I just read an article by Staks Rosch in the Philadelphia Examiner about the FSGP and their Tree of Knowledge. It’s an evergreen tree decorated with book covers (how shocking, how impudent!) from books representing knowledge, education, science, philosophy, morality, diversity and curiosity. (I am so offended! What? No Twilight?! No Dan Brown?!) Here is a complete list of the books represented.

Staks makes some points that I really like: “[The Tree of Knowledge]  is not an attack on religion, but rather an expression of an alternative set of values (i.e. knowledge and reason).”

How horrific! Now I understand why the good christians of the area are so up in arms, vandalizing the tree and organizing call campaigns to get it removed. And why the county is bending to the will of one religion on government property. It’s just so hateful to have a tree decorated with thoughtful, intelligent books. What? Oh? It’s not threatening at all? EXACTLY! WTF!

Staks also says, “Many Christians have claimed that the inclusion of humanist values next to the Jesus Crèche is an attempt to “steal” Christmas. It seems that many Christians are of the opinion that Christians own the winter season. They do not.”

Later he says, “Atheists aren’t trying to “steal” Christmas any more than Christians stole Saturnalia… oh wait, never mind.” Again, I agree completely.

This kind of thing makes me so angry. Religious organizations bully their way into having their cake and eating it too. Politicians and the masses alike bend to that will for what reason? Why do they get to own most holidays? My sister in law is offended when I say happy holidays instead of merry christmas. It’s the classic bully at the pulpit who then cries and runs for the government to protect him when someone brings up that he’s breaking the law or that he’s being a bully.

christians and muslims don’t want to play fair. They want to win. Which is why I am an activist atheist. I don’t want to be forced to pray to a man in the sky that doesn’t exist. I am moral and ethical on my own without being forced into the barbaric false ethics of an iron aged society of goat herders from the Middle East.

I suppose here in Morgantown, if such inequities are occurring, we’ll put up an atheist/humanist display soon too. At this time, I am not aware of any. But I haven’t checked every government building lawn for crèches either.

Keep an eye out in your town. If you see religious displays on government property, take action, form a group. You can then turn it into a community of like-minded people like we’ve got here in our sleepy little town. It’s the most wonderful feeling to hang out with a bunch of freethinkers. But don’t just take things lying down. Don’t let the religious people bully us into giving up our freedoms and our constitutional rights just because we are too apathetic to make a stand for those rights.

EDIT: The Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia has helpful hints for setting up your own Tree of Knowledge.

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Amusing ourselves to death by Stuart McMillen – Aldous Huxley, author of “Brave New World vs. George Orwell, author of “Nineteen Eighty-Four”

What Orwell feared were those who would ban books.

What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who would want to read one.

Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information.

Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism.

Orwell feared the truth would be concealed from us.

Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.

Orwell feared we would become a captive culture.

Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy and the centrifugal bumble puppy.

As Huxley remarked in “Brave New World Revisited”, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.”

In “Nineteen Eighty-Four”, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In “Brave New World”, people are controlled by inflicting pleasure.

In short, Orwell feared that what we hate will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we love will ruin us.

“Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business” by Neil Postman

I think I need to read Brave New World again. It seems that Huxley was quite accurate. We are a society of apathetic, ignorant, ego-centric fools.

Found Here.

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Recently I decided to see about finding a few friends from high school. I found one, we’ll call him Pete. We have been chatting on Facebook and it was looking like maybe we could be friends again. I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing. Well, then I mentioned that I went to a group meeting this past Sunday. I realized after mentioning it that the very name of the group would open up the discussion of religion and I tried to change the subject. I didn’t want to lose a friend before even getting him back.

The meeting I went to was for Morgantown Atheists. I’ve become rather active with them, as they are local, seem quite friendly, and hey, they’re atheists! Yay! Well, Pete immediately asked me, why am I an atheist? I started to tell him. I said that there’s no evidence for any gods. He said he had proof of god and the afterlife. I was intrigued and asked him for details, and to tell me why he is a christian, and he then told me 2 stories from his past, which have made him a believer.

He has a very unusual set of beliefs, culled together from different christian ideas, but mainly filtered down to only be the happy stuff. The stories he told were very much not happy. So I guess it makes sense for him to see the afterlife as a good thing.

As he told me more and more, I realized that if I said anything at all, to shine the light of logic and reason onto his stories and perceptions of god and the afterlife, that I’d alienate him as well as make him mad. He apparently derives great comfort from his beliefs, and I didn’t think it was appropriate to burst his bubble with talk of evidence, especially since it was clear that he felt he had more than enough proof. In fact, at one point he asked me if he had freaked me out. I had to say no, and that it wasn’t going to convert me either.The thing is, he ended the conversation and I haven’t heard from him since.

On a side note, my sisters-in-law are also very religious and on Facebook. They were in my face about god and praying and stuff until I finally reminded one of them that I refuse to pray for anyone. Right after that I started getting more atheist friends over there, thanks to you fine people, and I started sharing and posting more atheist stuff on my page. They have since stopped talking to me.

The other sister-in-law (that I didn’t confront about prayer) still comments if I put up a happy post about how lovely the weather is, but neither have chatted with me since I’ve become more vocal in my atheism on Facebook. What’s really sad is that it’s not really a great loss. I was constantly trying to stifle my irritation at them shoving their god down my throat. So now things are much less frustrating. But they’re part of my family, so it’s still sad.

Anyway, while in the middle of the conversation with Pete, I thought, hey, I’ll contact the Morgantown Atheists forum and ask for some help! I felt that I was too frustrated to not snap at Pete, so I thought maybe they could give me some objective pointers. I sent a message to them and got some great advice back. I thought I’d share it with you, so we all have it for when atheists and religious family and friends collide.

I’m sure you all have your ways to deal with this stuff. I already use a lot of this information all the time. But it just seemed particularly helpful all in one place.

First, David Mills wrote Atheist Universe. I’ve read the first 2 chapters awhile ago and loved it, but I was reminded that the second chapter is a question and answer between a christian and David, the atheist. If you go to his website, he offers the second chapter in audio format to listen to. I found that to be a great refresher and reminder, as well as found a few new points that I had missed when I read it. Now I’m going to read the rest of the book. (Sometimes I’m a bit slow with books, but I get there eventually.)

Neil offered me this advice: (I changed the beginning to sort of a list for easy reference)

Personally, I would say:

• “I’m an atheist, for the same reason that you’re an atheist, when it comes to gods like Zeus”.
• Atheism isn’t a rejection of any God, it is just the default position, the null position. I just don’t believe in magical, or supernatural, things until there is adequate evidence to support it.
• Also, I notice that people often tend to get “get stuck” into the same beliefs of their parents, be they; Christians, Hindus, Muslims (or even the followers of Zeus). Because of that, it seems to me, that all religions are just dogma perpetuated from one generation to the next. And it seems to me to be just an arbitrary accident of birth, as to which one we end up getting saddled with. I try to keep an open mind, but until I see adequate supporting evidence I’ll just keep my default position.

Don’t be surprised if your friend seems a little bi-polar with you, from day to day. I’ve gotten into the God conversation with a very close friend and I found out that his Christian friends were telling him, on some days, how great it was that he can witness to me (the atheist). But, on other days they were telling him that he should remove himself from any godless people, and/or godless influences. Personally, I think “believers” are quick to try to pigeon-hole everything into two classifications, Good and Evil. So again, don’t be surprised by him getting a little bi-polar with you.

If it is a healthy, fair and rational discussion, you should be free to bring it up in conversations, and/or ask just as many questions, as he does. It is also very helpful (in any discussion) to try to be aware of your word choices, try not to put him on the defensive. Use qualifiers like “I think”, “its my opinion”, “I’ve heard”. Try to be inclusive by saying things like “we get saddled”, “we can’t know”. If you think your statement will be too attacking (How can YOU! think that) try deflecting your “attack” into something like “how can Christians think that”. And you may want to have him, and you, both agree that it is ok to disagree, when all is said and done. Nether of you should expect to change the other’s position. Discussions like this are more about learning the other’s position (at least to a better degree) and learning about gaps your own knowledge about your own position.

To help you articulate your position, as an atheist, you should definitely read/listen to books like Atheist Universe (which is sounds like your doing), The God Delusion and Letter to a Christian Nation (it’s a quick read). I really like Bill Maher’s movie/documentary “Religulous” (you should be able to find it at BlockBuster or on NetFlix). You might want to recommend Religulous to your friend, it’s very funny, in places, and may be eye opening for him. I’ve changed my cell phone’s name (it’s blue tooth name) to say “U Must C Religulous”, I don’t know how often people look for other blue tooth devices, but if I’m around they see that

Neil
Beckley, WV
gotscience@verizon.net
http://www.myspace.com/99277352

Neil asked me to give his contact information in case anyone had questions, which I thought was pretty cool.
A few notes: Religulous was a great movie. I recommend it. I haven’t read the other 2 books. If you have feel free to give us a review in the comments.

I also got a short note from another group member who added:

The advice the others gave is very good, especially the David Mills Q&A that you downloaded. But don’t expect too much because in my experience most believers are coming from an emotional stance, not an evidence based one. So don’t be surprised if all the evidence in the world won’t convince him. To paraphrase Carl Sagan: “You can’t convince a believer of anything, because their belief is based on a deep seated need to believe.”

I didn’t get his permission so I won’t give his name. But it’s good stuff too, so I thought I’d share it.

If you have any thoughts on how to talk to true believers about atheism and religion, feel free to share! We can all use new techniques for these potentially difficult confrontations.

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Today I thought I’d share some books, movies and podcasts with you. Like anyone else, I love being entertained. I go through phases where I only read textbooks, then sometimes I only want fiction. I’ve noticed that even when I’m only reading fiction I still seem to always get something more from the book, though. Right now I’m in a fiction phase, pointedly ignoring the dozens of textbooks I have piling up. Yet I still want to share the good ones with you because they are much deeper than just a light read. I also thought it was high time to share my favorite podcasts and some great movies with you. What all these things have in common, aside from being entertaining, is that they are all enlightening too. Bonus!

So let’s start with podcasts. A couple years ago I finally realized that even though most people love music, I don’t care for it much. I prefer listening to people talk about interesting or funny things. Most of the time when I’m working on the computer, I like it quiet. If I’m designing t-shirts, I listen to Ricky Gervais’ podcasts which are really funny and quirky. But whenever I clean or cook I like to have people talk to me. So I am always looking for great podcasts. I love learning interesting things, so most of these are science oriented.

My Favorite Podcasts:

• The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe: Intelligent, witty, always interesting. My favorite podcast. I look forward to the new episode every week. Great stuff!
• The Skeptics’ Guide 5×5: Only 5 minutes long, it briefly covers one topic. A good companion to the SGU.
• The Naked Scientists: British, intelligent and always chock full of science and interesting stuff.
• Ask the Naked Scientists: This is a podcast dedicated to answering any kind of science questions. They know just about everything. I always learn cool stuff here.
• Freethought Radio: I have taken a break from this one, but I still get them. I find them a bit overbearing sometimes, but when it comes to religion, it’s usually good to know what’s going on in the world. They are always talking about their billboard campaign though, which personally I think isn’t nearly as amazing as they do.
• Quirks & Quarks: A Canadian podcast about science. I find they have good interviews on new science before most other podcasts, but that might just be the schedule or something.
• Reasonable Doubts: I’m new to this podcast which a friend just told me about a month ago. He said, it’s the SGU but about religion instead of science. These three guys know their stuff and I get a lot out of each episode. It’s for people who don’t just take things on faith.
• Science Talk: Scientific American’s podcast. Quite enjoyable and educational.
• Ricky Gervais: His podcasts are pretty funny. He has an infectious laugh. I love his Guides To stuff. He and his friends Steve Merchant and the irrepressible Karl Pilkington are just perfect together. I literally laugh out loud sometimes.
• Breaking Science: I am just downloading all of the episodes of this podcast right this very minute. I found it while getting links for the other podcasts. It’s from the Naked Scientists, so I am sure I’ll like it.

Enlightening Movies I’ve Seen Recently:

The Day of the Triffids: Ok, stick with me. Back in the early 80′s the BBC did a mini-series based on the book of the same name. I read it when I was young but my nearly perfect husband Butch wanted to watch this for some reason, so I sighed dramatically, expecting to hate it. The special effects are pretty awful, but they are used sparingly. The Triffids are actually not half bad. But the acting is quite good. I recently got the book and will read it when Butch is done with it. Why I recommend it is because it’s one of those movies that makes you think about how we do things and what would happen if almost everyone were struck blind.  I found the way people reacted was fascinating. Most people wanted to wait for help to come. They just knew it would be there soon. Anyway, it’s a very good social commentary.

City of Ember: This was another strange choice by Butch. Again, when I saw the cover and read the description, I sighed dramatically and figured it was going to be pretty sucky. Well, wasn’t I surprised! The acting is great, the story is different and interesting, and the deeper messages are excellent. While it’s for young adults, I found it to be a hidden gem. It’s based on a book by the same name, which I just started reading today.  The social commentary is subtle, but if you decide to watch it, just pay attention to how people react and what they say. That’s the real meat of this movie. I won’t say much else. I hope you’ll like it if you give it a chance.

Great Books I’ve Read Recently:

The Heathen’s Guide to World Religions: This is the last text I’ve read. It’s a short book but quite comprehensive and interesting. You can get this from Amazon but if you get it directly from the author it’s much more affordable, probably because the writer gets to keep more of the profit, which is a good thing. This book irreverently looks at all of the major world religions in just the right amount of detail and wit. The only thing that I can complain about is the book should have gone through another proofreader before printing. That kind of stuff is really irritating, but even so, it’s totally worth reading if you want to know the history and some very  good information about each world religion. I learned a lot and laughed out loud several times while doing so.

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass): Wow, wow and wow. We saw the movie awhile ago and it was very good. I decided I wanted to read the book and found out it was a trilogy. While the movie was interesting and well done, the books were excellent. I just finished the last one yesterday. I have to say I’m glad I watched the movie first, because it helped me flesh out the books. But now I want to see the movie again so that it will make it even better. The movie is pretty faithful to the first book. But the book is much richer and deeper, and goes further than where the movie leaves off. I went to Philip Pullman’s website yesterday (the author) and he says it doesn’t look like they’ll make the other 2 movies which is a huge disappointment to me. While the first book touches on some interesting subjects, the 2 following books tackle everything from quantum physics and parallel worlds to the world of god, angels, the world of the dead, the church and so much more. I originally watched the movie because of the controversy. I heard that Philip Pullman wrote the books because he felt the Chronicles of Narnia were shallow attempts at indoctrinating children into christianity. (that’s my wording, not his). And they are. I remember when I read them in my 20′s I was totally disgusted when it suddenly became clear that Aslan was god or jesus or whatever. It seemed like a shallow and shameless attempt to sucker children into the church. Mr. Pullman is an atheist. Which makes reading the Dark Materials trilogy even more interesting. I won’t tell you any specifics but trust me, these books are excellent and well worth the read. Fascinating, thought provoking, page turning excellence.

What I’m Reading Now:

The City of Ember:This is a young adult novel that I just started reading today. So far it’s very good. It’s an easy read, but interesting. It seems that the movie is quite faithful to the book, which I always appreciate. This is the first in a series of 4 books. I read the reviews in the front, and one in particular was helpful. The book (and the movie) basically give a very minimal explanation for why the City of Ember was created over 200 years ago. The movie never really explains, but the review of the book says that the reader finds out as the characters start to learn it themselves. So there is a mystery that will unfold, I gather. Part of the deeper message is that the people of Ember seem to have lost their curiosity, or maybe their circumstances forced them to give it up, I’m not sure yet. Anyway, I didn’t want to put the book down, so that’s a good sign.

Ok, so that’s what I’ve been reading, watching and listening to. Do you have any suggestions you’d like to share? I look forward to your comments, as always!

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I finally picked up the book Saturday night. I’m on Chapter 5. So far it’s amazing. Then again what did I expect from a genius.

Here are three of my favorite quotes from the book.

We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

Indeed, organizing atheists has been compared to herding cats, because they tend to think independently and will not conform to authority.

The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

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A friend of mine wrote about MIT and their free classes online. It sounds great. The only catch is, you don’t get credits for the classes you take, so it can’t get you towards a degree, but it’s Free Information. It’s pretty hard to beat.

While looking into MIT, I found a lot of other great colleges and universities are now doing the same thing. Here’s a brief list. I’m sure there’s much more out there if you look:

MIT: 1800 courses to choose from. Free lecture notes, exams and videos. No registration required.

Carnegie Mellon: Open learning initiative. Several to choose from.

Tufts University: No registration needed, quite a few classes to choose from.

Stanford: They make courses, lectures, interviews, music and sports available through iTunes U.

UC Berkeley: Several classes to choose from.

Kutztown University of Pennsylvania: Small Business Development Center has a large selection of free entrepreneuial training resources online. They say they have real world tools for small business owners with several topics available including accounting, finance, government, legal, marketing and sales.

UC Irvine: A few courses available.

A lot of these places say they are part of the OCW. The OCWC is the Open Courseware Consortium. They are located around the world and list all the places you can go online to tap into this amazingly cool resource.

Also, more tips, schools and tricks over at Lifehacker in a post they did quite awhile ago, but it might still be relevant.

Happy Learning Everyone!

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Bartleby – providing students, researchers and the intellectually curious with unlimited access to books and information free of charge on the web.

The Internet Public Library – Huge selection of more than 20,000 books to read online.

Many Books – Over 21,000 free ebooks available here.

Project Gutenberg – Over 25,000 free ebooks in their online catalog.

Refdesk – Quality, credible and timely online resources available for free, such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, calculators and much more.

The Online Books Page – Over 30,000 free books online, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania.

This list is compiled from Here where 40 sites are listed. But most of the links either didn’t offer much or didn’t seem quite as free as they appeared at first glance, so I’ve pared it down.

There are many other resources out there. But these seem like the best of the bunch. If you find more places to get great books online for free, leave a comment.

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