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By Neece
 EDIT!  We are meeting March 20 at 2pm at Joe and David’s Farm to celebrate the Spring Equinox with a Potluck dinner. We will also finish up The God Virus.
- Potluck Dinner
- BYO Beverages
- We’ll talk and vote on our Secular Service endeavor
- We’ll finish up The God Virus
- Merriment will ensue!
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.
Directions Below.
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We had so much discussion for The…
By Neece
 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
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By Neece
 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…
By Neece
 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…
By Neece
 We are reading The God Virus for the book club in February. On page 18, Darrel W. Ray describes an experiment. I think I’ve heard of it before, but I thought I’d share it with you because it shows how religion attacks the critical thinking skills of the mind. As Mr. Ray says, it leaves the skill intact for other religions but disables critical thinking about one’s own religion. It really is like a virus of the mind.
Here’s the experiment as explained in the book:
You have a serious conversation with a deeply christian friend. Your friend is intelligent, well educated and knowledgeable. You agree to record the session. The topic is islam. During the session, you discuss that mohammed was a self-appointed prophet and that he claimed he talked to allah and the angels. He wrote a book that he claimed was infallible, and he flew from
…
By Neece
 We are meeting at 5pm on January 17 for the Freethinker’s Morgantown Book Club. We’ll meet at the Blue Moose, but check back to make sure.
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January 17 Update:
We had a nice meeting. We talked about the book, current events, the evolution of language, and much more.
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We are reading a funny fiction book for this meeting. (Read the entire book for Jan 17)
The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore
From Publishers Weekly
Hilarity abounds in Moore’s latest satirical gem. Sleepy Pine Cove, Calif., is abuzz with Christmas spirit, but Lena Marquez is fed up with her despicable ex-husband, Dale Pearson. On his way home from playing Santa Claus at the local lodge, Dale spies sneaky Lena uprooting his Monterey pines; he pulls a gun on her, she lashes out with a shovel and—oops!—kills him. Seven-year-old Josh Barker, thinking he’s just…
By Neece
 We met December 13 at the Blue Moose at 5pm.
~ Update:
Everyone brought in a wide range of books. Here’s the list:
Next month’s book: The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror by Christopher Moore
…
By Neece
 Yesterday the Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club was in the Dominion Post. Here’s the article:
Sharing Stories: Clubs allow friends to bond over books
By Kaitlin Bushinski for the Dominion Post, Life and Leisure section, 1-E, Sunday November 8, 2009
For those seeking more active engagement with literature, starting a book club can be a fun and rewarding way to do just that, while meeting new people and challenging oneself intellectually, say lit lovers.
According to club veterans, book clubs are also low-cost and easy to organize. All it takes is one person, a plan and a little advertising to get it off the ground.
Amber Johns, the director of community relations for the Morgantown Library System, is starting a Jane Austen-themed book club that will have its first meeting in February.
“We were trying to figure out a new approach to book clubs, and Jane Austen
…
By Neece
 Today (November 15) is our final look at Nonsense: Red Herrings, Straw Men and Sacred Cows: How We Abuse Logic in Our Everyday Language by Robert J. Gula.
I really wanted to share part of chapter 17 with you. Mr. Gula lists the most important principles to be gleaned from the rest of the book. I highly recommend getting the book and reading it. It has really helped me think more logically. The other thing it’s helped me with is to realize when someone has used a logical fallacy on me. I might not remember the name, but I remember that it is nonsense. It sort of gives me a red flag when someone uses bad logic in an argument. I think that’s pretty invaluable.
So here’s the list of important principles from Robert Gula:
By Neece
 We met at the Blue Moose at 5pm on November 15. Note: this was one week earlier to accommodate Thanksgiving.
Chapters 12-17, pages 153-222
We each took a chapter and presented it to everyone.
- Chapter 12: Neece
- Chapter 13: Tim
- Chapter 14: Gerald
- Chapter 15: General discussion
- Chapter 16: Brent
- Chapter 17: Neece
This book was quite helpful and I would recommend it. Feel free to comment with how you liked the book and what you got out of it.
This will be our third meeting for Nonsense: Red Herrings, Straw Men and Sacred Cows: How We Abuse Logic in Our Everyday Language by Robert J. Gula. This should be great for helping us to think and converse more logically.
We had some good discussions and a lot of people showed up.
Here are some general principles and some great advice by Robert…
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