This turned out to be a very spirited discussion, where the elders attemped to expain to us a little about Mormonism, all the while being peppered by questions from CVAAS members.  The elders deserve kudos for coming into our space, with thanks for agreeing to the meeting.

We talked for over an hour, but honestly the time seemed to fly past.  The elders challenged CVAAS members to pray, in order to feel God’s spirit and in that way come to know God.  And some CVAAS members took them up on it – as any good skeptic should.  (Although some members decided they wished to be somewhat of a ‘control’ to the experiment, and abstained.)

What we found out during the evening is that the elders were not able to provide evidence that their God was real.  (The prayer at the end of the discussion was done in order to find evidence.  If God ‘spoke’ to one of us, that would be the evidence.)  The elders learned something about logical fallacies, and the problems with apologetics in general.

After the discussion and prayer, no one said that they had a change of heart or belief.  But who knows?  Maybe it works slower than that.  We will check back next month with the praying CVAAS members to see if they wish to cancel their membership.

After the discussion period, members adjourned to the Starline Bar and Grill for our monthly “Drinking Skeptically”.  We had a very big crowd tonight, and pretty much took over the back half of the Starline.  As always at Drinking Skeptically, the conversation went everywhere!  If you haven’t made it to one of these events, please come out!

Coming up on the 21st is the annual Winter Solstice party.  Keep an eye out for this upcoming event.

Amendment 1 – to change the date of CVAAS elections.

This amendment will change Article IV – 3, which states:

Elections will be held once a year for all offices. There are no term limits. Formal elections will be held during the first Sunday of September. The duties and functions of these offices will be determined in the organization operating procedures.

The changed text will read:

Elections will be held once a year for all offices. There are no term limits. Formal elections will be held during the first Sunday of October. The duties and functions of these offices will be determined in the organization operating procedures.

This change will also affect the date of the annual Heretic’s Barbeque, which will also take place on the first Sunday of October.  This change was suggested due to heat making the Barbeque less enjoyable, and due to Labor Day.  Many of our members are college students who are not available during Labor Day.  If you would like to discuss this change, please follow the comments to this post to the Rational Valley Forum where you can do so.

An official vote will be taken on the business meeting in January.

This post will serve as an official announcement to the membership of CVAAS.

Non-believers may have seen Maher’s documentary film “Religulous” which comically explored various world religions, religous views and beliefs.  Maher also hosts the political satire comedy show “Real Time with Bill Maher”, appearing weekly on HBO.

Maher got his start with famous skeptics and humanists / atheists in show business when Steve Allen introduced him to Jonny Carson and David Letterman.  Maher’s work is brutally honest and like the name of his first show, “Politically Incorrect”.

CVAAS is working with the promoter to see if we can get a pair of free tickets or perhaps a backstage pass for one or two nonbelievers who are eager to meet Mr. Maher.  Unfortunately, we won’t be able to treat him to dinner – his time is limited and he will be leaving Fresno right after the show.

If you are interested, send an email to info@cvaas.org and let us know!

Tickets are available for purchase online now.

And we have a lot to celebrate!  Here is what CVAAS has been involved with since last year’s Barbecue:

• Author David Fitzgerald Hosted by CVAAS
• CVAAS at the Fresno Pride Festival
• CVAAS at the American Atheists West Coast RAM
• Lectures at the University of Phoenix
• CVAAS becomes a member of the Valley Coalition of Reason
• “Day of Reason” blood drive
• Tabling events at Fresno City College and California State University, Fresno
• Field trip to the Fossil Discovery Center
• Trilobite hunt
• Darwin Days at CSUF
• Darwin Phylum Feast
• Getting together with like-minded friends at Drinking Skeptically and other events.

Every Heretic’s BBQ has a theme.

This year’s theme is “Alternative Medicine”!  We will be discussing and demonstrating different forms of alt-med.  We will also explain how some “alternative medication” has become medication.  Aspirin is a great example of this.

We are still lining up the schedule for this event.  If you would like to be part of that schedule, please let us know at info@cvaas.org.  You can join the discussion at the Rational Valley 4th Annual Heretic’s BBQ page.

Due to popular demand, Vice-President David Costa will again apply his culinary skills and bring us Tri-tip.  As always, there will be a vegetarian alternative.

Details:

• Date: September 4th, 2011
• Time: 11am – 7pm
• Place: Letterman Park 908 Villa Ave Clovis CA 93612
• Tickets: $14 for adults, $5 for kids 12 and under.
• Buy your tickets online at our store here.  Ticket price may increase at the event.

CVAAS invites everyone to advertise this event online.  Or, if you wish, you can download and print this flyer, and post it where ever it is appropriate to do so.

And yet, a neat sort of phenomenon HAS happened.  Non-believers across the country gathered together… to party!  And what better way to pooh-pooh prophesy that has failed over and over again than to poke some lighthearted fun at it?

As part of this attitude, the American Atheists sponsored a “West Coast ‘Rapture’ Regional Atheist Meet” for May 21 & 22.  CVAAS was present, with Mark Boyd as one of the conference speakers and Justin Stolle there for support and some great photos.

Some well-known atheists were there.  Matt Dillahunty, Greta Christina, Rebecca Watson, and Jen McCreight.  Of course THE deity showed up to this event – Mr. Deity himself.

It was my understanding that the entire conference was going to be recorded.  However CVAAS has heard that before at different events.  Event organizers, religious and secular alike, are not always able to create and keep high quality recordings.  So I recorded my own talk.  At the urging of organizer Larry Hicok, I also recorded Greta Christina’s talk.

My talk was about the state of atheism and skepticism in the Central Valley.  Unfortunately time was running out on the conference when my talk concluded, so only one question was allowed.  You can listen to my talk here.

Greta Christina’s talk was about why atheists are so angry.  Questions were not allowed at the end of her talk either.  You can hear Greta’s talk here.

I feel a little bad about no questions allowed.  Some talks did not start on time due to technical issues and some extraneous announcements.  Some talks ran over due to the speaker.  It wasn’t a problem on Saturday because we had the conference hall for the whole day.  On Sunday the conference was scheduled to be completed at 1pm, so schedules that slid bit into the time for later talks.

I had checked the schedule beforehand to see how much time I had for my talk – 45 minutes – and timed my talk for 30 minutes, expecting 15 minutes of Q & A.  My apologies to those who had questions, but it was out of my control.  Feel free to use the comments here for any questions or follow up.

Still, I had a great time at the conference, and can’t wait for the next.

I hope that members and friends of CVAAS will join me in upcoming events.  Don’t forget to click on the “Events” menu for more upcoming events.

My graduation from high school is this Friday. I live in the Bible Belt of the United States. The school was going to perform a prayer at graduation, but due to me sending the superintendent an email stating it was against Louisiana state law and that I would be forced to contact the ACLU if they ignored me, they ceased it. The school backed down, but that’s when the shitstorm rolled in. Everyone is trying to get it back in the ceremony now. I’m not worried about it, but everyone hates me… kind of worried about attending graduation now. It’s attracted more hostility than I thought.

 

My reasoning behind it is that it’s emotionally stressing on anyone who isn’t Christian. No one else wanted to stand up for their constitutional right of having freedom of and FROM religion. I was also hoping to encourage other atheists to come out and be heard. I’m one of maybe three atheists in this town that I currently know of. One of the others is afraid to come out of the (atheist) closet.

Though I’ve caused my classmates to hate me, I feel like I’ve done the right thing. Regardless of their thoughts on it, basically saying I am ruining their fun and their lives, I feel like I’ve helped someone out there. I didn’t do this for me or just atheists, but anyone who doesn’t believe in their god that prayer to Yahweh may affect.

Moral of the story: though the opposition may be great, majority doesn’t necessarily mean right. Thank you for reading. Wish me luck at graduation.

EDIT: Well, it hit the fan a couple hours ago. They’ve already assembled a group of supporters at a local church and called in the newspaper. I’ve had to deactivate my Facebook account and I can’t reason with any of them. They refuse to listen. The whole town hates me, aside from a few closet atheists that are silently supporting, which I don’t blame them looking at what I’ve incited here. Thanks for the support though.

The Bastrop Enterprise quotes one of the teachers at Damon’s High School, a Ms. Mitzi Quinn

Mitzi Quinn has been on the staff at BHS for almost 25 years, much of that time as a senior advisor. In the past, Quinn said there have been students who were atheist, agnostic and other non-Christian religions who “had no problems” with the prayer.

“They respected the majority of their classmates and didn’t say anything,” Quinn said. “We’ve never had this come up before. Never.”

Throughout her time working with the student, Quinn said they never expressed their personal beliefs or that they had any problems with other students’ Christian faiths.

“And what’s even more sad is this is a student who really hasn’t contributed anything to graduation or to their classmates,” Quinn said.

What is sad is the Ms. Quinn does not recognize Damon’s action against prayer as probably the hardest, and biggest contribution that any student has made at that school!  Most students do what is easy, Damon did what was RIGHT.  And was vilified for it.

Thursday night (May 19) was the graduation rehersal.  The graduation is (I believe) Friday, May 20.  During the rehersal the student valedictorian, a Christian, decided to do as she pleased instead of following the law.  She was soundly cheered by other students who don’t understand how this is wrong.  You can see a recording here.

Damon’s brother, Jerrett said this about Damon:

As far as his spirits are concerned, he sounded scared. Really scared, actually. He sounded as if he was about to cry on the phone with me, although I’m not sure if it was because of all the support here or because he’s scared. He has gotten death threats already and threats of bodily harm if he shows up to graduation. We’re still assessing if it is safe enough for him to be there. The only way we can ensure his safety is to grow this to the national level. I’d love to see CNN, BBC, TheDailyShow, Richard Dawkins, and Colbert get on this story. I can’t provide safety alone.

That’s right.  Some of the Christians of Bastrop High School have threated to beat Damon up, or kill him, if he shows up to his graduation.  No word about any other Christians at BHS pointing out how un-Christian this is, or perhaps offering to shield Damon from harm.

If you would like to show your support for Damon – do so by becoming a fan of him on Facebook.

Atheists around the country are eager to do what they can for Damon.  His mother has disowned him and cut him off financially.  Damon is going to live in Texas with his brother Jerrett, who will try to put Damon through college.  The FFRF has already pledged $1,000 toward Damon’s college fund.  If you would also like to help Damon and Jerrett, you can donate through The Friendly Atheist.

But in the short term the best way to help Damon is to spread the word.  Talk to local news agencies about this.  Let’s get a spotlight of attention focused on Bastrop High School so the intolerant there won’t have the darkness they need to act against Damon.

The previous vandalism by a tagger altered the message by whiting out the word “Don’t”.  A tagger’s signature was also added.

Although the tagger who attacked the orignal sign is statistically likely to be a Christian, it is unlikely he or she vandalized our sign out of any sort of religious conviction.  No, the vandalism seems to have been calculated to take advantage of the controversy.

What is offensive to me personally about the vandalism is the extremely poor quality of the tag.  “MADC” is a pretty famous graffiti artist who creates some beautiful work.  (Yes, her work is on public and private property – I have a problem with that.)  The Fresno tagger who took her signature in vain clearly failed his or her second grade fingerpainting class.

Regardless of the intent of the tagger, the results have been greater coverage of the ValleyCoR message.  There have been comments of thanks in the ValleyCoR Facebook page and in email from atheists who would not have heard of us from the orignal advertisement.

In addition to this, ValleyCoR is the recepient of additional advertising from a local individual who has opened a “hate” web site against us.  His web site has also directed positive atheists and skeptics to ValleyCoR and CVAAS.

This hate website is valleycorsucks.com.  I am showing the link to his website in order to point out that the First Presbyterian Church of Fresno (highlighted in this website’s banner) does NOT support  valleycorsucks.  First Presbyterian has told ValleyCoR that the website owner does not represent them, and is not a member of their church.  I would like to personally say that First Presbyterian has been very kind and gracious to ValleyCoR and to CVAAS, and I encourage CVAAS readers who wish to send a respectful note of thanks to First Presbyterian.

Please note the new date and room for this event below. CVAAS is hosting author David Fitzgerald for a speaking engagement regarding his new book. Details below.

David Fitzgerald: “The Ten Thousand Christs and the Evaporating Jesus”

Why would anyone think Jesus never existed? Isn’t it perfectly reasonable to accept that he was a real first century figure? As it turns out, no. David Fitzgerald, author of the highly-praised new book Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed At All, doesn’t just defend the Christ Myth theory, he goes on the offense and discusses the fatal flaws in the assumption that Jesus was a real historical figure, as well as how very different the historical record would be if there had been a real Jesus – even a merely mortal one…

Dave is a writer and historical researcher who has been actively investigating the Historical Jesus question for over ten years. Come hear him discuss, with research gathered from historians all across the theological spectrum, how the traditional image of Jesus simply doesn’t add up, and how the evidence points to a messiah transformed from a purely literary, theological construct into the familiar figure of Jesus – in short, a purely mythic Christ. Copies of Nailed will be available for purchase and signing. ($20, cash or checks only please)

Praise for David Fitzgerald’s
Nailed: Ten Christian Myths That Show Jesus Never Existed At All

Nailed has been voted by Atheism.About.com’s Reader’s Choice Awards as one of top five best Atheist/Agnostic Books of 2010.

“Fitzgerald’s is possibly the best ‘capsule summary’ of the mythicist case I’ve ever encountered …with an interesting and accessible approach.”
—Earl Doherty, author of The Jesus Puzzle

“Fitzgerald summarizes a great number of key arguments concisely and with new power and original spin. I really learned something from him. Recalls classical skeptics and biblical critics. A surprising amount of new material.”
—Robert M. Price, author of Deconstructing Jesus and The Incredible Shrinking Son of Man

“David Fitzgerald reveals himself to be the brightest new star in the firmament of scholars who deny historical reality to “Jesus of Nazareth.” His brilliance would have been sufficiently established had he done nothing more than illustrate and explain traditional arguments with a clarity and transparency never achieved…But he has done more. He has developed new arguments and insights as well…”
—Frank R. Zindler, editor of American Atheist Press and author of The Jesus the Jews Never Knew

“Fitzgerald has hit the nail on the head…A nice, readable introduction to the top ten problems typically swept under the rug by anyone insisting it’s crazy even to suspect Jesus might not have existed.”
—Richard C. Carrier, Ph.D., author of Not the Impossible Faith: Why Christianity Didn’t Need a Miracle to Succeed and the forthcoming book On the Historicity of Jesus Christ

The Central Valley Coalition of Reason “Don’t belive in God” billboard has been vandalized.

This billboard was posted mid-day on Tuesday, and press releases went out on Wednesday.  We had heavy news coverage on Wednesday and in Thursday’s Frenso Bee.

But the billboard didn’t make it unscathed even as far as the weekend.

The graffitti seems intended to take advantage of our current publicity.  Writing on a “godless” billboard doesn’t seem as important as getting out this tagger’s ID.

The previous billboard remained untagged until it was removed – it was a mostly white billboard with very little text, used to advertise the Red Cross.  All that white canvas wasn’t as attractive to a tagger than our little message of encouragement to non-believers.

Fresno does have a tagging problem, and I’m sure that the slime that does this sort of thing do so out of their own tagging aggrandizement, and not because they are in any way pious or faithful.  I hold little hope that this person or people will be caught and given the justice they deserve.

I do have hopes that the Fresno Community will stand together in their condemnation of this vile act.