The Central Valley Alliance of Atheists and Skeptics invited Mormon elders Black and Turner to come and speak at tonight’s meeting at the Center for Nonviolence.
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.
