January 23rd Meetup

Hey everybody we had a great meeting tonight. We watched a variety of videos and had some good conversation. The first few videos we watched were from a series called Mr. Deity  They are short 5 minute skits with several characters. The main god character, Mr. Deity is married to Lucy (Lucifer) and have discussions with Jesus and other advisers  Each skit uses humor to point out contradictions, errors, and extreme rules of the bible and religion. Take the time to watch a few, the first one we watched was about stoning women who are not virgins when they marry.

We then watched an excerpt from The Invention of Lying where Ricky Gervais' character has to explain god to people. Watching as he had to come up with and explain the rules to people who had never heard of the man in the sky.

We then watched some stand-up by Eddie Izzard about Jesus explaining to god what he did while he was on Earth.

Then some Ricky Gervais as he jokes about the old testament god and dealing with his religious education teacher when he was young.

We also watched a music video by XTC, this is from their 1986 album when it was shown on MTV.

 We finished it up by watching some of Richard Dawkin's documentary, The Genius of Charles Darwin. Then we also watched some excerpts from Roger Nygard's, The Nature of Existence.
Overall we had a great time and I think we all either learned something or at least saw something that we haven't seen before. A big thanks to Andrea and Luke for hosting tonight. I look forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting, which will be scheduled soon and most likely be a game night at the library or possibly a trivia night.

News From This Week

I hope everyone is having a wonderful new year. Here are a couple of news stories that have come my way this week. The first story is about Indiana Senator Dennis Kruse, he has proposed legislation that would allow districts to require that the Lord's Prayer be recited daily at the beginning of school. Click here to read the full story.

Dennis Kruse

Now he must know that a law like this will never pass, yet he is still wasting legislative time trying to force his religion on students.The next article is about a faith-healer, Ariel Ben Sherman. In the early 2000's he convinced a mother not to seek medical treatment for her 15 year old daughter who had cancer and rely only on "faith healing". However, later on when he developed cancer he chose to put his faith in medical professionals. He has passed away, but there are still some possible legal and constitutional questions that need to be answered stemming from this case. You can read more about this case here and here.

Ariel Ben Sherman

Lastly is an article from the New York Times, written by Susan Jacoby who talks about how she came to her atheism as a young girl after a friend's illness. She speaks to how atheism actually is more of a benefit than a fictional belief in times of sorrow. She encourages us to be more open about our atheism lest we might be pushed into the background. We need people to realize that humanity is responsible for it's actions and not dismiss behavior as the will of god. That is what allows tragedies like the one that happened to Jessica Crank the 15 year old girl with cancer. So I encourage you to read Susan's article and let me know what your opinions are. Should a parent be allowed the right to refuse medical treatment to their child?  

Interesting Church Signs

Some interesting church signs that I have come across.