American Atheists President, David Silverman, announced today plans to present a special lecture about defaming Islam at the upcoming Kansas City Regional Atheist Meeting held at the Sheraton Overland Park Hotel and Convention Center on October 6-7, 2012, in Kansas City, KS. The intent of the lecture is to affirm the right of free speech in America, including blasphemy.

http://atheists.org/atheists-assert-right-blaspheme

 

http://www.alabamaatheist.org/?p=89

Everything boiled down to the local freethinkers. You are the local freethinker for your area newspaper. Are you inspired? Are you writing? Are you encouraged? Do you encourage others?

TEN TIPS for being printed

1. STICK TO ONE TOPIC: Do not go from topic to topic in your letter. If you are responding to a letter that has spouted a lot of misinformation, just pick one and cover it. We know that for every sentence of mythinformation it takes several paragraphs to correct. Use your paragraphs wisely and stick to one subject. If more subjects need to be covered, have a friend write another letter to cover one of them.

2. SPEAK SOFTLY: Do not be too brash or abrasive unless it is necessary to make your point. The sheep will not listen to you if you howl like a wolf. Be caring, compassionate, understanding, and stick to the information necessary. There are times were abrasive letters are necessary and after a while you will learn to recognize when that time comes.

3. NO AD HOMINEM: Try not to personally attack a previous letter-writer or editorialist. Stick to the facts and present your case. There’s nothing wrong with saying someone else was wrong, incorrect or even “misled”, but do not resort to name-calling. As always, there are certain circumstances where name-calling is appropriate; for example, calling Judge Moore a “bigot” is okay – after all, he really is a bigot. 

4. AVOID SPECIFIC NAMES: When responding to letters try not to use the previous writer’s name. Use statements like “a previous letter writer” or a “recent writer stated…” By avoiding using the person’s name, you can reduce the “friend effect,” which is what happens when you piss another writer off and he or she gets all their friends to berate you in letters. There are of course exceptions. It is best to use a person’s name when responding to figures of authority or persons that have made derogatory or similar remarks and need to be publicly embarrassed.

5. DON’T GENERALIZE: Avoid generalizing statements that could alienate a larger portion of the population that otherwise would have supported you. Do not say things like “all Christians.” Be specific and cite facts and evidence to back up your claims. You will find that many in the religious community will support you on many issues, but will quickly drop you if you make sweeping comments that target everyone instead of the offenders.

6. NAME SOURCES: When quoting statistics or data, make sure you quote the source for your data. Do not give anyone the opportunity to say that you made your data up – provide the source. There are two ways to do this, either put the source in parenthesis after your data or include the source in your statement. For example: According to the Department of Education less than 30% of all public schools still had mandatory prayer and Bible-reading prior to the 1963 Supreme Court decision. (Or) Less than 30% of all public schools still had mandatory Bible and prayer prior to the 1963 Supreme Court decision (Source: Dept. of Education).

7. SIMPLIFY YOUR LETTER: Not everyone out there is a genius. Your letter should appeal to the largest percentage of the reading population – not just the intellectual elite. Avoid words that people have to look up in the dictionary (This can be difficult when talking about scientific issues.). Avoid using examples that confuse people. Use analogies if you think they will help people understand your point. Keep in mind that estimates indicated that the average reading and comprehension level is at an eighth-grade reading level.

8. FOLLOW NEWSPAPER GUIDELINES: Make sure you know the guidelines for letter submission by newspapers. Most newspapers have a word count limit and all newspapers require some information be included with the letter. Find your newspaper’s requirements online or in the hard print and make sure you follow those guidelines exactly.

9. USE EMAIL – NOT PAPER: Most newspapers accept mailed letters, but there a greater amount of work goes into putting mailed letters into print. Someone has to take your hand-written or typed letter and retype it, which means more manual labor is involved. If you email your letter, all they have to do is cut and paste. It is easier for them. If they receive two letters about the same subject and one is an email letter – they will more than likely pick the email letter because it involves less work. Remember, people are inherently lazy, including your newspaper editor. 

10. KEEP TRYING!: Do not get frustrated when your letters are not printed. Keep trying. Your newspaper gets many letters and they will not always print your letters. Keep track of your letters in conjunction with the submission timeline requirements of your newspaper and just submit another one after the required time. If yours are not printed – have your friends send in letters addressing the same issue. The important point here is to get the opposing view out there – not to get your name in the newspaper. Sure, it feels good to see your name in print, but the bottom line is the information – not the signer of the letter.

 

 

THE popularity of I Did It My Way as a funeral song shows a ''vulgar egotism'' exists in society, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, says.

In his last presidential speech before retirement, Dr Jensen said society's shift towards ''deadly individualism'' had been driven by material wealth and technological mastery.

The cost of individualism, and the shift to self-love, had consequences for the quality of our community, family life and how we treat death. That was evident in the choice of ''our swan song of this generation'', Frank Sinatra's classic I Did It My Way, Dr Jensen said in his speech, titled ''Last Words''.

''It seems that we do not need each other as once we did. Nor do we need God. To think that a person is so proud of the phrase 'I did it my way' that they would use it as a summary of their life's achievement reveals an astounding moral ineptitude, a sort of vulgar egotism.''

Funerals were once opportunities to hear and pray to God, to think about sin, judgment, redemption and resurrection, Dr Jensen said.

Now they had become opportunities for eulogists to attempt to resurrect the dead by ''the power of fine words''.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/gods-way-smarter-than-sinatras-says-jensen-20121008-279nb.html#ixzz28kR33wL3
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Sorry... So sorry... my apology... I was under the impression that believing "one was a humble creature of god" was actually far more egotist than one accepting "being an evolved monkey on a small planet of the solar system"... 
Believing that we're from god is super-arrogant, vulgar really... Imagine god created us in his image!!!... Well some of us, especially old men with beards like me... Let's add the young son — who is also part of god — but I guess here being the representative of god for the men under 30 years of age — and the holy ghost (holy spirit for the initiated) who seems to stay in the background like the pilot light of a hot water heater in an apartment full of lesbians.
But I digress, here... The last funeral I went to was to that of a joyful atheist whose life was dedicated to being a good man... As a good doctor he saved many lives and when the time came for him to go, he went knowingly what was happening to him... The end. 
Of course for those who believe in god, this is only the beginning... because with our consciousness so developed how could this be the end of it?... Simple. We live, we die... 
Like every existentialists I know, we don't have to do anything, nothing worthwhile nor something grand nor something generous. The choice is ours under the auspices of what we're taught by pain and contentment — and the social memory of the management of pain and contentment from those who have lived before... The fun part for some and me is to glorify our reactivities into activity we (personally and socially) define worthwhile... And we accept that. Some of us glorify this by believing we're "sons of god"... Me? I am a monkey's cousin. It suits my face and the two ends of my digestive tract...
It's for us to "do it our way"... and to choose the best or the worse... The best is of course being better in my relative assessment of the bedangle. Life is beautiful, relatively...

 

One in five Americans reports no religious affiliation, study says

By Michelle Boorstein, Updated: Tuesday, October 9, 3:01 PM

One-fifth of U.S. adults say they are not part of a traditional religious denomination, new data from the Pew Research Center show, evidence of an unprecedented reshuffling of Americans’ spiritual identities that is shaking up fields from charity to politics.

But despite their nickname, the “nones” are far from godless. Many pray, believe in God and have regular spiritual routines.

Their numbers have increased dramatically over the past two decades, according to the study released Tuesday. About 19.6 percent of Americans say they are “nothing in particular,” agnostic or atheist, up from about 8 percent in 1990. One-third of adults under 30 say the same. Pew offered people a list of more than a dozen possible affiliations, including “Protestant,” “Catholic,” “something else” and “nothing in particular.”

For the first time, Pew also reported that the number of Americans identifying themselves as Protestant dipped below half, at 48 percent. But the United States is still very traditional when it comes to religion, with 79 percent of Americans identifying with an established faith group.

Experts have been tracking unaffiliated Americans since their numbers began rising, but new studies are adding details to the portrait.

 

read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/one-in-five-americans-reports-no-religious-affiliation-study-says/2012/10/08/a7599664-11c8-11e2-855a-c9ee6c045478_print.html

 

pease visit also:

http://atheists.org/

http://atheistfoundation.org.au/

http://atheistalliance.org/

Neurosurgeon's account of the after-life he experienced during a coma reads like a stoner's diary, say critics

LAST UPDATED AT 15:36 ON Wed 10 Oct 2012

US MAGAZINE Newsweek has sparked praise and howls of derision in equal measure for its cover story this week, which states: ‘Heaven is real'. The story inside is written by a top neurosurgeon who fell into a coma and says he experienced the after-life. It has prompted one commentator to ask, "Is Newsweek real?"

Dr Eben Alexander is an academic neurosurgeon who taught at Harvard Medical School. Four years ago he caught a rare bacterial meningitis which attacked his brain. He soon sank into a coma, his entire cortex having shut down. This is the part of the brain that controls thought and emotion, which is why it is surprising that during the seven days in which he lay in a coma, his consciousness "journeyed to another, larger dimension of the universe... the same one described by countless subjects of near-death experiences and other mystical states".

Read more: http://www.theweek.co.uk/media/49493/newsweek-%25E2%2580%2598hits-new-low-%25E2%2580%2598heaven-real-cover#ixzz28w78WsNV

 

and If I remember correctly Coleridge was stoned when he wrote this:

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round:
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!

etc...

read more: http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/640/