NOTE: LOCATION CHANGE
We are meeting at 5pm at Daniel and Ivy’s for a POTLUCK BBQ on August 1 for our Morgantown Atheists monthly meeting.
Topic of the Evening: Healthy ways to encourage nonbelievers to come out of the religious closet. Bring your ideas and suggestions.
Ivy and Daniel’s place: Read the rest of this entry »
We are going on a field trip! We are meeting at 11 am, Sunday August 29 at Chestnut Ridge Church for our Religion of the Month club.
Let’s meet in the parking lot and go in together. Any tips on where to meet, please comment below. We are going on a fact and experience gathering mission and will be respectful.
FROM INTERSTATE-68 W:
Take EXIT 10 [Cheat Lake]. DUE TO CONSTRUCTION THERE IS CURRENTLY A DETOUR. At the stop sign go straight, veer right, and take a right at the stoplight. [Our building will be directly in front of you at the stoplight.]
FROM INTERSTATE-68E:
Take EXIT 10 [Cheat Lake]. DUE TO CONSTRUCTION THERE IS CURRENTLY A DETOUR. At the stop sign take a left. At the stoplight veer right. [Our building will be directly in front of you at the stop light].
FROM 857: Follow the detour signs toward I-68. Our entrance is on the right.
We met at 5pm at the Blue Moose on Sunday, July 11 for our Morgantown Atheists’ monthly meeting.
~Update: We talked about church and state separation this evening.
Hari brought in a book from the original Americans United for Separation of Church and State. He also mentioned several websites:
Dave educated us on how the Catholic Church views church and state, and subsequently, separation of the two. This was lengthy but he gave me his notes. If you want to learn more let me know and I’ll find a way to share them with the class. This was very interesting.
Gerald talked about creationists/IDers and where they are coming from. If you look into the writings and statements of these groups and their top members, you find their true mission. I have more information from Gerald if you’re interested. Let me know.
I quoted the Founding Fathers on religion. I also mentioned an article I wrote about how Separation of Church and State Benefits Everyone. And while I am thinking about it, here’s a great article by a friend of mine on the Treaty of Tripoli. Read the rest of this entry »
We met at 5pm at the Blue Moose on Sunday, June 6 for Morgantown Atheists’ monthly meeting.
~Update: We had a rather small meeting since several members were galavanting about the globe. 
It was an interesting discussion, though, and the Lavender Cafe was delicious as usual.
~
Topic of the evening is honoring and remembering great leaders in our country – our Founding Fathers – and in science. Bring along someone you admire from science, history, politics, skepticism or any other field to share with us.
We met Sunday May 2 at 5pm at the Blue Moose.
Our Topic of the Evening is Reason:
~Update: It was an interesting evening. I tried my Quirkology experiments, which didn’t go over so well since I didn’t have enough of the methodology and results of the studies they came from (yay for being skeptical, everyone!), Gerald brought in a great textbook and we did a few questions from that, Butch talked about the things that aren’t reasonable that people still believe in – superstitions – and we had a good discussion from that, and David brought in a quote from his favorite book – the Celtic Twilight by Yates, if I recall – which also sparked an interesting discussion.
Then we went to The Lavender Cafe for more great conversation and delicious food.
~
4. sound judgment; good sense.
8. to think or argue in a logical manner.
9. to form conclusions, judgments, or inferences from facts or premises.
11. to think through logically, as a problem.
Let’s celebrate reason, common sense and critical thinking by real life experiments or logical puzzles. Everyone bring in a couple real life experiments we can do without disturbing anyone, or a reasoning puzzle we can figure out together. (we might only have time for one, but it would be better to have extras to choose from)
If you bring in an experiment, it might be nice to explain how the scientific method works. Or if you bring in a reasoning puzzle, explain how critical thinking and reasoning works.
For some ideas, you could try these sources:
If you have good ideas to spare, leave comments to share with the rest of us!
We met Sunday April 11 at 4:30-ish pm at the Daniel and Ivy’s House.
Update: We had a great time at Daniel and Ivy’s. Daniel is a great BBQer and Ivy puts on a fantastic spread. Everything was delicious, the company was awesome, the conversation was interesting, and overall I think it was just wonderful. The weather was perfect too!
~
Update: The Morgantown CoR is gearing up for our worthwhile cause, the West Virginia Botanic Garden. On April 11 from 2-4pm, the WVBG is having a Volunteer Orientation. See the post for details. We’ll meet at 2pm at the park and then go directly to Daniel and Ivy’s afterward for a bit of an early meeting and BBQ! 
For the Topic of the Evening, the floor is yours! We are having an Open Topic, which means you get a few minutes to talk about anything that interests you. Suggestions for your topics:
We met at 5pm at the Blue Moose on Sunday, March 7.
Our topic was:
Who We Admire in Science, Philosophy or Atheism and Why.
Update:
Ivy: Victor Frankl, author of Man’s Search For Meaning. His Logotherapy was about searching for a new and increased awareness in the present and enabling a new freedom and responsibility to act. The patient can then accept they they are not special and that their existence is simply coincidental, without destiny or fate. By accepting this, they can overcome their anxieties, and instead view life as moments, in which they are fundamentally free.
Daniel: Thomas Jefferson, the third president and a founding father. A freethinker and a great leader, he worked very hard to give America the separation of church and state. He was also opposed to a central bank, he was very insightful, and wanted to keep the power of the federal government in check.
Tim: John Shelby Spong is a retired bishop of the Episcopal church. He wrote Here I Stand: My Struggle for a Christianity of Integrity, Love, and Equality and followed the principle of the Episcopal seminary’s adage, “Seek the truth, come whence it may, cost what it will.” He revolutionized the Episcopal church.
Brent: August Weismann, Leonard Hayflick and Aubrey de Grey are three men in different biology fields who worked or work in life extension.
David: Richard and Mary Leaky who were doing great things in 1968, a book called African Genesis: A Personal Investigation into the Animal Origins and Nature of Man which helped David to seek a scientific basis to life, and Paul Monette who wrote Becoming a Man: Half a Life Story.
Neece: Carl Sagan and Richard Dawkins. Both great men who taught and teach critical thinking, skepticism, and make science attainable for anyone willing to look at how awesome the universe really is naturally. Sagan wrote quite a few books and so has Dawkins.
Butch: Frank Zappa and George Carlin, both men who were proponents of free speech and not letting yourself get crushed under the boot heel of religion or the government. Zappa was a part of the PMRC trials in the 80′s and Carlin was an outspoken critic of the church back in the 60′s before it was fashionable.
Gerald: Martin Gardner and James Randi. Gardner started the ball rolling in the 50′s with speaking out against creationism. He was a secular humanist. He wrote Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Discourses on Reflexology, Numerology, Urine Therapy, and Other Dubious Subjects and Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science. James Randi is a big part of the skeptical movement, a part of CFI and the founder of the JREF (James Randi Educational Foundation). He has written many books.
Chad: Neil deGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist who brings passion to science and scientific literacy. This video of a talk by Tyson from 2006 is about 38 minutes long. He talks about the god of the gaps throughout scientific history, intelligent design and then about Stupid Design. Highly recommended watching. Tyson has written several books.
Joe: Pearl S. Buck and the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). Pearl S. Buck took Joe out of his Ozzie and Harriet life and showed him other ways of life and different ways of thinking. Buck wrote many books. Here’s a quote from her about religion: “I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. Like Confucius of old, I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels.” The FFRF is a group that fights for the separation of church and state.
~ Update: We had a nice meeting about Darwin and evolution. We talked mainly about what people were thinking before Darwin, observable evolution since the Industrial Revolution, and all kinds of other interesting topics.
Thanks for braving the weather and roads to join us everyone!
~
We are meeting February 7 at 5pm, probably at the Blue Moose. Our Topic of the evening will be celebrating Darwin and Evolution.
Please bring something to do with Darwin, his life, his work, or evolution in general to share with us.
Darwin Day is on or around February 12, his birthday, so we’re celebrating a bit early. You might find information and inspiration to share at the International Darwin Day Foundation. They have pages on Darwin’s Life, Evolution, and even have a free online evolution course. This foundation is administered by the American Humanist Association (AHA).
We’ll meet at 5pm, January 3rd at the Blue Moose, but check back here to be sure.
The evening’s Theme is Show and Tell
~Update:
For Show and Tell, we had an interesting variety of things. From fossils and selected readings to amethyst crystals and miniature pyramids.
~
Bring something you’d like to share with us. Here are some suggested categories that your object could fall in:
The size of the group will determine how long we get to talk about our Show and Tell.
We are meeting December 6 at 5 pm for our regular monthly get together.
~
Dec 7th Update:
Yesterday’s meeting was amazingly successful! Thanks to the 22 people who showed up to make it interesting, lively and fun.
We ran the gamut from christian apologist to deists to a bunch of godless athesists. Rachel brought tracts to hand out as well as great arguments for why we should believe in god. Her arguments were classic but I think we held our own and had fun refuting her reasoning.
Godless Heathens Converted: 0 (although Joe raised his hand when she asked if anyone accepted her arguments and wanted to convert, but I think he was just being supportive since he was pretending to be on her side and help her out. Joe you can clarify if you were really converted!)
At any rate, it was fun. Afterwards, we hung out and talked about anything and everything (which atheists can do. We don’t always talk about religion!) It was hard to leave because it was such a fun night.
Thank you so much for opening your home to us, Tim. That made the night so much more successful and comfortable.
~
The theme of this meeting is The Great Conversion!
Rachel (the president of the Brights) is going to use her guile, wit and best emotional appeals to try to convert us to christianity! (She’s a nonbeliever. This is all done in jest, but also to help us practice our logical discussion skills)
With our best atheist and skeptical logic we will defend our lack of belief and counter her arguments.
Bring along any logical fallacy books you might have, in case you want to reference them.
Rachel does not have to follow any rules. She is allowed to use any method (besides physical torture) to try to convert us.
We, on the other hand, will be polite and friendly, and use our best logic, reason and scientific research to defeat her conversion attempts.
This should be great fun for everyone!
After the event, I’ll report back here with how things went and how many atheists were re-converted. Let’s make a strong, positive showing, fellow heathens!
Oh, if you are on the fence, either as an agnostic or in some other manner, feel free to come along and support Rachel with your arguments. All are welcome, even if you just want to watch us discuss faith vs reason.
We met at Tim’s House (thanks Tim!)
Comments by Email
Email Us:
Neece
Brent
Ways to Contact Atheist Hotline:
AtheistHotline.com
(304) 534-9440
Email Atheist Hotline
Atheist Hotline Yahoo Group
