We are meeting at the Blue Moose at 5pm on August 15 for the Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club.
We are reading The GOD Part of the Brain by Matthew Alper. We’ll read the whole book for this meeting.
Please leave suggestions below for future books so that we don’t have to decide at the meeting without being able to look books up.
We are going to head over to our Rail Trail to do our first cleanup directly after this meeting (probably around 7pm-ish, as a very rough guess).
See Here for details and to leave a comment to let us know you’re coming along.
We met at 5pm at the Blue Moose on Sunday, July 18 for the Freethinker’s Morgantown Book Club.
~Update: We finished God Hates You, Hate Him Back and picked our next book: The GOD Part of the Brain
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We are finishing up with God Hates You, Hate Him Back: Making Sense of The Bible by CJ Werleman, from Acts to Revelations, pages 230 to the end.
Feel free to bring your bible for cross references. We’ll follow the same format where we go through the chapters and talk about what we found interesting, using the book as a jumping off point for discussion.
Bring in book suggestions. It might be nice to read something different for a summer change. (Neece wants to read something science-y, but of course, bring in your ideas!)
We met at 5pm at the Blue Moose on Sunday, June 13 for the Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club.
~Update: We talked about the 4 gospels and ended up with some questions, such as:
When did the Pharisees move into Jerusalem where Jesus was hanging out? I remember reading somewhere that the Pharisees weren’t in Jesus’ area until around 50 or 70 CE, long after Jesus’ death, so it brings into question all the interactions they have with him.
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We are reading God Hates You, Hate Him Back: Making Sense of The Bible by CJ Werleman.
We will be going over the Gospels, pages 182-229:
- Intro to the New Testament section
- The Gospels (lumped together for a more cohesive narrative)
- Summary of the Gospels
Since it’s all lumped together, and this is the most important 4 books of the Christian bible, please consider bringing other sources like your bible. We’ll mainly use CJ’s book as a jumping off point for deeper discussion into the gospels.
We met at 5pm at the Blue Moose on Sunday, May 16 for the Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club.
~We had a great meeting where we got through the rest of the old testament. Swami, a Freethinker from Orlando, came up when we were almost done and we enjoyed talking to him. He came to dinner with us as well. A lot of interesting discussion took place over dinner. I think we solved all of America’s problems, and probably most of the world’s as well. 
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We are reading God Hates You, Hate Him Back: Making Sense of The Bible by CJ Werleman.
~EDIT: Since we’re not getting anyone to volunteer for chapters, let’s do it a different way. We are covering Chapters 18-39 (pages 133-181).
Bring in whatever notes you feel you’d like to share and we’ll just go through the chapters and talk about whatever we find interesting.
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This is an irreverant review of the bible. Since christianity is the religion we deal with the most as atheists, we will spend some time using this book as a reference. Bring your bible as well, if you want, for more detailed discussions.
We met at 5pm on Sunday, April 18 at the Blue Moose for the Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club.
Update: We met for a lively and interesting discussion about the first 17 books of the bible. We also talked about some of the exciting things we have coming up in the next few months. Then we went to dinner for more casual conversation.
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The book we’ll be talking about is God Hates You, Hate Him Back: Making Sense of The Bible by CJ Werleman.
This is an irreverant review of the bible. Since christianity is the religion we deal with the most as atheists, we will spend some time using this book as a reference. Bring your bible as well, if you want, for more detailed discussions.
For our first meeting, let’s focus on The Books of the Pentateuch (1-5) and the History Books (6-17). Pick your chapters that you’ll cover. I’d say pick 2 or 3 chapters if you like, especially if some are short.
The Books of the Pentateuch:
1. Genesis: Gerald
2. Exodus: Gerald
3. Leviticus: Neece
4. Numbers: Daniel
5. Deuteronomy: Daniel
The History Books:
6. Joshua: Brent
7. Judges: Brent
8. Ruth: Neece
9. Samuel 1: Gerald but if anyone wants this just leave a comment.
10. Samuel 2: Gerald but if anyone wants this just leave a comment.
11. Kings 1: Gerald but if anyone wants this just leave a comment.
12. Kings 2: Gerald but if anyone wants this just leave a comment.
13 and 14. Chronicles 1 and 2:
15 and 16. Ezra and Nehemiah:
17. Esther: Neece
From Amazon: Read the rest of this entry »
EDIT! 
We met March 20 at 2pm at Joe and David’s Farm to celebrate the Spring Equinox with a Potluck dinner. We also finished up The God Virus.
Update: We had a fantastic time! We socialized, celebrated, decided, talked, shared, ate, drank, ate more, and talked some more. Thanks so much to Joe and David for being such gracious hosts to their beautiful home and farm! Want to see some pictures I took of our Nature Walk?
NOTE: This is INSTEAD OF meeting March 21. We are now meeting the day before. Any questions, email Neece.
I forgot to bring up the subject of our Secular Service in our regular meeting! So we’ll spend a few minutes when we get together for this meeting, gathering ideas and then getting a tally on which service we’re all most interested in. So bring your ideas or comment here with suggestions if you can’t make the meeting.
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We had so much discussion for The God Virus that we only go through chapter 5. So we’re going to finish the book next month, chapter 6 to the end.
The book we are reading is The God Virus: How religion infects our lives and culture by Darrel W. Ray
We still need someone to take chapter 11, and chapter 10 is also available, if someone wants it.
- 6. The Myth of Unchanging Morality: Daniel
- 7. Jesus My Personal Savior: The Roots of American Evangelism: Gerald
- 8. Intelligence, Personality and the God Virus: Neece
- 9. Understanding and Living With The God Virus: Neece
- 10. The Journey: Living a Virus-Free Life: Brent
- 11. The God Virus and Science: Gerald
- 12. The Future of an Illusion: Daniel Read the rest of this entry »
We met February 21 at 5pm at the Blue Moose.
~Update: We had so much discussion, both about the book and off-topic, that we only got through chapter 5. So we’ll finish the book at our next meeting.
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The book we are reading (in its entirety) is The God Virus: How religion infects our lives and culture by Darrel W. Ray
We’ll each take a chapter or two to share with everyone. There are 12 in all. Leave a comment below or email Neece with which chapters you’d like to cover:
- 1. Religion is a Virus: Joe
- 2. How Religions Survive and Dominate: Joe
- 3. American Civil Religion: Gerald
- 4. God Loves You – The Guilt that Binds: David
- 5. Sex and the God Virus: Brent
- 6. The Myth of Unchanging Morality: Daniel
- 7. Jesus My Personal Savior: The Roots of American Evangelism: Gerald
- 8. Intelligence, Personality and the God Virus: Neece
- 9. Understanding and Living With The God Virus: Neece
- 10. The Journey: Living a Virus-Free Life: Neece
- 11. The God Virus and Science
- 12. The Future of an Illusion: Daniel
Here are some reviews:
Darrel Ray has made a marvelous contribution to our understanding of ourselves. The description of religion as a cultural virus is not new, Darrel is the first to put the virus on a slide and pull out the microscope. The God Virus goes beyond analogy, offering a fascinating and detailed look at the wiggling, maddening virus itself how it moves, how it survives, and how and why it continues to thrive. –Dale McGowan, Author/editor, Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers, Harvard Humanist of the Year (2008)
For those hungering for more after reading the books written by Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens and Dennett, Dr. Darrel Ray’s The God Virus is a logical and thought-provoking follow-up. By extending the metaphor of religion as a virus, the reader gets a better understanding of the incredible power religion can have on anyone’s way of thinking (Dr. Ray shows that even your IQ is negatively affected!). Lest anyone think this is just a putdown of religion, it also gives excellent advice on how to live life without a God, from marriage to raising children. It’s a book that non-believers will enjoy and religious readers can only dare to read. –Hemant Mehta author of I Sold My Soul On Ebay (Waterbrook Press, 2007) Read the rest of this entry »
Brent found another treat for those of us reading The God Virus. Darrel Ray, the author of the book, was interviewed by D.J Grothe on Point of Inquiry a few months ago. You can listen to the podcast either on the page here, or through iTunes.
Here’s what the site says about the interview:
Dr. Darrel W. Ray is author of three books, two on organizational psychology. He has been a psychologist for over 30 years. After practicing counseling and clinical psychology for 10 years, his focus shifted to organizational psychology and consulting. A longtime student of religion, his latest book is The God Virus: How Religion Infects Our Lives and Culture.
In this conversation with D.J. Grothe, Darrel Ray talks about religion being like a virus, elaborating on Richard Dawkins’ concept of the meme. He explains why the metaphor of God belief being like a virus of the mind is so useful. He details how religion is communicable, and propagated through vectors, just like biological pathogens, and why the rational “immune system” of children makes them more susceptible to the contagion. He explores why some people are immune to the God virus, and how to inoculate children from it, such as through exposure to many strains of the virus early in life. He describes the role that guilt over sex has in the success of the God virus. He discusses whether there is a skepticism virus, and why he feels atheism is a poor organizing principle, but why humanism is not. And he talks about the New Atheist agenda, and the best ways to engage in “public health measures” to protect people from the God virus.
Brent sent me a link to a page on the web. It’s a conversation with Robert Sapolsky, a quiet, funny, apparently brilliant professor of biological sciences at Stanford University and of neurology at Stanford’s School of Medicine. Professor Sapolsky has written several books such as:
The link Brent sent me was called TOXO and he suggested it to me, to share with you, because we’re reading The God Virus: How religion infects our lives and culture, by Daniel W Ray. Now the video on that page was Robert Sapolsky talking about a most interesting parasite called Toxoplasma. This is what pregnant women need to worry about, and why they avoid cats and cat feces. It can wreak havoc on their unborn baby’s nervous system.
If you’re reading The God Virus, which talks about parasites and viruses as an analogy for religion, I highly recommend watching this video. If you aren’t going to read the book I still recommend the video. The transcript is underneath it too, which will make it even more accessible for you. But the video is longer than the transcript. So take 25 minutes and enjoy it. Here’s another link to the video. I’m telling you, it’s fascinating. As I mentioned, the video is longer than the transcript. He goes into telemeres and molecular age, which I heard a study about recently confirming what he is explaining.
What he’s talking about touches on evolution, common ancestors, parasites and how they go about getting where they need to be, motorcyclists and speed freaks, and schizophrenics, as well as the government’s interest in this parasite. A wild ride indeed! Read the rest of this entry »
