabling, which shows me that some of our regular tablers have gotten quite proficient. In any case, tabling is a good first step before dealing with your parents or work colleagues. Street tabling is, indeed, a mini-classroom for people who want to build up their confidence, communication skills or interpersonal skills. It makes you aware of what people are interested in learning about Atheists, what reservations they have and how they perceive Atheists.

Street tabling can prepare you for participating in panels, organizing events or volunteering for political candidates who respect our goals.

And truth be told, street tabling is an easy way to “come out.” You are out there with a group of Atheist friends, chatting it up and having fun. You are telling non-Atheists, if they ask, why you are an Atheist and the wonderful delusion-free, selfdetermined Atheist way of life. You are actually out as an Atheist. Free at last.

So come join us on good-weather Saturdays, wear your Atheist tee shirt or cap, think about Harvey Milk and begin your life-long journey toward building a better society based on reality.

Meeting: Sunday, June 27, 2010

2010-06-27T20:07:00.008-05:00

The meeting began with Kenny asking us to go around the circle and introduce ourselves and say a little bit about why we had come today. There were a few first-time attendees and several of the old regulars. In all there were 20 people present.

We have two students from Tulsa University who have plans to form a debate team. Anyone else desiring to work with Will and Hilary on this project should contact one of the above mentioned individuals. You can find their contact information on the meetup site.

Once everyone had the opportunity to speak, the subject of threats of physical violence to atheists came up. Jim Smith (not his real name) said that you can find anything in the scriptures you wish in order to justify any position you may have.

Bill D. explained that the Coalition of Reason is made up of the three principal freethought organizations in the Tulsa area. He explained the role of each of these organizations.

Bill mentioned having met Rob Boston at a recent meeting of the AHA. If we can raise the money to cover his airfare, we can have a visit from Mr. Boston. Bill also mentioned the two letter writing campaigns we currently have in progress: Letters to former President Carter urging him to resign his position with the Scouts due to its discriminatory practices. "Gays, atheists, and the disabled are all excluded, retailited against and shunned by the organization [Boy Scouts of America]," according to Margaret Downey. The other letter writing campaign is directed toward state legislators. This letter asks them to enact legislation prohibiting hospitals from failing to use their full resources to save the life of a pregnant woman.

Kenny next displayed some products he is selling to raise funds for TAM. One item is a baseball cap with horns coming through the top.

Kenny noted that the Free Tulsa Music Festival will be held on July 30 and 31. He said TAM would have a table at the event with literature to give out and products to sell.

Bill noted that FFRF Tulsa hopes to sponsor a billboard around Christmas, if enough money can be raised by that time to pay for it.

Jim Smith said he would like to see an anti-hell house around Halloween. William said he is willing to pay for an Atheist Hotline phone line for our group.

The Catholic Church is willing to enter into debate with atheists, so long as no well-known atheists are involved.

June 2010 Calendar of Activities for Freethinkers

2010-06-01T16:49:00.002-05:00

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Sat., June 5, 7:00 pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 5607 E. 54th St.

Sun., June 6, 11:00 am
Humanist Sunday at Church of the Restoration, 1314 N. Greenwood.

Wed., June 16, 11:20 am
ALGAE luncheon, White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan.

Sat., June 19, 2 pm
HAT Chapter Meeting at Genealogy Center, 2901 S. Harvard.

Sat., June 26, 11:30 am
Food & Fellowship at Chopsticks, 6193 E. 61st.

Sun., June 27, 1 pm
Tulsa Atheists Meetup, at Agora Coffee House in Fontana Center.

If an Atheists Mid-Month Social is scheduled, I will notify the list of the day and time.

Questions? Call Randy (622-6975) or Dan (798-3629)

Freethought Calendar for May

2010-05-01T14:54:00.001-05:00

May 2010 Calendar of Activities for Freethinkers

Sat., May 1, 7:00 pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 5607 E. 54th St. showing of a film will follow playing of “Castle House Rag” by our piano duo, Gail and Dan.

Sun., May 2, 2:00 pm
HAT Planning Session, at Herb’s house, 3414 E. 85th Pl.

Wed., May 12, 7:00 pm
Tulsa Atheists Mid-Month Social, Campus Grill, 3148 E. 11th St.

Sat., May 15, 2 pm
HAT Chapter Meeting at Genealogy Center, 2901 S. Harvard.

Wed., May 19, 11:20 am
ALGAE, White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan Rd.

Thurs., May 20, noon
Contest deadline for “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day.” Mail your drawing to HAT, P. O. Box 571127, Tulsa, OK 74157. Winners will be recognized at Food and Fellowship gathering.

Sat., May 22, 11:30 am
Food & Fellowship at La Hacienda, 4518 S. Peoria.

Sun., May 23, 1 pm
Tulsa Atheists Meetup, at Agora Coffee House in Fontana Center

There is a possibility a meeting will be held (in the first full week of May) at Bill Dusenberry’s to discuss action to be taken in regard to “Everybody Draw Muhammad Day,” May 20.

Due to low attendance, Secular Singers is suspended for the summer. We will resume in September, provided there is sufficient interest.

Questions? Call Randy (622-6975) or Dan (798-3629)

The meetup on 4.25.10

2010-04-27T16:27:00.011-05:00

One of the first matters of discussion at this TAM was about a recent incident involving Comedy Central and censorship, or more accurately, self-censorship. Part of the script for an episode related to the "prophet" Muhammed was not aired on South Park. The speech had to do with "fear and intimidation."

A radical Muslim group called Revolution Muslim dropped a strong hint that the two producers for the TV program could meet the same fate as murdered Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh. This led Comedy Central to alter (self-censor) their programming.

Disturbed by this chain of events, a cartoonist from Seattle, Molly Norris, declared May 20 to be "Everybody Draw Muhammed Day." What will the frethought community in this area do? Will we cower in silence? Or we will not let our freedom of expression be intimidated? More on this later.

Hilary noted that FFRF has an online petition which you can sign by going to: http://ffrf.org/legal/national-day-of-prayer-victory/stop-the-national-day-of-prayer-petition/

A movie, The Book of Eli, was mentioned as one which freethinkers would enjoy.

Bill mentioned and recommended that we read an article in Tulsa World titled "Let's Move Learning Online." bill said public education is on the way out. Learning online is effective, cheaper, you go at your own pace, and there are no transportation issues involved.

William Poire announced that the blood drive which we were going to participation had been canceled due to the requirement that we come up with a large amount of money to stage the event.

Hilary said that on the TU campus there is building a move to establish a chapter of the Secular Student Alliance. The chapter would have as its goals: education, service, activism, and community.

Someone mentioned that there is a YouTube video (a spoof?) about an atheist going door to door trying to convert people to atheism.

Bill raised the question about whether AA receives any federal funding, but no one knew the answer.

Bill raised the question about who has the authority to perform marriages. He would like to see someone from TAM be in the position of performing ceremonies at major rites of passage in our lives.

I would urge you to click on "Post a comment" below and help by adding to what you recall from this meeting. I have just touched on some of the highlights that I recall.

Campus Grill is setting for TAM social

2010-02-11T23:33:00.002-06:00

Here we are all gathered at the Campus Grill. I am behind the camera taking the picture. It was so good seeing young people at this gathering of atheists. Conversation ranged from the plasticity of the human brain to the virtues of veganism. And that was just in the mid-section of this gathering. The outer sections had their own conversation going.

Bible quotes on rifle scopes and other interesting things

2010-01-24T22:42:00.002-06:00

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.

Atheists Meetup this Sunday (6/28/09)

2009-06-25T11:14:00.000-05:00

I thought I should post something here about the upcoming Atheists Meetup which will be held this Sunday afternoon (6/28/09) starting at 1 pm at the Agora Coffee House in the Fontana Center. The coffee house is just northeast of the fountain, located in the center of the complex. Look for our banner.

We will be having a guest speaker, Leah Farish, a lawyer whose speciality is defending religious minorities.

Normally the coffee housae is closed on Sundays, but Lori is opening up just for us. You can show your appreciation by buying a beverage or snack.

June 21 HAT meeting is canceled

2009-06-19T08:17:00.005-05:00

The meeting of the Humanist Assn. of Tulsa scheduled for June 21 at Hardesty Library is now canceled. Instead of the HAT meeting, there will be a Summer Solstice celebration at Randy's house (6705 E. 54th) on June 20, starting at 5 pm. For more information contact Randy at 622-6975.

Working toward "In Reason We Trust" plates

2009-04-27T12:44:00.017-05:00

Following the discussion we had at yesterday's Tulsa Atheists Meetup, I am setting up this page to monitor our progress toward achieving the goal of making it possible for those who wish to obtain state automobile license plates with the words "In Reason We Trust" printed on them, can do so.

Bill D. has communicated with his state senator, Mike Mazzei, and learned that we would need 500 people who are interested in obtaining such a plate in order for the plates to be printed. (Why 500 instead of the normal 200 is a matter that will need looking into later.) Such plates would carry an additional yearly charge of $15 to what you normally pay for the plates.

Our next step in this process is to show that there is interest in obtaining "In Reason We Trust" plates. All who would like to see such plates are encouraged to write to your state representative and/or senator to let him or her know of your interest. Once you have mailed your letter, please e-mail me with that information. I will post that information in the record below.

Writer______________Recepient(s)_______________Date
Dusenberry...................Mazzei....................................3-19-09
Hooper.......................Unknown...................................Unknown

March Calendar

2009-02-28T20:37:00.007-06:00

March 2009
Activities of Interest to Freethinkers

Fri., Mar. 6, 1:00pm
Dawkins Expedition to OU. Leave from the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St.

Sun., Mar. 8, 1:00 pm
Humanist Study Group at Randy’s, 6705 E. 54th.

Tues., Mar. 10, 7:00 pm
Liberal Action Network at Zarrow Library.

Sat., Mar. 14, 2:00 pm
Secular Singers at Gail’s house, 4630 S. Victor.

Sun., Mar. 15, 1:00 pm
Humanist Meeting at Hardesty Library. Brian Hill will show a 45-minute DVD of the actual Frost/Nixon dialogue.

Wed. Mar. 18, 12:30 pm
ALGAE at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan.

Wed., Mar. 18, 7:00 pm
Atheists Meetup Mid-Month Social Gathering. Venue: The Local Table, 4329 S. Peoria.

Sun., Mar. 22, 1:00 pm
Tulsa Atheists Meetup at Agora Coffee House, Fontana Center.

Sat., Mar. 28, 11:30 am
HAT Food & Fellowship at Te Kei’s, 1616 S. Utica.

Sat., Mar. 28, 2:00 pm
FFRF Tulsa, Brookside Library

Questions? Call Randy at 622-6975 or Dan at 798-3629.

January 2009 Calendar

2009-01-01T21:39:00.002-06:00

January 2009
Activities of Interest to Freethinkers

Sat., Jan. 3, 7:00pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St. Movie selection: TBA

Sat., Jan. 10, 2:00 pm
Secular Singers at Gail’s house, 4630 S. Victor

Sun., Jan 11, 1:00 pm
Humanist Study Group at Randy’s, 6705 E. 54th

Tues., Jan. 13, 7:00 pm
Liberal Action Network at Zarrow Library.

Wed., Jan. 14, 7:00 pm
Atheists Meetup Mid-Month Social Gathering. Venue: La Hacienda, 4518 S. Peoria

Sun., Jan 18, 1:00 pm
Humanist Meeting at Hardesty Library. Program by Marilyn Clarke.

Sat., Jan. 24, 11:30 am
Food & Fellowship at La Hacienda, 4518 S. Peoria

Sun., Jan. 25, 1:00 pm
Tulsa Atheists Meetup at Agora Coffee House, Fontana Center.

Questions? Call Randy at 622-6975 or Dan at 798-3629.

FFRF affiliation

2008-12-30T10:08:00.009-06:00

I am keeping a list of those in this area who are members of FFRF (Freedom From Religion Foundation). When we reach ten members, we will seek affiliation.

(1) David Broome
(2) Beth Cox
(3) Bill Dusenberry
(4) Larry Hicks
(5) Brian Hill
(6) Bob Hooper
(7) Jean McMahon
(8) Dan Nerren
(9) Bob Noble
(10) Huti Reynolds
(11) Barbara Santee
(12) Karl Sniderman
(13) Sonia Sniderman
(14) C Henry Mills
(15) Anne Steiner
(16) Frank Campbell
(17) Janice Alexander
(18) Jack Alexander
(19) Jackie Martin
(20) Glenn Visher
(21) Marilyn Clarke
(22) Dawn Bradley
(23) Randy Bradley
(24) Kenny Nipp
(25) Ray Faltysek
(26) Joe Running

Tulsa Atheists Meetup 11-23-08

2008-11-24T23:19:00.000-06:00

December for most people is a busy time of year. Therefore, we will have a reduced calendar for that month. However, since we only have two monthly events sponsored by TAM, those two events will be on the calendar. You will notice HAT events are few for December. The December freethought calendar will be sent out in about a week.

Yesterday, Sunday, November 23, the Tulsa Atheists Meetup was held. About 14 people were present. It was a good, harmonious gathering. We had three first-time attendees, and they entered the discussion and were enthusiastic about our existence. The youngest was a 22-year old young lady. Another lady who lives in Wagoner made arrangements to car pool with Bob H. The other first-timer was a young man.

The topic for discussion was: What I do believe. We are all aware of what we do not believe – namely, the existence of a god. But, yesterday we had the opportunity to talk about what we do believe. I spoke about and read the statement written by Paul Kurtz called “The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles.” Next, Bill D. got up and spoke extemporaneously about events in his past and where he is today vis-à-vis religion. For parents to indoctrinate their children in their religious ways is a form of child abuse, he said. Bill has put together a questionnaire to stimulate thinking about religious questions. I will be sending this out to those on this list in a few days. Finally, Marilyn got up and spoke on the role of parenting (parents being magical, godlike figures from our childhood who anticipate and meet our needs) in forming beliefs about religion. After almost two hours of talk, we went outside and stood around talking for about a half hour.

Following the meeting, Bob N., our treasurer, gave me a check for $72, a reimbursement for six months of connection with Meetup.com. He also had a check for $77 and two letters of apology for Abbie S. who spoke to our group earlier this year. One was from Kenny N. and the other was from the leadership of TAM.

November Freethought Schedule

2008-11-02T19:50:00.001-06:00

November 2008
Activities of Interest to Freethinkers

Sat., Nov. 1, 7:00pm Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St.
Movie selection: TBA

Sat., Nov. 8, 2:00 pm Secular Singers, meet at Gail’s house, 4630 S. Victor Ave.

Sun., Nov. 9, 1:00pm Humanist Study Group at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th. We will listen to and discuss a Point of Inquiry podcast.

Tues., Nov. 11, 7:00 pm Liberal Action Network at Agora Coffee House, Fontana Center.

Sat., Nov. 15, 7:00 pm Atheists Meetup Mid-Month Social Gathering. Venue TBA

Sun., Nov. 16, 1:00pm HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at Hardesty Library, 93rd and Memorial. Brain Hill will review the book Camelot and the Cultural Revolution: How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism by James Piereson.

Sat., Nov. 22, 11:30am Food & Fellowship at The Rib Crib, 6902 S. Lewis.

Sun., Nov. 23, 1:00pm Atheists Meetup at Agora Coffee House, Fontana Center.

Questions? Call Randy at 622-6975 or Dan at 798-3629.

Mid-Month Social, 10-15-08

2008-10-16T10:23:00.002-05:00

There were seven people at the Mid-Month Social last night: Bob and Susan, Karl and Sonia, Bob Hooper, David Harrington, and myself. We all sat in a cozy circular booth, off to one end of the restaurant. We talked about the current state of affairs in TAM, including the transfer of funds from Kenny to myself (on Oct. 12), the opening of a free small business checking account at Bank of Oklahoma (on Oct. 13), and plans for stricter accounting of money. In the future all donors will receive a receipt for donations. Records will be kept of all money received and all expenditures.

We lamented the fact that our message board has been used by “trolls,” and Bob asked me to check with Meetup.com to see if anything can be done to gain tighter control over the message board.

October 2008 Activities of Interest to Freethinkers

2008-10-01T16:38:00.002-05:00

Fri., Oct 3, 7:00 am T
The Breakfast Club with Kimberly Burdick will hold its inaugural meeting on this date. The primary purpose for this Atheists Meetup is to provide an opportunity for those whose work schedule keeps them from meeting with us at other times to be a part of our group.

Fri., Oct. 3, 7:30 pm
Group viewing of “Religulous” at Circle Cinema. Will go out for food following the movie.

Sat., Oct. 4, 7:00pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St. Movie selection: Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections. This documentary shows how election fraud changed the outcome of the 2004 election and led to even greater fraud in 2006. The documentary reveals how easy it is to change election outcomes and undermine election integrity across the U.S. Running time: 80 minutes.

Sun., Oct. 5, 2:30 pm
OCCJ March. Join the 2-mile march which starts at 322 N. Greenwood. Enjoy barbecue afterwards.

Sat., Oct. 11, 2:00 pm
Secular Singers, meet at Dan’s house, 4925 Spruce, Sand Springs

Sun., Oct. 12, 1:00pm
Humanist Study Group at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th. We will listen to and discuss a Point of Inquiry podcast.

Tues., Oct. 14, 7:00 pm
Liberal Action Network at Agora Coffee House, Fontana Center.

Wed., Oct. 15, 12:30 am
ALGAE luncheon at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan. This is the final weekday luncheon of the year. Note the new time.

Wed., Oct. 15, 7:00 pm
Atheists Meetup Mid-Month Social Gathering. Venue TBA

Sun., Oct. 19, 1:00pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at Hardesty Library, 93rd and Memorial. Brain Hill will review the book Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter

Sat., Oct. 25, 11:30am
Food & Fellowship at Lanna Thai, 7227 S. Memorial.

Sun., Oct. 26, 1:00pm
Atheists Meetup at Agora Coffee House, Fontana Center.

Questions? Call Randy at 622-6975 or Dan at 798-3629.

TAM 9.28.08

2008-09-28T19:30:00.004-05:00

There are people who would like to meet with us, but due to circumstances beyond our control, they are not able to join with us on the two dates we get together each month. As an experiment, Kim will be hosting meetings in the morning at a coffee shop or McDonald's or some other venue. These meetings will start at approximately 7:00 am, but you may drop by anytime up to 9:00 am. You may stay for 30 minutes, 15 minutes, or however long you wish.

Rayven volunteered (or maybe was drafted) to investigate venues to hold fun nights for our group. Such a gathering would give our group four times in the month when we could get together.

Kenny announced that we might have to move. Laury plans to sell the shop and move elsewhere. We have no way at this time of knowing what the new owner(s) might do about our using the shop on Sundays, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for a green light.

Bill suggested that we might want to contact the faculty at TCC and OSU-Tulsa to let them be aware of our presence in the community. If one of the faculty is asked about freethought organizations in the community, they might possibly refer the student to us.

We passed a sack around for people to make contributions to support our connection to Meetup.com. We have to pay $72.00 for each six months. Prior to today I had on hand $59.10. Today's collection came to $82.00, bringing our total to $141.10.

Today we had a guest speaker, virologist Abbie Smith from OU. Abbie spoke extemporaneously for about an hour. Then she fielded questions from the 22 members present.

TAM 8.24.08

2008-08-24T21:09:00.002-05:00

Kenny said at the start of the meetup that he had nothing in particular to talk about in these “dog days of August,” but talk we did. Two and a quarter hours later we dispersed.

One topic Kenny raised was security, or more specifically, our plans for security. While we do not wish to discourage newcomers from attending, we also do not wish to open ourselves up to “debates” with believers. Debating believers is not our purpose for the meetups. They would serve only to sidetrack us as we make plans for action. In the future I will restrict the meetup announcements to people who have signed up for Atheists Meetup. Other security measures will be added, but they cannot be discussed on this public message board.

Bill D. attended a meeting of the Tulsa Press Club. He spoke with an official from the Union School District and found they had much in common. Bill attended as a representative of the (soon to be) Tulsa Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, yet to be officially chartered. Bill has agreed to be Vice-president of the chapter. Ron has agreed to be Treasurer. Karl agreed to serve as President. Where are you Karl Sniderman? Busy crafting letters to newspapers? On vacation? Until we hear from Karl, the Tulsa AU chapter is on hold.

Bill also mentioned an item in today’s paper (see bottom of page G6) about a state senator from Nebraska. Bill said we should send him a note of encouragement. The man is an atheist and a state senator.

There was a bit of discussion regarding a dispute between the Rational Response Squad and the NYC Atheists.

Next month our guest speaker will be Abigail Smith, a graduate student at OU.

Kenny would like to look into the possibility of underwriting a program on NPR. He phoned the station and was told someone would be getting back with him on this matter, but as yet, no one has.

KENNY NIPP ASKED THAT WE EACH PHONE KWGS (PHONE, 631-2577) AND ASK THAT SOMEONE TALK TO KENNY.

Marilyn noted that Justin McKean, a member of our group, will be leading a workshop on “Reading Shakespeare Aloud,” starting Thursday, September 18, at Central Library. Unless I am mistaken, it continues for six consecutive Thursday nights. Correct me if I am wrong about this, Marilyn. It is to culminate with a “Recital of Shakespeare.”

We have a two-part question to open our next meetup with: (1) What is your definition of atheism; and, (2) What do you believe in? I can see this as being time-consuming; therefore, we might have to spread it over two or three meetups? I would estimate that I will need a good half-hour, myself.

At the end of the meetup a collection was taken to defray the expense of the next six-month affiliation with meetup.com which will cost $72. I received $55, which when added to the $4.10 on hand brought our total up to $59.10.

August 2008 Activities of Interest To Freethinkers

2008-08-01T12:55:00.001-05:00

Sat., August 2, 7:00pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St. Gail and Dan will perform duets at the piano by Wohlfarht and Mozart. Feature presentation to be decided that evening.

Sat., August 9, 2:00pm
Secular Singers at home of Gail Storey, 4630 S. Victor Ave. There will be a whole lot of hootin’ and hollarin’ going on. All welcome.

Sun., August 10, 1:00pm
Humanist Study Group at Randy’s, 6705 E. 54th St. Topic: TBA

Sun., August 17, 1:00pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at Hardesty Library, 93rd and Memorial. Yes, we are still meeting at Hardesty. Brian Hill will be showing selections from the PBS special “The Question of God.”

Sat., August 23, 11:30am
Food & Fellowship at Helen of Troy, 6700 S. Lewis.

Sun., August 24, 1:00pm
Atheists Meetup at Agora Coffee House, Fontana Center.

Questions? Call Randy at 622-6975 or Dan at 798-3629.

Notes from Atheists Meetup 6/22/08

2008-06-23T12:19:00.001-05:00

Today's meetup was lengthy. We started shortly after 1 pm and wound up around 4 pm. The meeting was attended by 20 members.

We will be changing the starting time of the meetups to 1pm. Kenny talked some more about his effort to get a TV ad aired. He has put a lot of work into getting an ad on the air, and I appreciate all his efforts. We are still waiting on final approval.

Kenny recommended we go to a dues-paying structure for membership starting next year. If a person has to put up a little money, he is more likely to show up and be active. We have often been disappointed by people signing up and never showing up.

I learned that the audio portion of our ad has been playing on Freethought Radio. Also, Kenny has been contacted by Esquire magazine who is interested in doing a story on his efforts. Someone suggested we all get together to view the ad on July 3 (ad to air on July 4 after midnight). Laury offered to open up the Agora for our use.

HAT Meeting 1.20.08

2008-01-20T18:51:00.000-06:00

We had a very good turn out at today's HAT meeting with 19 present. Randy even pondered what we might do should our remarkable growth continue. Pictured here you see Marilyn Clarke who spoke about the article "Hot Air Gods" from a recent issue of Harper's magazine.

Randy read a poem by Thomas Hardy entitled "The Dance Continued", and I read "An Overdue Visit from Old St. Nick" which appeared in the December issue of The Oklahoma Observer.

I mentioned the two remaining events of the month: the Food & Fellowship gathering at The Local Table on Saturday, January 26, and the Atheists Meetup on Sunday, January 27 at The Hideaway.

I mentioned that a calendar of our activities can be found at www.atheists.meetup.com/477/calendar. If you lose the monthly list of activities I send out by e-mail, you can always go to this calendar.

Randy asked the group if they had any objection to telling jokes as the program for the February HAT meeting. Most people were in favor of the idea, so come prepared with your favorite jokes next month.

Barbara mentioned that Stan had been in hospital, but he was expected to be discharged today. Howard just had his 90th birthday last Friday and is now under hospice care.

Marilyn related some personal experiences, including the influence of an uncle. We later learned that Richard had had a similar experience in his formative years. The subject of atheism versus agnosticism arose once again. The usual defenses for each position were voiced. Discussion was lively, ranging from national economic policy to where people get their concept of God. We continued on past our normal ending time of 3 pm. Randy checked to make sure no one was outside waiting to use the room.

This was our first membership meeting of 2008, and, being the treasurer, I was in a dues collecting frame of mind. By the end of the meeting I had collected $72 in membership dues.

Tulsa Atheists Meetup

2008-01-20T07:37:00.000-06:00

Click here to check out
The Tulsa Atheists Meetup Group!

January 2008 Calendar

2007-12-30T10:25:00.000-06:00

January 2008
Activities of Interest to Freethinkers

Sat., Jan. 5, 7:00pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St.

Sat., Jan. 12, 2:00pm
Secular Singers at Gail Storey’s house, 4630 S. Victor Ave.

Sun., Jan. 13, 1:00pm
Humanist Study Group at Randy’s, 6705 E. 54th St. Topic: “A Brief History of Disbelief” DVD

Wed., Jan. 16, 6:30pm
Atheists Meetup Social at The Hideaway restaurant, 1419 E. 15th St.

Sun., Jan. 20, 1:00pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at Hardesty Library, 93rd and Memorial. Speaker: Marilyn Clarke on “Hot Air Gods”

Sat., Jan. 26, 11:30am
Food & Fellowship at The Local Table, 46th and Peoria.

Sun., Jan. 27, 2:00pm
Atheists Meetup at The Hideaway Restaurant, 1419 E. 15th St.

Questions? Call Randy at 622-6975 or Dan at 798-3629.

TAM for November 2007

2007-11-25T18:57:00.000-06:00

Thirteen people showed up for the Tulsa Atheists Meetup this afternoon at The Hideaway Pizza restaurant. Kenny Nipp, our agent provocateur, had been to New York City where he attended a meeting of the NYC Atheists Meetup. Ken Bronstein had given Kenny some newsletters and 2008 Atheist calendars for distribution among our membership. The calendar proved to be so popular that two or three of the wait staff at the restaurant asking about the calendars each gave a five dollar donation in return for a calendar. Anyone attending the meetup was able to get a calendar for free. When hung, the calendar measures a foot wide by two feet long. At the top half is a portrait of a famous atheist, and the grid for the month is on the bottom half. Kenny is going to contact Ken Bronstein of the NYC Atheists Meetup and see if he can get more of these popular calendars.

Donations were good today. With only 13 of us there, we raised $44. Given that we had $34.10 on hand, we now have $78.10. I can now retire the begging bowl until April of next year. Twenty additional dollars were raised toward a tabling project. Anyone aware of an upcoming event where our group might set up a table and distribute literature about our group is asked to contact Kenny or myself.

Next, I read a satirical piece written by Woody Allen pertaining to the alleged attempt by Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac. General conversation followed as the wait staff brought our orders into the room.

Kenny has located someone who does silkscreening for a reasonable price. Is there anybody in our group with artistic ability? If that is you, please contact Kenny or myself.

Letter from Larry Forrest

2006-12-01T15:57:00.000-06:00

I'm appalled that some wingnuts, most notably Dennis Prager, are kicking up a fuss over the desire of US Rep.-elect Keith Ellison, D-Minn., to take his oath of office with the Koran rather than the Bible.

This is outrageous! We always hear about how conservatives revere the "original intent" of the writers of our Constitution; well, here's what they had to say about the oath for legislative office:

"Article VI, Section 3: The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support this Constitution; but NO RELIGIOUS TEST SHALL EVER BE REQUIRED AS A QUALIFICATION TO ANY OFFICE OR PUBLIC TRUST UNDER THE UNITED STATES."

Emphasis mine. How much clearer can it be? Prager is a religious bigot, pure and simple. I no more believe in the Koran than I do in the Bible, but I support the concept of religious freedom, which means that if Ellison wants to swear an oath on the Koran, so be it.

Furthermore, the President of the United States is required to take the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." (Article II, Section 7.) Please note that there's no requirement to say "So help me God" at the end. I believe George Washington was the first to append that remark to the oath, and other presidents have followed suit. But there is no Constitutional requirement that a president say it.

Click here: The Blog Taylor Marsh: That Uppity Democratic Muslim! The Huffington Post

I hope everyone will write to their US Representatives and Senators and protest this. NO RELIGIOUS TEST SHALL EVER BE REQUIRED!

Larry Forrest

December Freethought Activities

2006-12-01T11:49:00.000-06:00

December 2006
Activities of Interest to Freethinkers

Sat., Dec. 2, 7:00pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St. Feature presentation to be chosen that night.

Sat., Dec. 9, 5pm to 7pm
Secular Singers at the Bradleys. All are welcome. Rehearsal for our annual HumanLight celebration. See www.humanlight.org. The revised program has been posted on the HAT blog.

Sun., Dec. 10, 1:00pm
Humanist Study Group at Hardesty Library, on 93rd near Memorial. Topic: Humanism and the science of happiness. Read the article at http://www.secularhumanism.org/index.php?section=library&page=bupp_26_6&back=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.secularhumanism.org%2Flib%2Flist.php%3Fpublication%3Dfi

Wed., Dec. 13, 11:20am
ALGAE (A Little Group of Atheists Eating), luncheon at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan.

Sat., Dec. 16, 1:00pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at the Bradleys. Business: Election of officers for 2007 and participation in Food Bank volunteer program. Program: Musical entertainment by The Secular Singers and the reading of a humorous play selected by Marilyn Clarke. This event will double as our December F&F.

Sun., Dec. 17, 2pm
Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous/Tulsa Atheist Meetup We will meet at Border’s Bookstore on 21st St. near BA Expy on the second floor near the computer books. Additional details will be posted later at http://atheists.meetup.com/477 and www.tulsaar.blogspot.com.

Questions? Call Dan at 798-3629

Phil Paulson Obituary

2006-11-17T09:37:00.000-06:00

For years I was on Phil Paulson's e-mail list. I found the following obituary and thought it would be appropriate to post it here. --Dan
***********

Those of you who attended the FFRF Convention in San Francisco October 6-7 heard a cheerful (though dying) Phil Paulson give a rousing speech. Here is his obituary.

The Despised Hero

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20061027/news_lz1e27taylor.html

By Keith TaylorOctober 27, 2006
When Phil Paulson died Wednesday, San Diego lost one of her greatest heroes. It also lost her most despised citizen. Paulson was a man who didn't believe in God. Neither did more others than will admit to it. Paulson admitted it and stood up for all of us whether we came out of the closet with our secret or not.
We atheists aren't popular in this country. The constitutions of seven states – Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas and Tennessee – prohibit us from holding any statewide office. Of course it's unconstitutional, but it's there, perhaps as a reminder of our place in the hearts of our countrymen.
Not that we are unaware of what they think of it. The Boy Scouts took a case to the California Supreme Court to ban us. The president of the United States is the Scouts' honorary commander. Ask yourself if he would accept that honor if they excluded Episcopalians? Or Jews? Or Presbyterians? Or anybody who simply had one less god than most of the rest of us?
Paulson was aware of all that in 1989 when he filed suit against the city of San Diego to remove the cross from atop Mount Soledad on property owned by the city. He won, but the case was appealed time and again, and Paulson prevailed every time. Now it is probably headed for the U.S. Supreme Court, again.
Through it all Paulson has been assailed from all sides. He was the favorite whipping boy of radio talk-show hosts. Various media stated “atheist Phil Paulson” so many times that he claimed “atheist” was his first name. But he joked they should have at least given him a capital “A.” His humor helped him through a lot of malicious slander.
Of course Paulson had lots of practice at facing down dogma. When he was a child, he asked one question too many in his Lutheran catechism class. “If God created us, who created God?” That's been a question of philosophers and theologians for centuries, but this time it came from a child! The pastor of his parish dragged him from the classroom by the ear. He then called his mom who further punished him and made him pray on his knees every night for forgiveness and enlightenment for two weeks.
He volunteered to take his brother's place in the draft during the Vietnam War. In Vietnam, he served for some 16 months, taking part in some of the bloodiest battles of the war.
Despite being in almost constant danger, he refused to admit to a belief in what he considered irrational. A chaplain told him to go to church. He refused. The chaplain went to the battalion commander, and soon Paulson's sergeant ordered him to go to church.
Freedom of religion didn't include freedom from religion in Company C, 1st Battalion of the 173 Airborne Brigade. But it does to a group based in Wisconsin, Paulson's home state. Two weeks ago, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, at its annual convention in San Francisco, gave Paulson its first “Atheist in a Foxhole” award. He attended although he was barely able to travel.
Paulson was dying. He and I started work on his autobiography last summer. We barely got going when he called with terrible news. A cancer he thought he had whipped a year earlier had returned. The doctor at the Veterans Affairs hospital gave him four months, maybe a little more.
He opted for a little more so we could get his story down on paper. He commenced the chemotherapy that might kill the cancer cells along with much of his huge body.
He persevered with the book with the same dedication he had shown when fighting off an entire city. Still, it was a losing battle. Many days he just wasn't up to talking. On others he had things to do that people with a long time to live can put off.
We didn't get much of his life down on paper, but I will keep working on it. The world, believers and nonbelievers alike, should get to know and appreciate an American who stood up for what he felt was right.
I think I'll call the book Atheist Phil Paulson: An American Hero. It will be appropriate whether you believe in Paulson or not.
---

Taylor is a retired Navy officer and writer living in Chula Vista. He can be reached via e-mail at http://webmaila.juno.com/webmail/new/8?folder=Inbox&msgNum=00008IG0:0015HsZl000035jo&block=5&msgNature=all&msgStatus=all&amp;count=1163776906&content=central#.
***

2006-11-05T19:10:00.000-06:00

November 2006
Activities of Interest to Freethinkers

Sat., Nov. 4, 7:00pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St. Two piano duets (from the movies) by Gail & Dan. Feature presentation to be chosen that night.

Sat., Nov. 11, 5pm to 7pm
Secular Singers at the Bradleys. All are welcome. We will focus on getting ready for our annual HumanLight (www.humanlight.org) celebration coming in December to be held once again at the Bradleys. The program will soon be posted on the HAT blog.

Sun., Nov. 12, 1:00pm
Humanist Study Group at Hardesty Library, on 93rd near Memorial. Topic: Richard Dawkins and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. See http://www.salon.com/books/int/2006/10/13/dawkins/

Wed., Nov. 15, 11:20am
ALGAE (A Little Group of Atheists Eating), luncheon at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan.

Sun., Nov. 19, 1:00pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at Hardesty Regional Library. Business: Nominations for officers for 2007. Program: Brian Hill will review Barry Lynn’s new book Piety and Politics: The Right-Wing Assault on Religious Freedom.

Sat., Nov. 25, 11:30am
Food & Fellowship at TeKei’s Asian Restaurant at 1616 S. Utica.

Sun., Nov. 26, 2pm
Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous/Tulsa Atheist Meetup We will meet at Border’s Bookstore on 21st St. near BA Expy on the second floor near the computer books. Additional details will be posted later at http://atheists.meetup.com/477 and www.tulsaar.blogspot.com.

Field Trip to OKC
Plans are being made to caravan to OKC to view an exhibit at the Oklahoma City Art Museum, possibly on Nov. 18. Details to follow.

Questions? Call Dan at 798-3629

Richard Dawkins Foundation

2006-10-31T09:01:00.000-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTbdvy5jIQw

The link above explains the purpose of the Richard Dawkins Foundation.
The values of the Enlightenment are under attack by those who would have us abandon the scientific method as the best way of knowing the world, substituting in its place faith and the acceptance of claims of religious authorities. Those of us who hold dear the values of the Enlightenment and an evidence-based worldview might wish to give support to the Dawkins Foundation.

Join us at the movies

2006-10-19T10:49:00.000-05:00

The movie we will see is The Illusionist at the AMC 20. We will go to the 1:45 pm showing this Sunday, October 22. Buy your ticket and come inside. We will stand around near the ticket taker until it appears all in our group has arrived, and then we will go sit down. (I had hoped to select the documentary about the Dixie Chicks, Shut Up and Sing, but that film hasn't started yet.) The film runs a hour and 50 minutes. We should get out around 3:50 pm.

From there we will go to the nearby Panera Bread restaurant to munch on goodies and talk. The location is 41st St. and Hudson, which is just a little way southeast of the AMC 20.

If you are unable to attend the movie, please consider coming by Panera Bread around 4:00 pm and look for a group of "wild-eyed" folks. That will probably be us.

ALGAE luncheon report

2006-10-18T14:50:00.000-05:00

There were seven of us at the ALGAE luncheon today: Julia T., Sharon B., Patricia B. (Sharon’s daughter), Jan N., Diana B., Larry H. and myself.

Sharon has been kayaking. She owns two kayaks – a single seat kayak and a two-seater. Sharon had recently been to a weekend event billed as “Becoming an Outdoors Woman” at Ft. Gibson Lake which taught a variety of outdoors skills including rappelling, kayaking, geocaching, orienteering, and basketmaking. She went with HAT member Gail S. and both of these “outdoor women” had a great time. I heard a rumor that some of those at the event had smuggled in some wine. For shame, for shame. I hope that these two HAT ladies will be able to join us as we go on a HAT geocaching adventure in Tulsa on Sunday, October 29.

We talked a little about movies we had seen recently. I mentioned Man of the Year starring Robin Williams, which I had recently seen. I recommend it. Larry and Diana had recently seen The Little Prince – a theatrical production staged in Tulsa. Julia suggested that HAT get involved in a community service project of some kind. She is going to look into the possibilities and let us know what she finds out.

By the way, the movie we will see this coming Sunday at the Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous will be The Illusionist. More on this will be sent out by e-mail tomorrow.

I learned from Larry that there is a difference between driving under the influence and driving while impaired. Larry is going to send me more info by e-mail. I figure we need to know this since at times the wine flows freely at events we attend.

Larry mentioned two website of interest: www.greenstone.com and www.onegoodmove.com.

Other topics of discussion included sex offenders and their difficulty in finding a place to live, and traditional households now being in a minority position.

It was good to see everyone there. There were a few others I was hoping to see, but they weren’t there. Maybe next time.

October Activities Calendar

2006-09-29T10:52:00.000-05:00

October 2006
Activities of Interest to Freethinkers

Sun., Oct. 1, 5pm to 7pm
Secular Singers at the Bradleys. All are welcome. We will focus on getting ready for our annual Human Light celebration coming in December to be held once again at the Bradleys.

Sat., Oct. 7, 7pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St. Feature presentation: A Vision Shared: A Tribute to Woody Guthrie and Leadbelly. This documentary includes more than a dozen songs performed by Bruce Springsteen, Arlo Guthrie, Bono, Little Richard, Sweet Honey in the Rock and others. 72 minutes.

Sun., Oct. 8, 2pm
Humanist Study Group at Hardesty Library, on 93rd near Memorial. Topic: “The Evolutionary Psychology of Religion” by Steven Pinker from The Humanist magazine, Sept./Oct. 2006. Article to be provided by e-mail.

Sun., Oct. 15, 1pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at Hardesty Regional Library. Program: “Scientific Creationism” lecture (DVD) by Edward J. Larsen from “The Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy,” produced by The Great Courses.

Wed., Oct. 18, 11:20am
ALGAE (A Little Group of Atheists Eating), luncheon at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan.

Sun., Oct. 22, 2pm
Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous/Tulsa Atheist Meetup
Plans are to see a movie at about 2pm then eat afterwards and talk about the movie. Times and locations will be announced later. To be kept informed of what’s happening, go to http://atheists.meetup.com/477 or www.tulsaar.blogspot.com.

Sat., Oct. 28, 11:30am
Food & Fellowship at Thai-Siam, 6380 E. 31st.

Sun., Oct. 29, 2pm
Geocaching adventures with Randy and Dan. Learn about geocaching at www.geocaching.com. We will start at Randy’s, go caching, and eat pizza afterwards.

Questions? Call Dan at 798-3629

Freethought activities of this past week

2006-09-24T20:30:00.000-05:00

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.

Believing nonsense

2006-09-07T14:12:00.000-05:00

Mark Twain once said "Faith is believing what you know ain't so." The following piece is by Mark Pilkington and is from the May 27, 2004 issue of The Guardian. It gives some indication why so many people can so willingly swallow religious nonsense.

---------------------------

What would it take for you to distrust the evidence of your own eyes? Only seven other people, according to a study conducted in the 1950s by the psychologist Solomon Asch. Interested in the extent to which the pressure to conform affects our judgment, Asch devised a simple but devastatingly effective experiment.

The test subject sits in a room with seven other people. The experimenter shows them all an image of a vertical line, X, followed by three more lines, A, B and C, one of which is the same length as X.

The people in the room are asked, one at a time, to state which of the lines A, B and C is the same length as line X. The process is repeated several times during the session.

Initially, everybody in the room selects the correct line, but over the course of several rounds, the others begin to choose lines that are quite clearly not the same length as line X.

In fact, the other seven people in the room are in cahoots with the experimenter. Six of them are always asked to make their choices first, giving the test subject plenty of time to consider his or her own decision.

Despite the simple nature of the question, more than 35% of the people tested provided an answer that they felt to be incorrect. This has nothing to do with visual impairment: in control experiments, people chose correctly almost 100% of the time, and during the actual experimental sessions, test subjects would remark on how clearly wrong the other people in the room were.

Asch concluded that either the subjects didn't trust their own judgment when confronted with a number of opposing opinions, or they were uncomfortable voicing a conflicting opinion against a majority decision.

He concluded that, for them, being accepted was more important than being correct. Crucially, if even one other person agreed with the subject, then the subject was much more likely to make the right decision.

The experiment has been repeated since with similar results. In one version, 58% of pupils in a study agreed with the statement "the right of freedom of speech should be suspended when the government feels threatened". When questioned individually, all of them disagreed.

Freethought activities -- August 26-27, 2006

2006-08-28T01:16:00.000-05:00

I was fortunate enough to be able to get away for a while and attend the Food and Fellowship gathering of the Humanist Assn. of Tulsa on Saturday. We met at TeKei’s, and there were twelve of us there. Attending were Larry, Julia, Polly, Randy, Elaine, Audrey, Dave, Ron, Dawn, Marilyn, Howard, and myself.

The Salmon salad I had was excellent, but even more enjoyable was being in the presence of my friends and hearing what they have been up to. We began by talking about letters which appeared in the Tulsa World that morning. Larry was the author of one of the letters, and he remarked that a small portion (in my opinion the best part) of his letter had been excised by the newspaper. I hope that Randy will be able to post the full unexpurgated text on the HAT web site.

In another letter in the same issue of the newspaper, one writer made reference to a previous letter written by Polly Mark. Polly had objected to the newspaper giving the religious affiliation of political candidates. The writer said she wanted to know the religious affiliation of candidates, presuming that if she knew what religion a candidate adhered to she would know enough about the political views of the candidate to vote either for or against the candidate.

Larry said that the drought up in Kansas was getting so bad that the Catholics were looking into converting wine into water.

Randy and Dawn talked about their climb up Pike’s Peak earlier in the month. What was it? Nine miles of walking uphill? I think of that as quite an accomplishment, especially since neither Randy nor Dawn are exactly spring chickens? Congratulation to you two on this feat of physical prowess. I am in awe of you both.

Julia told us about hunting fossils in the Dakota Badlands while deftly handling her food with chop sticks. She is pretty skillful at it. I should take up eating with chop sticks; I’m sure I would lose weight. We all learned a new word from Julia: fossiliferous. Had to look that one up in my Webster’s to see if I were spelling it correctly. I’ve found there’s a lot my spell checker doesn’t know. Fossiliferous soil is soil that contains fossils. As Will Rogers might have said, That’s a two-dollar word for a 25-cent concept. I will have to see if I can work the word into the conversation at the next meeting.

Another topic we talked about is the difference between a news article’s headline and content. Sometimes a headline seems to suggest one thing, but then when you read the article the content contradicts the headline.

Julia recommended the film V is for Vendetta. She owns a copy on DVD and has offered to bring it to Movie Night sometime. Randy said that Netflix was a good deal. It gets around the problem of going to the movie rental store and finding that the movie you want is not available.

Other conversation topics included the misreported of the number of deaths in the Iraq War, how voting can be manipulated by voting machines, and whether people who will be supposedly “raptured” will make the journey with or without their clothes. Can’t you just visualize a church congregation floating away in the buff?

We also remarked about the fine décor in the restrooms with piped in, not music, but lessons on the Chinese language.

At the end of our meal the waitress brought us fortune cookies. One read “Skepticism is the first step toward truth.” We found that very appropriate for our group.

I am sure there were many other things we talked about, but I was seated at the north end of the table. What Audrey, Elaine, and Ron, who were seated at the south end of the table talked about, I cannot say.

Sunday morning I attended the service at All Souls Unitarian Church where the guest speaker was Bishop Carlton Pearson, formerly or Higher Dimensions Church in Tulsa, now minister of New Dimensions Church. In case you missed what happened to Pearson over the last several months, he has undergone a theological shift. He no longer believes that God operated a cosmic concentration camp where He tortures for all eternity those who beliefs are religiously incorrect. He has become a Universalist and believes all people are “saved” whether they know it or not.

The idea did not sit well with most congregants at Higher Dimensions, donations dried up, mortgage payments could not be met, and the church was lost. I guess some people are just not happy unless they can be told that a certain number of their fellow human beings are going to be tortured for being wrong about their religion. But all did not abandon Pearson. A small following stuck with him, and they meet in the sanctuary at Trinity Episcopal in downtown Tulsa on Sunday afternoons.

I thoroughly enjoyed the service. Pearson’s sermon was the best I’ve ever heard. Of course, being an atheist I’m not in the habit of taking in a lot of sermons. The place was packed. Thirty to fifty people were standing in the outside aisles.

The service began with UU minister Marvin Lavanhar telling a story to the children who gathered at the front. His story was about a frog who lived in a well. He had lived there all his life, and the well was all he knew. One day another frog falls into the well. The new frog tells the other one about the ocean, but the well frog cannot fathom the idea of a larger world outside of his well and tosses the ocean frog out of the well.

The symbolism was obvious. Pearson was a frog who had discovered a larger world – a world of a new dimension. His church and denomination had tossed him out.

Following the frog story, the New Dimensions Chorale sang. There were just twelve people in the choir, but they sounded like 40. They sang with strong, powerful voices. Their singing reminded me of the group Sweet Honey in the Rock. At the end of their first song the room erupted in applause as everyone jumped to their feet to give the singers a standing ovation.

The pianist was quite good as he sprinkled in jazz riffs in the selections the choir sang. I would love to hear this choir perform again.

Pearson’s sermon was titled “Get the Hell Out of my Bible.” I tried to take notes but found it difficult to listen and write at the same time. I hope the talk will be made available in transcript or on audiotape.

He spoke of dual loyalties to Jehovah and to Satan. There is the inspired word of God and the expired word of God. He said there is a little bit of Hitler in all of us. He spoke of moral dysfunctionalism and of deacon possessed churches.

As he wound down, his pianist came in on cue and Pearson broke into song. Pearson is also known for his singing, having made several vocal albums. The song was “I Can See Clearly Now.” He sang a verse and then asked the congregation to join him in singing the verse again.

It took quite a while for the sanctuary to empty since many people stood in line to shake Pearson’s hand.

I must say I felt somewhat abandoned in the afternoon at the Atheist Meetup at Border’s on 21st St. You never can predict how many people will come out to support this event. As it turned out, there was just Ron, Elaine, and myself. We talked a bit about various freethought organizations and their publications.

I read two selections. The first was the poem “Sarah” by Philip Appleman. In this poem we have Sarah, wife of Abraham, recounting some of the history of her times. She tells of Abraham’s courage in bargaining with God in an attempt to save Sodom and Gemorrah from destruction. Starting with an agreement to spare the cities if 50 righteous people can be found in them, God eventually agrees to spare the cities if only 10 righteous people can be found. If it seems that God is too easily persuaded to spare the cities, it is because he has no intention of keeping his word. Yes, God lied to Abraham, and it’s there in the Old Testament as well as in Appleman’s poem.

The poem ends with these words:

But whenever I think of Sodom…Well,
what had those people done that was so bad,
anyway—some dice and booze,
some frisky girls, willing boys,
a little fooling around—I know
it’s not exactly orthodox, but
to kill them all? To peel
the cooked flesh off those one-year olds,
just learning their first words?
All I can say is,
God must have a weird set of values,
and if there’s a Judgment Day,
as some folks think,
He’s going to have a lot to answer for.

I also read an essay by James Haught titled “Why Would God Drown Children?” Haught asked why some 80,000 children lost their lives as a result of the tsunami which struck Asia the day after Christmas in 2004. He quotes John Scarp as saying, “Natural disasters like this reveal the ultimate weakness of nearly all religions…. The desperate attempts of religion to justify them as part of God’s plan simply reveal the delusional nature of religious belief.”

I appeal to you, my fellow freethinkers, to support freethought activities, to keep freethought alive, with your attendance at freethought events.

A legitimate concern

2006-08-19T08:04:00.000-05:00

Larry Hicks has submitted the following letter to the Tulsa World.

To the editor:

A study reported in the journal Science, the premier American journal of science in the US, reported in the Aug 11 issue that America ranks near the bottom of 34 countries for the public acceptance of evolution. Only Turkey ranked lower. Factors identified with America's low score was a poor understanding of biology, particularly relating to genetics. Writers also linked the literal interpretation of the Bible by many Americans and the mixing of science, politics, and religion.

What an embarassment for our country which is supposed to be an enlightened beacon for the rest of the world. Not only embarrassing, it's scary.

Maybe I underestimate many of my fellow Okies, but I would bet that we as a citizenry are close to the bottom in scientific literacy in the US.

Folks who would bring industry and innovation to Oklahoma are certainly not excited when they hear of this scientific ignorance. I as a grandfather with children in our public schools am not excited when I hear of this. Also as a senior citizen looking forward to quality health care and well-trained scientists in our hospitals and labs, I do not welcome the idea that our scientific minds may lag behind, or even not accept, the best of current scientific thought.

In short, I prefer that my physician not pray or chant over me for recovery. I want him or her to be aware of the evolution of pathogens and the responses of my immune system to them. I prefer that the doctor throw superstition out the window and approach my problems with the most receptive scientific mind.

Biology is the study or understanding of life. Medicine is biology. Ecology is biology. Agriculture is biology. Evolution is the unifying theme of all biology and all its disciplines. To deny evolution as the basis of biology is to strip it of all foundations and, hence, the framework for future breakthrough discoveries.

Larry Hicks

Hastening the End?

2006-08-05T19:37:00.000-05:00

The following commentary was written by William Falk and appeared in the July 7-14, 2006 issue of The Week.

Like it or not, preparations for The End are underway. Pastors of America’s evangelical megachurches, the Los Angeles Times reports
this week [July 7-14], have launched a “Billion Souls Initiative” to reach every heathen on earth. “Our whole purpose is to hasten the End Times,” says Bill McCartney, co-founder of the evangelical group Promise Keepers. He’s doing his part by trying to convert mass numbers of Jews to Christianity as quickly as possible. Those who fail to heed Christ’s message, McCartney warns, are “toast.” Iran’s alarming president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is just as eager to see infidels turned to toast. Within two years, he says, the Mahdi, the last of the Prophet Mohammad’s heirs, will return to Tehran, ushering in a bloody, cataclysmic confrontation with the non-Muslim world.

Assorted crackpots have been predicting the end of the world for thousands of years now, to their eternal disappointment. So it’s tempting to wave off this latest crop of doomsayers with a bit of eye-rolling. But times have changed since the 15th century, even if some folks' religious ideology has not. Even without the Almighty’s help, it really now is possible for some true believer like Ahmadineejad to make radioactive toast of large portions of the human race. Even in our own, enlightened nation, 40 percent of the population believes the End Times are nigh, according to several polls, and they have a substantial political influence. If a bloody cataclysm in Israel is all part of a vengeful God’s grand plan, why bother trying to negotiate a peace? Why not welcome a global religious war between Christianity and Islam? Strange questions for a species that’s come so far over the past two millennia, and yet has not.

ALGAE Luncheon

2006-07-20T15:19:00.000-05:00

ALGAE (Little Group of Atheists Eating) met at White River Fish Market yesterday (Wed., 7-18-06). Attending were Diana, Larry Ho, Sharon, Brian, Richard, Elaine, and myself. Among the items of discussion were the following: Unitarians, Julia Sweeney, a cemetery in Jacksonville, Oregon, physical therapy, Harold Dundee and Louisiana, and immigration.

Remember the atheist meetup this Sunday, 2pm at Border's on 21st St.

Freethought events

2006-06-22T14:50:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was our monthly ALGAE luncheon at White River Fish Market. Attending were Larry Hi, Larry Ho, Dave, Diane (first-timer), Gail, Jan, and myself. We talked about back problems and what to do about such. I told the group that I had been slowed down by a herniated disk. The problem is at L4. I am supposed to talk with a neurosurgeon soon. If any of you have experience in this area and would like to share your experience with me or give me advice, please write to me.

We also talked about movies and books. The movie we are all wanting to see right now is An Inconvenient Truth. Some of us recently enjoyed A Prairie Home Companion. I saw it at Circle Cinema, Tulsa's only nonprofit theater. Some of the books that came up in our conversation were American Theocracy by Kevin Phillips, Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast, and Alchemy of Love and Lust by Theresa Crenshaw. Larry Hi told us of his latest adventures in house renovation, which if he were making a TV series, he would call "This Damned Old House."

It was good to see old friends again, and we welcome Diane and hope she will want to join us again soon.

Coming up this weekend, we have the Food and Fellowship at 11:30am on Saturday, June 24, at Panera Bread at 41st and Hudson. Then the next day, again at the same location -- Panera Bread -- we have the Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous. Attendees at the TAR meeting are invited to bring a freethought reading to share with the group (and anyone else who may be within earshot). We will also talk about current events and books of interest.

ALGAE Luncheon

2006-05-17T13:58:00.000-05:00

Question: What HAT member hopped a freight train back in 1934 in order to be able to go to Chicago and see the World’s Fair? Answer: It was Howard Kelley. This was the first of many freight train rides Howard took back in the days of his youth. Howard entertained us with stories of riding the rails at today’s ALGAE luncheon.

In addition to Howard there was Larry, Dana, Julia, Mary, Gail, Jan, and myself. It was good to see so many friends once again. Other topics of discussion included the book The DaVinci Code, the book Who’s Who in Hell, church camps and homesickness, the Girl Scout camp murders, authors and geographical places associated with them, the treatment of books, Civil War markers and monuments, and The Hobo’s Hornbook.

If you missed the gathering today, you will have an opportunity to be with your humanist friends this Sunday, 1:00 PM, at Hardesty Library.

See you there.

Financial matters

2006-05-13T21:53:00.000-05:00

We received a contribution of $100 back in April to restart Tulsa Atheists Meetup. The fee for each group to be associated with meetup.com is $12 per month. The organizer has to come up with this amount in order to continue to use the services of meetup.com. There is no fee for individuals to be a part of a meetup group.

I paid for six months, or $72, thanks to our anonymous donor. This leaves $28 to be applied to the following six-month period. So around October, we will need to come up with another $72, or $44 in addition to what we now have on hand.

May 2006 Freethought Activities

2006-05-03T12:27:00.000-05:00

Sat., May 6, 7pm Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St.

Sat., May 13, 10am Secular Singers at the Bradleys. All are welcome.

Sun., May 14, 2pm Humanist Study Group at Border’s, 81st & Yale. Topic: Leo Strauss. Discussion to be led by Randy Bradley. Read material to be distributed by e-mail.

Wed., May 17, 11:30am ALGAE (A Little Group of Atheists Eating), luncheon at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan.

Sun., May 21, 1pm HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at Hardesty Regional Library. Program: Brian Hill will speak on the book You’re Wearing That? by Deborah Tanner.

Sat., May 27, 11:30am Food & Fellowship at Panera Bread, 5601 E. 41st St.

Sun., May 28, 2pm Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous/Tulsa Atheist Meetup Meet at Panera Bread, 5601 E. 41st St., near Southroads. (Go to www.atheists.meetup.com to sign up for meetups.)

Questions? Call Dan at 798-3629

The April Rendezvous

2006-04-17T10:04:00.000-05:00

The April Rendezvous will be held at Panera Bread at 5601 E. 41st St. It's just a stone's throw east of Southroads Shopping Center. Gather there around 2pm on Sunday, April 23. If you would like to do your small part in keeping freethought literature alive, bring something to read to the group. My selection is going to be the poem "Sarah" by Philip Appleman.

Actually doing something

2006-04-11T11:07:00.000-05:00

We freethinkers do a lot of talking, but we don't act often upon what we talk about. As the cliche goes, we talk the talk but don't walk the walk. If you would like to do more walking, here is an idea. Many of you will recognize the name Brian Flemming from the DVDThe God Who Wasn't There.

Brian Sapient of the Rational Response Squad interviews Brian Flemming in this 18-min. MP3 clip. Brian and Brian discuss how the War on Easter is being conducted, why it is being conducted, and the effectiveness of ridicule in combating noxious institutions.

To hear the interview, go to www.waroneaster.org. Find the post titled "Radio interview." Look for the text in the paragraph above. Put your cursor on "18-min. MP3 clip" and click.

Hooray for Larry Hicks

2006-04-05T11:06:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you saw the letter from Larry Hicks recently in the paper in which he said "I am an atheist" before going on to make his point.

I am glad to see atheists such as Larry who are willing to identify themselves as atheists. It must be disheartening to the theists in our area who desire to keep us in the closet to see atheism openly prolaimed. How do we ever expect to gain acceptance if we ourselves do not have the courage to admit who we are? We must not allow the fundamentalists intimidate us into silence.

I sometimes hear people say "We could have more members in HAT if we would avoid using the "a" word." This leads me to ask, how far are we willing to compromise our principles or dissemble about who we are for the sake of gaining members?

I am an atheist, and I will proudly proclaim it.

Below are some comments from Larry on the need to identify ourselves as atheists.

I sent the article out to many friends when I submitted to the paper. A friend who is a retired prof of religion at UT e-mailed immediately and advised that my letter would have been better if I had not used the "A" word. I didn't respond to him. I know he had a valid point, but I also know that it is important in the Tulsa community, as well as in the rest of America, to speak out about who we are and where we come from. We who are nonbelievers, I think, need to identify ourselves as such when we speak on matters that address our positions relating to civic issues, ethics, and our belief of what is right or wrong. Note: I did NOT say good or evil!

April 2006 Activities of Interest to Freethinkers

2006-03-31T14:17:00.000-06:00

Sat., Apr. 1, 7pm
Movie Night at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St. Featured film is Heart of the Beholder. The American Dream that became a holy nightmare. Prior to the running of the movie, the duo of Gail Storey and Dan Nerren will entertain at the piano.

Sun., Apr. 9, 2pm
Humanist Study Group at Border’s, 81st & Yale. Topic: Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon by Daniel C. Dennett. See discussion questions distributed by e-mail.

Sun., Apr. 16, 1pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at the Bradleys, 6705 E. 54th St. Due to the Hardesty Library being closed because of Easter, we have had to change the venue for this meeting.

Wed., Apr. 19, 11:30am
ALGAE (A Little Group of Atheists Eating), luncheon at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan.

Sat., Apr. 22, 11:30am
Food & Fellowship at Tekei’s, 1616 S. Utica.

Sun., Apr. 23, 2pm
Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous. See www.tulsaar.blogspot.com closer to the date of meeting for venue and agenda.

Secular Singers will not meet in April.

Questions? Call Dan at 798-3629

Good TAR meeting today

2006-03-26T21:01:00.000-06:00

At first I was thinking I was going to be the only one to show up for the TAR meeting at Barnes & Noble, but then Gail came in, soon followed by Harold, Howard, Richard, Julia, and Warren. Seven in all were there today. Should I call us The Magnificient Seven? Is that being a bit too vain?

Anyway, I'm glad for the attendance, especially in light of the poor showing we have made in recent months. I am encouraged now to keep on.

I read a poem by my favorite poet Philip Appleman. The poem was "Noah." The poem seemed to have been well-received by the group. At next month's TAR meeting I would like to read another Appleman poem. I also read a paragraph from an opinion piece from the newspaper pertaining to Kevin Phillips's new book American Theocracy.

I would also like to invite others to bring a freethought reading next month that you like.

There is a possibility that we might change the venue for the Rendezvous. Today, to be heard I had to talk louder than the nearby cappuccino machine. I might scout around for another place for us to meet. If anybody has a recommendation, let me know.

TAR Meeting

2006-03-25T07:28:00.000-06:00

The Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous will meet tomorrow, Sunday, March 26, 2:00 PM, at Barnes & Noble Bookstore on 41st St. We will begin with Freethought Readings. I would like to read the poem "Noah" by Philip Appleman. If you have a reading you would like to share with the group, please bring it. Have any of you seen Kevin Phillips's new book American Theocracy? If so, you might like to read a selection from it to the group.

We will also talk about events in the news of interest to atheists. If you have been collecting clippings, bring them.

Luncheon today well attended

2006-03-15T14:36:00.000-06:00

We had another great ALGAE luncheon today at White River Fish Market. How good it is to have a meal with friends! Wish more of you could have been there.

In attendance today were Keith, Dave, Gloria, Bea, Warren, Dan, Larry, Jan, and Sharon. Conversation was wide-ranging. In addition to the usual topics of religion and politics, we also heard about the dangers of underground natural gas pipelines and an upcoming production of Wagner's Ring Cycle in Paris, which one of our lucky members will soon take in.

I find it to be an uplifting experience to be with my fellow Humanists, whatever the occasion. If you are not yet attending HAT events, I would like to invite you to do so. Experience these highs for yourself.

There will soon be another event added to our monthly calendar. Randy told me that he will be having a monthly movie night at his house, probably on a Saturday night. We will watch a movie and talk about it, as we sip wine or whatever your beverage of choice happens to be. Randy says that if you drink so much wine that your driving ability is impaired, you are welcome to stay over. Now that's real hospitality.

I love you guys and gals and look forward to seeing you again this Sunday (3/19/06) at 1pm at Hardesty Library for our regular monthly HAT meeting.

Christianity -- Official religion of Missouri?

2006-03-06T05:19:00.000-06:00

The following story comes from the web site christianaggression.org.

State bill proposes Christianity be Missouri’s official religion

Posted March 3, 2006
12:28 AM CST on Friday, March 3, 2006
By John Mills, News 4
KMOV.com

Missouri legislators in Jefferson City considered a bill that would name Christianity the state's official "majority" religion.

House Concurrent Resolution 13 has is pending in the state legislature.
Many Missouri residents had not heard about the bill until Thursday.

Karen Aroesty of the Anti-defamation league, along with other watch-groups, began a letter writing and email campaign to stop the resolution.

The resolution would recognize "a Christian god," and it would not protect minority religions, but "protect the majority's right to express their religious beliefs.

The resolution also recognizes that, "a greater power exists," and only Christianity receives what the resolution calls, "justified recognition."

State representative David Sater of Cassville in southwestern Missouri, sponsored the resolution, but he has refused to talk about it on camera or over the phone.

KMOV also contacted Gov. Matt Blunt's office to see where he stands on the resolution, but he has yet to respond.

Atheist Alliance convention to be in KC this April

2006-03-01T10:32:00.000-06:00

The Atheist Alliance convention will be held in Kansas City, April 14-16. You can read the details on the HAT blog at www.tulsaha.blogspot.com. I would like to get up a group to attend this event. If you think you might like to go as a part of this group, please give me a call. -Dan, 798-3629

Using religion to justify aggression

2006-02-28T13:03:00.000-06:00

Here is a quote from a book on the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902. The President at that time was William McKinley.

.....................

By late fall of 1898, McKinley believed the American people and the Republican Party favored annexation of all the Philippine Islands, and directed America’s peace commissioners to secure them.

McKinley explained to a group of clergy his decision to keep the Philippines. After “prayer,” he concluded that Filipinos “were unfit for self-government [and] would soon have anarchy and misrule.” So, the United States would keep the islands “to educate the Filipinos and uplift and Christianize them, and by God’s grace do the very best we could for them, as our fellow men for whom Christ died.”

Church/State Separation Lecture to Preempt TAR Meeting

2006-02-09T14:18:00.000-06:00

In lieu of meeting at Barnes & Noble this month, I am recommending that we attend the lectures on Sunday, February 26, 2 to 4pm at Temple Israel, 2004 E. 22nd Pl. (just south of Utica Square Shopping Center). The lectures are sponsored by the Oklahoma Conference for Community and Justice. Lecturing on February 26 will be Paul Finkelman of TU, Joe Bessler-Northcutt of Phillips Theological Seminary, and Ray Owens, also of Phillips.

The lectures on the 26th are part two of a three-part lecture series.

Let's Go Geocaching

2006-02-04T11:24:00.000-06:00

The first of seven activities for freethinkers this month happens this Sunday starting around 1pm. We will gather at Randy’s house, 6705 E. 54 St. and talk about geocaching and what we are about to do. Then we will see if we can find six caches hidden within a two-mile radius of Randy’s house.

I will have a sheet on each hidden cache, but if you would like to have an advance look at what we will be searching for, go to www.geocaching.com. In the box for the ZIP code type in Randy’s ZIP code of 74145. There are 54 caches within a three-mile radius of the 74145 post office. (There are now hundreds of caches in the Tulsa area, with new caches being placed each week.) By clicking on any of the listed caches, the page for that cache is displayed. (If you have an account with geocaching.com (it’s free) then a small map pinpointing to location of the cache is displayed on the cache page.)

The six caches I have selected for us to find are:

Lunchtime Cache #8
Micro Mania #9
Hidden Park
Twisted Sisters
Asphalt Jungle – SP4
Nest Egg

You will notice that the terrain difficulty for all these is low. We should be able to walk right up to them. Finding them is another matter. Some caches are very cleverly hidden. Once I was caching with Dan Cagle in Norman, and we searched for twenty minutes (at least), and then Dan spotted the cache. We were within 20 feet of it all the time we were searching. With a group of us searching, we should be able to locate each cache within 10 minutes. (I hope.)

I have a travel bug I need to drop off in one of the caches, but I won’t go into that now.

Two caches we will be looking for are at LaFortune Park, and another one or two are in parks, also. If you see a cache on the geocaching web site that interests you, print the cache sheet and bring it with you.

Perhaps we could go to the Mazzio’s near Randy’s afterwards for some pizza?

February Events of Interest to Freethinkers

2006-02-02T12:47:00.000-06:00

Sun., Feb. 5, 1pm
Geocaching Adventures with Randy and Dan. Meet at Randy’s house, 6705 E. 54 St. Then we will go searching for half a dozen hidden caches in Randy’s neighborhood using a GPS receiver.

Sat., Feb. 11, 10am
Secular Singers at Randy’s house, 6705 E. 54th in Tulsa. Join Bea, Randy, Gail, Julia, and Dan to sing freethought and other songs. Come to sing or just come to listen and enjoy the fellowship.

Sun., Feb. 12, 2pm
Humanist Study Group at Border’s, 81st & Yale. Topic: Jared Diamond’s recent book Collapse

Wed., Feb. 15, 11:30am
ALGAE (A Little Group of Atheists Eating), luncheon at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan. This seafood restaurant seems to be growing in popularity.

Sun., Feb. 19, 1pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting In lieu of the MMM this month, we will meet for lunch at the Spaghetti Warehouse at noon. Then we will watch the film Moloch in the nearby OSU-Tulsa auditorium. Film starts at 2pm.

Sat., Feb. 25, 11:30am
Food & Fellowship at Marie Callender’s on 51st St.

Sun., Feb. 26, 2pm
Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous at Barnes & Noble Bookstore on 41st St. See www.tulsaar.blogspot.com for the latest TAR news.

Questions? Call Dan at 798-3629

Four show for TAR meeting

2006-01-22T22:33:00.000-06:00

There were four of us at the TAR meeting today. I'm starting to get discouraged, but we will give this venture some more time before calling it quits. The four attending today were Brian, Harold, Larry Ho, and myself.

It has been my desire to offer a sense of community to those with the courage to meet under the rubric "atheist." There seems to be no shortage of people who tell me: "If you want to increase your numbers, you should avoid the word 'atheist.'" But I am loathe to make that kind of compromise. I would rather have people in our group who have the courage to call a spade a spade, rather than hiding behind euphemistic language.

So if this group fails because atheists lack the courage to be forthright about themselves, then so be it.

But more of a problem than our choice of terminology is our lack of publicity. I will look into purchasing some ads, but since we have no treasury (i.e., no money) we may not get very far with this route. But we'll see.

TAR Meeting Today -- Sunday, Jan. 22

2006-01-22T08:44:00.000-06:00

TAR meets today at Barnes & Noble Bookstore on 41st St. starting at 2:00 PM. Look for us in the cafe area.

Intelligent Design bill

2006-01-20T11:47:00.000-06:00

I found the following posted at the Oklahoma Atheists Forum.

STATE OF OKLAHOMA
2nd Session of the 50th Legislature (2006)
HOUSE BILL 2526 By: Deutschendorf

AS INTRODUCED

BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA:
SECTION 1. NEW LAW A new section of law to be codified in the Oklahoma Statutes as Section <>11-103.11> of Title <>70>, unless there is created a duplication in numbering, reads as follows:
In any public school instruction concerning the theories of the origin of man and the earth which includes the theory commonly known as evolution, a board of education of a school district may include, as a portion of such instruction, the theory of intelligent design. Upon approval of the board of education, a teacher in the school district may use supporting evidence deemed necessary for instruction on the theory of intelligent design. When providing supporting evidence on the theory of intelligent design, a teacher in a public school shall not stress any particular denominational, sectarian, or religious doctrine or belief.
SECTION 2. This act shall become effective <>July 1, 2006>.
SECTION 3. It being immediately necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety, an emergency is hereby declared to exist, by reason whereof this act shall take effect and be in full force from and after its passage and approval.

Getting together

2006-01-19T10:25:00.000-06:00

I enjoyed getting together at the White River Fish Market and Restaurant with some fellow atheists yesterday. Thank you Larry, Dana, Mary, and Julia for taking the time to have lunch together. I love being with you guys.

I'm looking forward to seeing you all this Sunday (Jan. 22), at 2:00 PM at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore (cafe area) on 41st St.

Michael Fortier and God

2006-01-18T14:56:00.000-06:00

Michael Fortier is in the news again. Fortier, you may recall, knew that McVeigh and Nichols were planning to bomb the federal building in OKC; and although he did not take part in the bombing, he failed to divulge the plot. Had he talked, 168 people would not have lost their lives.

Likewise, God knew what McVeigh and Nichols were up to. Like Fortier, he kept mum. Had he tipped off the authorities as to what was about to take place, 168 lives could have been spared.

Many people condemn Fortier for his silence, but have you heard anyone criticizing God for his silence? Why not? Do you think that deep down most people realize that God is just a fictional character?

Joke

2006-01-16T14:13:00.000-06:00

One day the zoo-keeper noticed that the orangutan was reading two books - the Bible and Darwin's Origin of Species.

Surprised, he asked the ape, "Why are you reading both those books?"

"Well," said the orangutan, "I just wanted to know if I was my brother's keeper or my keeper's brother."

Changes in TAR meetings

2006-01-09T09:10:00.000-06:00

Effective immediately Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous is changing meeting date, time, and venue.

New day for meeting: Fourth Sunday of the month (Next meeting will be January 22.)

New time: 2:00 PM

New venue: Barnes & Noble Bookstore on 41st Street (near Yale). Meet in cafe area.

Carl Sagan on science as a tool

2005-12-27T20:21:00.000-06:00

The following is a quote from "Ways of Knowing" by Bill Broderick, an article in the Autumn 2005 issue of Humanist Perspectives.

Carl Sagan, in his book Cosmos (1980), wrote: “There is no other species on Earth that does science. It is, so far, entirely a human invention, evolved by natural selection in the cerebral cortex for one simple reason: it works. It is not perfect. It can be misused. It is only a tool. But it is by far the best tool we have, self-correcting, on-going, applicable to everything. It has two rules. First: there are no sacred truths; all assumptions must be critically examined; arguments from authority are worthless. Second: whatever is inconsistent with the facts must be discarded or revised. We must understand the Cosmos as it is and not confuse how it is with how we wish it to be.”

December 2005 Freethought Activities

2005-12-09T09:00:00.000-06:00

Sat., Dec. 10, 10am
Secular Singers at Dan’s house, 4925 Spruce Dr., Sand Springs. Join Bea, Randy, Gail, Julia, and Dan to sing freethought and other songs.

Sun., Dec. 11, 2pm
Humanist Study Group at Border’s, 81st & Yale. Discussion leader: Glenn Visher. Topic: “The Nature of Personality: Genes, Culture, and National Character” by Richard W. Robins.

Sun., Dec. 18, 2pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting and Food & Fellowship Gathering at Randy Bradley’s, 6705 E. 54th. Annual election of officers. Program: Musical presentation by The Secular Singers.

Wed., Dec. 21, 11:30am ALGAE luncheon at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan.

There is no TAR meeting this month. Next TAR meeting will be Jan. 17.

Questions? Call Dan at 798-3629.

No December Rendezvous

2005-11-20T12:02:00.000-06:00

There will be no December rendezvous. The library will be closed on the third Tuesday in December. We could pick up a key the day before, but I've got a lot on my plate right now and don't want to make the extra trip. So we will skip December and resume in January.

Lack of Advertising Shows

2005-11-16T12:53:00.000-06:00

At the Rendezvous last night, only three of us showed up. Before our next meeting I am going to have to come up with some ways to get the word out about TAR.

We will not be meeting in December. Our next Rendezvous will be on Tuesday, January 17, 2006.

November 2005 Freethought Activities

2005-11-01T23:10:00.000-06:00

Sat., Nov. 12, 10am
Secular Singers at Dan’s house, 4925 Spruce Dr., Sand Springs. Join Bea, Randy, Gail, Julia, and Dan to sing freethought and other songs.

Sun., Nov. 13, 2pm
Humanist Study Group at Border’s, 81st & Yale. Discussion leader: Ryan Sheahan. Topic TBA.

Tues., Nov. 15, 7pm
Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous at Zarrow Library, 2224 W. 51st St. See www.tulsaar.blogspot.com for agenda.

Wed., Nov. 16, 11:30am
ALGAE, luncheon at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan.

Sun., Nov. 20, 1pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at the Hardesty Library, near 93rd and Memorial. Annual election of officers. Program: “Race: The Power of an Illusion.” Discussion leader: Brian Hill.

Sat., Nov. 26, 11:30am
Food & Fellowship, at Shawkat’s, 4123 S. Sheridan.

Questions? Call Dan at 798-3629

The November Rendezvous

2005-10-29T12:42:00.000-05:00

Our November 2005 Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous will be on Nov. 15, starting at 7:00 PM at Zarrow Regional Library, 2224 W. 51st St.

I would like to propose the following structure for the rendezvous and future rendezvous:

First half hour will be a review of current events and their possible impact on civil rights for atheists and the separation of church and state. I would encourage you to bring items from the newspapers or items found at Internet Infidels Newswire. Other possible sources could be Church and State magazine or FFRF's publication Freethought Today. So please begin clipping or marking articles to bring and share with the group for discussion.

For the second half hour I propose that we have two or three people read aloud from some of the classics of freethought. Think of this, if you like, as a way of keeping these writings alive. There are a number of resources we could use for this including, Women Without Superstition by Annie Laurie Gaylor and various writings by Ingersoll, Russell, and Twain.

Nothing is set in stone and I'm always open to suggestions from those who attend.

We should be able to start around 7:00 PM and finish by 8:00 PM.

Essay by Sam Harris

2005-10-28T00:47:00.000-05:00

Here is an excellent essay by Sam Harris that illustrates the idiocy of god-belief.

There is No God (And You Know It)

Sam Harris
Fri Oct 7, 1:57 AM ET

Somewhere in the world a man has abducted a little girl. Soon he will rape, torture, and kill her. If an atrocity of this kind is not occurring at precisely this moment, it will happen in a few hours, or days at most. Such is the confidence we can draw from the statistical laws that govern the lives of six billion human beings. The same statistics also suggest that this girl’s parents believe -- at this very moment -- that an all-powerful and all-loving God is watching over them and their family. Are they right to believe this? Is it good that they believe this?

No.

The entirety of atheism is contained in this response. Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply a refusal to deny the obvious. Unfortunately, we live in a world in which the obvious is overlooked as a matter of principle. The obvious must be observed and re-observed and argued for. This is a thankless job. It carries with it an aura of petulance and insensitivity. It is, moreover, a job that the atheist does not want.

It is worth noting that no one ever need identify himself as a non-astrologer or a non-alchemist. Consequently, we do not have words for people who deny the validity of these pseudo-disciplines. Likewise, “atheism” is a term that should not even exist. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make when in the presence of religious dogma. The atheist is merely a person who believes that the 260 million Americans (eighty-seven percent of the population) who claim to “never doubt the existence of God” should be obliged to present evidence for his existence -- and, indeed, for his benevolence, given the relentless destruction of innocent human beings we witness in the world each day. Only the atheist appreciates just how uncanny our situation is: most of us believe in a God that is every bit as specious as the gods of Mount Olympus; no person, whatever his or her qualifications, can seek public office in the United States without pretending to be certain that such a God exists; and much of what passes for public policy in our country conforms to religious taboos and superstitions appropriate to a medieval theocracy. Our circumstance is abject, indefensible, and terrifying. It would be hilarious if the stakes were not so high.

Consider: the city of New Orleans was recently destroyed by hurricane Katrina. At least a thousand people died, tens of thousands lost all their earthly possessions, and over a million have been displaced. It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Katrina struck believed in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God. But what was God doing while a hurricane laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. These were people of faith. These were good men and women who had prayed throughout their lives. Only the atheist has the courage to admit the obvious: these poor people spent their lives in the company of an imaginary friend.

Of course, there had been ample warning that a storm “of biblical proportions” would strike New Orleans, and the human response to the ensuing disaster was tragically inept. But it was inept only by the light of science. Advance warning of Katrina’s path was wrested from mute Nature by meteorological calculations and satellite imagery. God told no one of his plans. Had the residents of New Orleans been content to rely on the beneficence of the Lord, they wouldn’t have known that a killer hurricane was bearing down upon them until they felt the first gusts of wind on their faces. And yet, a poll conducted by The Washington Post found that eighty percent of Katrina’s survivors claim that the event has only strengthened their faith in God.

As hurricane Katrina was devouring New Orleans, nearly a thousand Shiite pilgrims were trampled to death on a bridge in Iraq. There can be no doubt that these pilgrims believed mightily in the God of the Koran. Indeed, their lives were organized around the indisputable fact of his existence: their women walked veiled before him; their men regularly murdered one another over rival interpretations of his word. It would be remarkable if a single survivor of this tragedy lost his faith. More likely, the survivors imagine that they were spared through God’s grace.

Only the atheist recognizes the boundless narcissism and self-deceit of the saved. Only the atheist realizes how morally objectionable it is for survivors of a catastrophe to believe themselves spared by a loving God, while this same God drowned infants in their cribs. Because he refuses to cloak the reality of the world’s suffering in a cloying fantasy of eternal life, the atheist feels in his bones just how precious life is -- and, indeed, how unfortunate it is that millions of human beings suffer the most harrowing abridgements of their happiness for no good reason at all.

Of course, people of faith regularly assure one another that God is not responsible for human suffering. But how else can we understand the claim that God is both omniscient and omnipotent? There is no other way, and it is time for sane human beings to own up to this. This is the age-old problem of theodicy, of course, and we should consider it solved. If God exists, either He can do nothing to stop the most egregious calamities, or He does not care to. God, therefore, is either impotent or evil. Pious readers will now execute the following pirouette: God cannot be judged by merely human standards of morality. But, of course, human standards of morality are precisely what the faithful use to establish God’s goodness in the first place. And any God who could concern himself with something as trivial as gay marriage, or the name by which he is addressed in prayer, is not as inscrutable as all that. If He exists, the God of Abraham is not merely unworthy of the immensity of creation; he is unworthy even of man.

There is another possibility, of course, and it is both the most reasonable and least odious: the biblical God is a fiction. As Richard Dawkins has observed, we are all atheists with respect to Zeus and Thor. Only the atheist has realized that the biblical god is no different. Consequently, only the atheist is compassionate enough to take the profundity of the world’s suffering at face value. It is terrible that we all die and lose everything we love; it is doubly terrible that so many human beings suffer needlessly while alive. That so much of this suffering can be directly attributed to religion -- to religious hatreds, religious wars, religious delusions, and religious diversions of scarce resources -- is what makes atheism a moral and intellectual necessity. It is a necessity, however, that places the atheist at the margins of society. The atheist, by merely being in touch with reality, appears shamefully out of touch with the fantasy life of his neighbors.

Missed You All

2005-10-20T13:55:00.000-05:00

I was at the White River Fish Market at 11:30am on Wednesday for the ALGAE luncheon, but no one else showed. Is there no longer any interest in getting together once a month for the luncheon?

Speaking of waning interest, only three people attended the October Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous at Zarrow Library last Tuesday.

If as they say, atheists make up three percent of the population, then the Tulsa metropolitan area of 400,000 should have some 12,000 atheists. I know a certain number are hiding in the closet, but you would think we could get at least twenty to attend the rendezvous.

Rendezvous Tonight

2005-10-18T09:10:00.000-05:00

Tonight is the night for our monthly rendezvous at Zarrow Library, 7pm. I posted two small signs about our meetings. Both were placed on poles. One sign was printed on a sheet of 8 1/2 by 11 paper. The next time I passed by the pole the sign was missing. The other sign was a smaller one (appx. 2.5 X 3.5 inches) stuck to a metal pole at a parking lot. It was still there the last time I checked. I admit, these were pretty lame efforts at publicity.

Much of my time in the past month has been devoted to preparations for the Secular Singers concert which was held two days ago.

I doubt if anybody reads this before the meeting, but you are welcome to bring something to read to the group, if you like. I will bring a videotape titled "Blue Planet," in case there is any interest in viewing it. It is film of the Earth shot from the space shuttles. It doesn't have anything to do with atheism, but we might enjoy viewing it. It runs 42 minutes.

News item from THE WEEK

2005-10-11T07:51:00.000-05:00

This item is from the Oct. 14, 2005 issue of THE WEEK, a news magazine.

A religious society is a moral society – or so goes the conventional wisdom, said Rose Brooks in the Los Angeles Times. But in a new study in the Journal of Religion and Society, evolutionary scientist Gregory S. Paul suggests just the opposite. Paul ranked 18 “prosperous democracies” according to their religious fervency. He then correlated religious observance with various indicators of “quantifiable social health,” such as the frequency of homicides, teen pregnancy, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases, and child mortality. The results are startling. The more religious a society is, Paul found, the more social problems it has. The U.S., which by far is the most fervent advanced nation in the world, is first in nearly all the categories of social ills. This correlation is even more vividly illustrated within the U. S., where the highest rates of abortion, murder, divorce, and teen pregnancy are not in the supposedly godless blue states. They’re in the Bible Belt, where church attendance is highest. Admittedly, “correlation is not causation,” and it’s possible that “high levels of social dysfunction fuel religiosity,” not vice versa. Still, Paul’s study provides food for thought. It suggests that “nonrational, absolutist belief systems” of any kind – Islamic, Christian, or other – have a dark side,” and actually backfire in more “sinful” behavior, not less. “It’s official: Too much religion may be a dangerous thing.

Gleanings

2005-10-04T09:13:00.000-05:00

Here are two items from the Oct. 7, 2005 issue of the news magazine THE WEEK.

A Christian high school in California has expelled a girl for having gay parents. Leonard Stob, superintendent of the Ontario Christian School, sent a letter to the home of Shay Clark, 14, explaining that because Clark's mother, Tina, lives with another woman, "your family does not meet the policies of admission." School policy, Stob said, prohibits students' parents from engaging in behavior "immoral or inconsistent with a positive Christian lifestyle."

[It was a bad week for] Angels, after Ashley Smith, the Atlanta woman who said in March she persuaded escaped killer Brian Nichols to surrender by reading to him from Christian best-seller The Purpose-Driven Life, finally admitted that she also gave Nichols a little crystal meth from her private stash.

2005-09-29T14:08:00.000-05:00

I often listen to KWTU while driving in my car. Recently I noticed another station's signal -- a signal from a Christian radio station -- interferring with the signal from KWTU. I would be listening to a Mozart symphony and all of a sudden hear someone say "Prasie Jesus" or some other kind of god-talk. I sent an e-mail to the KWTU and asked them what was happening. Below is the response I received from Rich Fisher.

Mr Nerren,

Thanks for writing. We have not decreased power for KWTU. The
interference is from a religious station west of Ponca City. They are
also at 88.7 and during the spring and fall, atmospheric conditions
cause a bounce phenomenon that causes stations to be heard far beyond
their normal range. The Ponca City KLUV is licensed for more power
than KWTU (nothing we can do there) and when the bounce occurs it can
overpower KWTU in its fringe areas. And yes, Sand Springs is a fringe
area for KWTU. Our transmitters are located to the north of Coweta. FCC
requires non-commercial stations (88-92fm) to be co-located or located
immediately near Channel 6 TV stations to avoid TV-radio interference.

All that said, these atmospheric conditions are weather related. Once
Summer gives up for Autumn, they should dissipate. Expect similar
conditions in Spring as well. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, and
thank you for listening.

Best Regards,
Rich Fisher
Public Radio Tulsa GM

Next Rendezvous - October 18

2005-09-27T12:41:00.000-05:00

Our next Rendezvous will be held on Tuesday, October 18, starting at 7:00 PM at the Zarrow Regional Library, 2224 W. 51st St.

Today I made a dozen flyers advertising our group. I will try to get out and get them posted in the next few days.

Signmaker refuses job for atheists

2005-09-26T21:30:00.000-05:00

At our last Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous meeting I expressed my desire to see our group purchase some signs to advertise our existence. I thought I had found a signmaker who would make us about 25 signs for around $80. However, he backed out when he saw what I wanted printed on the signs: Atheist Rendezvous. Had he accepted the job, the signs would have cost me about $3.10.

I called two other signmakers today. One is here in Sand Springs. My call was answered by an answering machine. I left a message, but have not had my call returned yet. Another signmaker (this one in Tulsa) gave me a price of $8.00 per sign. That would be $200. Too much I think.

I'll check on some more vendors tomorrow. If I don't find one who can make the signs for around $80, I might do what Bill Forney suggested and make my own.

I would also like to have some flyers printed and posted on utility poles. If anyone would like to assist me in this effort, please let me know.

TAR Update

2005-09-22T09:29:00.000-05:00

There were only three in attendance at the TAR meeting last Tuesday; however, one who came, Julia, was a first-time attendee. Julia has a background in music and will be joining the Secular Singers. Larry and I were the other two who were there.

Not too many months ago we had 16 present for the monthly gathering. Why the big decline? Lack of publicity is the probable cause. A few months ago this group was known as the Tulsa Atheist Meetup. Meetup provided a service of enabling people of various interests to meetup face-to-face with one another via internet contact. This service was free up until a few months ago. Then Meetup began charging each group's organizer a monthly fee. Our group decided we would try to survive and operate independently of Meetup. We selected a new name -- Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous.

Without the publicity we had been getting from Meetup, our numbers began declining. In an attempt to revive interest in the group, I will be purchasing some advertising. More on this later.

Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous

2005-09-19T17:03:00.000-05:00

Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous

Our September Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous will be held this Tuesday (9/20/05) at the Zarrow Library starting at 7:00 PM. Join us for conversation, and if you would like to read something to the group, please bring it.

To touch or not to touch

2005-09-06T20:28:00.000-05:00

While indexing the forthcoming book King Tiger: The Religious Vision of Reies Lopez Tijerina, I came across this interesting passage:

Recounting the post-resurrection episodes between the risen Jesus and his followers, Tijerina pondered the mystery that Jesus would not allow Mary to touch him ("Do not hold onto me, for I have not yet returned to the father. . ." [John 20:17]), but that he encouraged Thomas to feel his wounds ("Put your finger here. . . . Reach out your hand and put it into my side . . ." [John 20:26]).

For some reason, I had completely missed seeing this contradiction.

September Freethought Activities

2005-09-06T19:17:00.000-05:00

Sept. 2005 Freethought Activities

Wed., Sept. 7, 11:30am
ALGAE, lunch at Thai Siam, on 31st west of Sheridan.

Sat., Sept. 10, 10am
Secular Singers at Dan's house: 4925 Spruce Dr., Sand Springs. Join Bea, Randy, Gail, and Dan to sing freethought and other songs. If you play an instrument, bring it with you.

Sun., Sept. 11, 2pm
Humanist Study Group at Border’s, 81st & Yale. Read Harold Hill’s notes on Situation Ethics sent to you by e-mail earlier.

Sun., Sept. 18, 1pm
HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at the Hardesty Library, near 93rd and Memorial. Brian Hill will speak about a book.

Wed., Sept. 21, 11:30am
ALGAE, lunch at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan.

Tues., Sept. 20, 7pm
Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous at Zarrow Library, 2224 W. 51st St.

Sat., Sept. 24, 10:00am to noon
Secular Singers rehearsal at Dan's, 4925 Spruce Dr. in Sand Springs.

Sat., Sept. 24, 12:30am
Food & Fellowship, at India Palace, on Lewis near 71st St.

Meeting room reservations confirmed for 2006

2005-08-24T07:17:00.000-05:00

The Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous will continue to meet at the Zarrow Regional Library in 2006. We have a room reserved for every third Tuesday from 7pm to 9pm.

Rendezvous this Tuesday, August 16

2005-08-15T14:01:00.000-05:00

Our August Rendezvous is this Tuesday, August 16, 7:00 PM at the Zarrow Library. I will bring a couple of DVDs, but we may just want to sit around and talk. I hope we can keep this group going.

Rendezvous follow-up

2005-07-20T12:00:00.000-05:00

We had five people at last night's Rendezvous. We are going to have to do more in the way of publicity if we wish for these meetings to continue. I think that many more people would attend if only they knew about these meetings.

I think all who viewed The God Who Wasn't There last night enjoyed the documentary. I would recommend it for the freethinker's library. It can be purchased for $25 by going to www.thegodmovie.com.

If anyone has any ideas for the August Rendezvous, please post them.

Tonight's meeting

2005-07-19T11:03:00.000-05:00

We meet tonight at Zarrow Library starting at 7pm. There will be plenty of time for everyone to express his or her concerns. Once everyone has had their say, we will choose some selections to view from the DVD "The God Who Wasn't There." The library closes at 9pm; so the meeting will run no later than that.

July 2005 Freethought Activities

2005-07-06T10:27:00.000-05:00

Wed., July 6, 11:15am, ALGAE, lunch at Thai Siam Restaurant, on 31st St. west of Sheridan.

Sat., July 9, 9am, Secular Singers at Zarrow Library. Join Bea, Randy, and Dan to sing freethought and other songs. If you play an instrument, bring it with you.

Sun., July 10, 2pm, Humanist Study Group at Border’s, 81st & Yale. Marilyn Clarke will speak on the Shakespeare authorship question.

Sun., July 17, 2pm, HAT Monthly Membership Meeting at the Genealogy Center, 2901 S. Harvard. Program to be announced later.

Tues., July 19, 7pm, Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous (formerly Atheists Meetup) at Zarrow Library, 2224 W. 51st St. DVD presentation: The God Who Wasn’t There.

Wed., July 20, 11:30am, ALGAE, lunch at White River Fish Market, 1708 N. Sheridan Rd.

Sat., July 23, 11:30am, Food & Fellowship, at Mex Italy, 6849 S. Peoria

"The God Who Wasn't There" in Newsweek

2005-06-28T17:00:00.000-05:00

The June 27, 2005 issue of Newsweek (dinosaur on cover) has a short piece on "The God Who Wasn't There" on page 12. The title of the piece is "Imaginary Friend?"

We will not watch the entire DVD at the July meeting. To watch the entire DVD would take 5 hours and 35 minutes. In addition to a 62-minute movie, there are two full-length commentary tracks, interviews with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and others, slide shows, and music. I will preview the DVD and select portions of it to show at the meeting.

The poor attendance at the last meeting (four at the beginning; three by the end) might be due to people not wanting to sit through a movie of an hour and three-quarter length. If you have any thoughts about meeting length or meeting activities, please post them in the comment section.

Coming in July

2005-06-17T10:09:00.000-05:00

In July, we will view the DVD presentation The God Who Wasn't There. If you would like to see what this DVD is about, go to http://thegodmovie.com. More later.

The June 2005 meeting

2005-06-07T15:30:00.000-05:00

The June 2005 meeting of Tulsa Atheist Rendezvous will be held at Zarrow Regional Library, 2224 W. 51 St., starting at 7:00 PM. I have a DVD of the recently released movie Heart of the Beholder which I will show. The movie runs 1 hour and 46 minutes; therefore, it will be necessary that we begin the movie promptly at 7:00 PM. The library closes at 9:00 PM.

Heart of the Beholder is based upon a true story which happened in St Louis a few years ago. Mike and Diana Howard opened the first videocasette rental store in St. Louis. A local group called Citizens For Decency (CFD) objected to the store renting such movies as Taxi Driver, Agnes of God, and Blazing Saddles. When the Howards offered for rental the movie The Last Temptation of Christ -- the only store in the St. Louis area to do so -- the CFD picketed and boycotted the store, ruining their business and ultimately driving the Howards into bankruptcy.

If you would like to read more about this movie, go to www.beholder.com. There you can view a teaser.