Supporting Science, Reason and the Separation of Church and State Issue #11 May 17, 2011

National Secular Links

Americans United for Church and State Separation, National  au.org

ACLU.org

CFI centerforinquiry.net

camp-quest.org

Freedom From Religion Foundation ffrf.org

jennymccarthybodycount.com

Meetup.com (search for humanist, agnostic, atheists or church and state in your area)

National Center for Science Education ncse.com

People for the American Way pfaw.org

Richarddawkinsfoundation.org

James Randi Educational Foundation randi.org/site

Southern California Secular Humanist Conference.org (in San Diego)

Whatstheharm.net

Ateos Unidos: The group for Spanish speakers! 

Americans United Meets the third Sunday of the month at 1:30pm at the Irvine Ranch Water District 15600 Sand Canyon Ave. Irvine, CA 92618 http://www.au-oc.org/

AU General Meeting: 4th Sundays, 11:00 a.m. at Center for Inquiry West, 
4773 Hollywood Blvd. Presentation followed by lunch and afternoon activity. 
Board meets briefly at 10:30 a.m. for members’ concerns. Childcare is available. 
http://atheists.meetup.com/705/ 

Adopt-a-Highway: Help us keep our roads clean in the name of atheism! 

BackyardSkeptics.com – meets once a month in Villa Park (Orange County) also see meetup.com/backyard-skeptics

FreethoughtAllaince.org – sponsors debates and events in southern California

Free Thinkers for Liberty.org Freethinkers for Liberty is an organization of humanists and others who reject all superstition, in favor of rationality and critical thinking, who also respect the freedoms our forefathers described in the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

Freethinkers Toastmasters: Want to improve your speaking abilities in a fun and supportive group? 

GALAH: Gay and Lesbian Atheists and Humanists- 2nd Sundays, 1 p.m., 

Humanist Association of Los Angeles: 2nd Sunday, 11:00 a.m., 

Inland Empire: 1st Wednesday, 7 p.m., Riverside Unitarian Church 3657 Lemon St., Riverside Contact JanGoings@aol.com 

Lancaster “Antelope Valley Freethinkers” 4th Thurs., 7pm, Camille’s Garden Cafe, Lancaster 

Long Beach: 3rd Fridays, 7 p.m., at Hometown Buffet, 290 E. 4th St.

Orange County Atheists, meets one a month at the IHOP across from OC Airport 

Orange County Atheist United Chapter: 2nd Sundays, 10:30 a.m., 

San Fernando Valley: 3rd Thursday, 6:30 p.m., Kountry Folks Restaurant, 

Santa Clarita: 2nd Sundays, 11 a.m., at 

South Bay/Torrance: 3rd Sundays, 7p.m., 

Ventura: 4th Mondays, 7pm,

Ventura “Freethought Parents Network”: 

WestValley : Last Sundays, 2 p.m., 

WESTMINSTER – An article about a "Godless billboard" put up Wednesday by the Orange County Coalition for Reason generated a heated debate and so far, 1,231 comments on the Register's website.

A young man walks past the newly installed billboard in Westminster Wednesday evening.

embers of the group comprising atheists, agnostics and humanists say the $6,450 billboard is part of a nationwide campaign made possible by an anonymous donor in Philadelphia. The billboard is also an advertisement for the Orange County Freethought Alliance Conference on May 15 at the Airport Hilton in Irvine.

Also, 356 responded to a reader poll which asked the question: What is your reaction to atheists' new "Don't believe in God?" billboard in Westminster?

Forty six percent say: It doesn't bother me; I support tolerance for others' beliefs. Twenty nine percent say: I'm offended by an atheist billboard. And 25 percent say: I support the billboard's message.

Here is a compilation of some of the readers' responses to the article:

Lightitup wrote:

"As a resident of Westminster I couldn't care less about this billboard. And I pray (excuse the pun) that the city doesn't waste and time or money on this issue. That said, I see the sign as something like a store with nothing to sell putting out advertizing asking people to come in and shop for nothing. "We have nothing to sell but come on in anyway!" If you don't believe, fine, don't believe! But when you start organizing it seems like it's becoming a religion in itself. By the way, I don't like American Idol so I want to form a group that gets together to not watch American Idol."

"That's kind of an oxymoron calling a group of atheists, agnostics & humanists a coalition for reason. Ignoring all the evidence for the existence for God is NOT rational. I would bet that all who are posting here, using a computer, realize that it was designed by someone or more people. We can see that it did not just come into existence out of nowhere. However it is still only a puny imitation of our human brains--even with all the advances in computer technology (which has involved the efforts of many creative people over the last 100 years or so). I have found that while many may claim a rational basis for their disbelief, in reality it is often based on a dislike of the message God has revealed in the Bible. & so of course 1 way to deal with a message you dislike is to deny it or its Authorship."

"No matter what you believe it takes faith. If you are an atheist you believe that through billions of years the plants, animals and entire cosmos evolved from nothing. Now that takes a lot of faith."

"Truly an athiest needs some spiritual healing and a relationship with God, if they need to resort to a support group for fellow non believers. Let's put a bill board up, we are lonely and need support, please come join our non believer group. As a believer, i do not recall ever outing out an athiest for their non belief... their loss."

"Nobody, and I repeat, nobody knows for sure whether God exists or not, we may hold strong beliefs and arguments one way or the other, but until we die or the end of the world, we will never know for certain. So picking sides and trying to beat the other into submission is useless and a waste of time."

"Religion is the root of all evil. Not faith, there's nothing wrong with faith, but religion...And if those morons putting up the "end of the world on May 21st" ads can do so, then so can the atheists."

"Atheists are silly. The truth is that God, a magical deity (who himself has no beginning) blinked his eyes and willed everything into existence magically. Then he created his son who is really still God and had himself nailed to a cross because he created us as natural sinners so obviously we need to be saved from the realm of Hell which he himself created. It's all so rational, how can atheists be so blind?"

"Logic and Religion DO co-exist, they are coexisting as we speak. The idea that they are different creates a "right-wrong" frame of mind, which is pathetic argument made by most uneducated Atheists. Religion is God's voice, Science is God's blue prints for our existence."

Morals are the genes of societal evolution.

By Frish Frishberg

Human Social Evolution utilizes morals precisely as genes provide the fabric for evolution.

In biologic evolution, genes express themselves as "behavior" that, if "right", allows that population to continue.  

If "wrong" that population goes extinct.  

(I put parentheses by way of acknowledging that plants don't have "behavior" as humans do, but they too are at the mercy of evolution for their continuing existence!  "Behavior" in this case is still about genes expressing themselves and being "selected" or not.)

The same evolutionary mechanism serves to evolve human populations (Nations/societies/ tribes/families).

Groups of humans have a common goal to have the group continue.

Morals are the behaviors, both encouraged and prohibited, that define a society's social contract with individuals.

If people behave according to societal dictates, the goals of the society are supported.  If those goals are able to overcome the multitude of "environmental" factors, that society continues and its morals (right behavior) are justifiably credited.

Morals - Culturally relative (no surprise) and Culturally relevant

At the most basic level, we're social primates, and therefore have to get along in groups.

EVERY RELIGION/PHILOSOPHY ON EARTH RECOGNIZES THE GOLDEN RULE:  it's  built into our genome!

Morality is a capacity within individuals.  We all contain "pre-programming" for morality, infants display moral behaviors from birth, all peoples have morals world-wide, etc.  

As with language, and learned concurrently, a specific mix of right behaviors provide for the continued existence of a society.  

Morals help define behavior in groups of individuals.

Morals are learned within one's nation/culture/society/tribe/family.

Language and observation both provide means whereby people absorb (install?) morals, even to the way one thinks about an issue, since "acting morally" frequently means thinking morally (in support of one's society, family, self, depending, since morals are relative!).

Growing up in a culture defines moral teachings for an individual; those morals are also RELEVANT for a society!

Consider the following hypothetical:

Jews are forbidden pork.   Micronesians celebrate pigs. Both are acting "morally", and would say the other is acting immorally, or irrationally.

So, morals are relative, not a big surprise, even in our own lives morals are relative depending on our age, (or, even, other circumstances that would change our behavior - an adult having sex with a 9 year old would be considered immoral world wide, but when both are 25 it's expected...).

But, morals are culturally RELEVANT as well.

People and pigs compete for grain in the middle east.  Grain is tough enough to grow, no need for a competing mouth to feed.  Cows eat grass, pigs eat what people eat, bad combo.

In the Islands: Plenty of tubers are available, and since there are more tubers than humans can stomach, why not feed them to the pigs, since a pork chop tastes so much better than poi, and is a measure of wealth, dowry, payment in lawsuits, barter, etc.

So, in each case the morals/behaviors were consistent with the societal goal of continuance, and, even diametrically opposed behaviors are seen to be moral (in context).

This also provides a high yield example of how natural selection can operate on human populations, differentially.

If swine flu really did leap the porcine/human barrier...the Polynesians would be decimated (by the death of the resource, and the disease to boot!)

Morality is natural AND functions as the means by which societies evolve, providing the same natural selection mechanism as biologic evolution with morals acting as the genes of social evolution.

Twelve Steps to Living a Life Without God

 

1. 
   Admitting that your life has become too reliant upon sources outside yourself & that because of this you have weakened your own ability to solve your own problems.
   
2. 
   You have come to the conclusion that there is no power outside yourself which could make things any easier for you---you are in this alone.
   
3. 
   You make the decision to take your life and make it your own.  This means removing from it those influences from which you might have relied upon in the past---those which clearly did not help you in your own struggle.  These include, but are not limited to, all organized religions, all kinds of superstition, all supernatural thoughts & ideas, & all metaphysical alternatives to the real time reality which you have now come to accept.
   
4. 
   In taking control of your own life through understanding your own sole responsibility in this venture, you dispose of any moral obligations which you once carried in tandem with the individuals & organizations which tried to instill them upon you. 
   
5. 
   Since you now understand the false reality fed to you by indulgences in fictions like “god,” “spirits,” and those sources outside yourself that might have dictated rules to you once before---you now admit nothing to anyone but yourself, when it comes to so-called “wrongs.” It is your own sense of being which is developed by you in deciding what actions in life suit you (barring all foreseen societal consequences of course). 
   
6. 
   You understand that there is no one but you who can improve upon yourself and those imperfections that you alone find with your own actions in the everyday. 
   
7. 
   You look in the mirror & understand that the only “shortcomings” that may come from assessing yourself are given to you by the world outside you, and that it is you that has perpetuated this self-hatred as a direct result.  In this revelation you reject this policy of self-hatred because you know now that the opinions of that oppressive world do not define the person you see standing before you.  This is your life.  
   
8. 
   You reassess those checkering your past, whom you have felt guilty about prior to this moment.  In living for this moment, you understand that you can do absolutely nothing to change the past, accept to try and make your own life better in the present. 
   
9. 
   Communication between two or more people can dissolve because of any number of reasons, none of which are specifically your own fault, as it takes two or more people to keep relationships alive through mutual ambition to do so.  In realizing this, you liberate yourself from having to revive old relations which you have already move ahead of.
   
10. 
    You identify possible interests in which you may want to further inquire, with the knowledge that you may do so when you find the time to---not being pressured by anyone or anything outside you.
    
11. 
    Without the use of “prayer” or the tools of other organized propagators of various fictions, you look at your own life and make a pact with yourself that you will begin to develop those areas which you enjoy the most.  You will spend more time doing things that you alone love to do.   
    
12. 
    Having had no “spiritual awakening,” no “finding of god,” no assimilation to the groups & forces outside yourself, you find no need to try and “teach” or “proselytize” any of your own personal understandings to others---as each individual’s road is a road that they themselves walk alone as well.  You are free to live your own life as you see fit, without the pressure or obligation to set a standard for others to follow.  No one should be following anyone. 
    

 

What’s happening at Backyard Skeptics?

Backyard Skeptics is a grass-roots local group of skeptics and atheists in Orange County, CA. You might not know that Orange County is one of the more conservative areas in California and I happen to live in the most Republican city in the nation – Villa Park, the smallest city in Orange County.

Backyard Skeptics has a monthly meeting during the forth week of the month, but also has many other events such as science-oriented field trips, movie nights and outreach programs during the summer at the Huntington Beach pier. We have a meetup site with over 350 members and it’s free to join.

Event Calendar:

Free Thinker's Book Club Saturday, May 21, 2011 9:00 AM Panera Bread 2570 Tuscany St Corona, CA 92881

The Orange County chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church & State  
May event is a joint screening with the Orange County Equality Coalition of the film “8: 
The Mormon Proposition.”May 21st 2:00 PM, Irvine Ranch Water District, 15600 Sand Canyon Avenue, Irvine.  

Bookmobile  Sunday, May 22, 2011 4:00 PM  Where: Back to the Grind 3575 

University Ave Riverside, CA 92501

Backyard Skeptics News:

Read more news HERE

4/26/11 Atheists Seek Chaplain Role in the Military

4/25/11 Atheists invade Florida's Polk County School Board meeting

4/24/11 Florida mayor disses Atheists for Easter

4/22/11 Tennessee's "monkey bill" on hold

4/18/11 Malaysia’s anti-gay camp (audio file)

4/16/11 Stephen Uhl. Dr. Uhl is a former Catholic priest who left the Church and earned a Ph. D. in psychology

4/16/11 What can science say about atheism?

4/16/11 The world tried to ignore Terry Jones' Koran trial"—until it incited deadly riots.

4/14/11 New abortion laws show Christian Right's continued power

4/14/11 Americans United Criticizes Appeals Court Ruling Dismissing Challenge To National Day Of Prayer

3/31/11 (LOCAL) Compass Bible Church ad banned in Aliso Viejo'

Youtube news clip here

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