Well, the rapture has come and gone, leaving some people “flabbergasted” that nothing happened. Again.
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.
