Morgantown Atheists

Monthly Meeting Sept 12: Determinism and Free Will

Neece — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:38:01 +0000

We are meeting at Joe and David’s farm for a POTLUCK at 3pm on September 12.

The Topic of the Evening is a talk by Professor Matthew Talbert of WVU about Determinism and Free Will.

Professor Talbert will talk for about 20 minutes or so then open it up for questions.

Directions to Joe and David’s home from Morgantown via I-79:

North on I-79 from Morgantown, cross the border into PA and take the Mount Morris Exit, #1. Turn right at the bottom of the ramp. You will stay on this road for 3.6 miles (bearing right at church/cemetery) and it will dead end at a stop sign. Turn left on Taylortown Road and go 2.2 miles. There will be a sharp bend in the road but you will go straight ahead onto Big Foot Road (not marked). Go about a city block and take the first driveway on right (you will see a red barn as you turn in).

House phone number: 724-324-2712
cell phone: 724-998-2520

Address:
126 Bigfoot Rd.
Dilliner, PA 15327

Do not trust a GPS – sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t in this area.

Sept 19: A Discussion and Music of Northern Ireland

Neece — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:50 +0000

The Morgantown Coalition of Reason is hosting a group from Northern Ireland on September 19. We are having a Potluck Dinner at 4pm at Joe and David’s Farm.
Northern Generation

A Discussion and Music of Northern Ireland

featuring Rohan Young and David Preston plus Seán Ó Muireagáin

Sunday, September 19th

Potluck Dinner starts at 4 PM

Event is free but donations for the musicians are appreciated!!!

The project, known for short as “Northern Generation”, is about bringing representatives from the different cultures within Northern Ireland today to West Virginia and southwest Pennsylvania, to inform people about what it is like to live and work in Northern Ireland now that the peace process has been growing. The discussion will overview the role of organized religion in the northern Ireland conflict as well as focus on the growth that has occurred within the North: the perceived perceptions of each group historically; the varying degrees of groups reciprocal in nature; and the changes in attitudes throughout the different generations. The medium of music expresses the project’s desire better than any document, talk or presentation. This is where the dynamic music of Scorpion Jack takes its stand playing high energy traditional and modern music, removing any concern or comparison, creating wonderful music that entertains, enlightens and inspires.

Directions to Wilks/Smith home from Morgantown via I-79:

House phone number: 724-324-2712
cell phone: 724-998-2520

Address:
126 Bigfoot Rd.
Dilliner, PA 15327

Do not trust a GPS – sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t in this area.

Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club Sept 26

Neece — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:45:19 +0000

We are meeting at 5 pm at the Blue Moose on September 26 for the Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club. Directly after the meeting we’ll go to our Rail Trail and do our September cleanup.

For our September meeting we are reading Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin.

In October, we’re reading Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Daniel L. Everett

Volunteer With Pick Up America Sunday

Neece — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:43:29 +0000

Bill shared the following email with me this evening:

Dear Bottle Bill Supporters,

A group of recent college graduates has decided to put their professional lives on hold to walk across the country and clean litter from our roadsides. Pick Up America has already gathered 27 tons of trash over 540 miles of road from the coast of Maryland and will be traveling on Midland Trail (Route 60) from Montgomery to Charleston this week. Through their journey, they are documenting the negative aspects of our nation’s throwaway mentality (see more at www.pickupamerica.org). While they are in town, they are hoping to find volunteers to help them. They are also looking for anyone who has a pick-up truck to help them remove their recyclables from the side of the road. (so we can recycle!!)

If you’d like to volunteer please call one of their members to coordinate.
Davey – 301-523-2879
Jeff – 301-523-1257
Kelly – 443-745-1529
Kim – 301-523-7306

They will be meeting folks at the following locations:

Wednesday August 18th – Shrewsbury to Dupont City, WV: Meet at noon at the U-Haul in Shrewsbury; 2990 East Dupont Ave, Belle

Thursday August 19th – Dupont City to Charleston, WV: Meet at noon at the Rite Aid in Dupont City; 3175 West Dupont Avenue Belle

Saturday August 21st – Charleston to Dunbar: Meet at noon at the West Virginia State Capitol (by the guard house on Greenbrier Street)

Sunday August 22nd – Dunbar to West of St. Albans: Meet at noon at the Shawnee Regional Park near West Virginia State University

You can also call me at 304-346-5891 for more details or contact me at linda@wvcag.org. Let’s welcome these folks by sharing our time with them to help clean-up West Virginia!

Thank You!!!

www.WVBottleBill.org

There’s more information at the above website. Let me know if you’re interested in going along, maybe we can do it as a Good Without God event.

Atheists: Have You Ever Had A Mystical Experience?

Neece — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:48:15 +0000

We’re reading a book called The God Part of the Brain by Matthew Alper. Mostly, I think it’s a pretty interesting book. (there’s one thing that really bugs me about it, but otherwise it’s a good read). Anyway, he talks about how mystical experiences are found across cultures, which implies that there is a genetic component to them. In other words, every culture in recorded history talks about having mystical experiences so it must be something happening in the brain that is genetic. There must be genes associated with the way the brain works in certain circumstances that cause that phenomenon in people around the world.

Let’s define a mystical experience first. Dan Merkur, author of Gnosis: An Esoteric Tradition of Mystical Visions and Unions, lists the five most common symptoms of a mystical experience (from The God Part of the Brain, pg 134)

a sense of unity or totality
a sense of timelessness
a sense of having encountered ultimate reality
a sense of sacredness
a sense that one can not adequately describe the richness of their experience

I was deeply religious as a child, from about age 4 to 12. I was so terrified of burning in hell that I was baptized 3 times in 3 different churches. I went to Sunday school, church, bible camp, I sang hymns, I prayed, I studied and read my bible, and had bible lessons for a short while. But in all those years, I never once had a mystical experience. I never felt god. I never felt the touch of the divine.

After I gave up on religion, I wandered from one spiritual practice to the next. I meditated, I practiced all kinds of energy woo, I sat in circles with others and we prayed and chanted, I sat in a sweat lodge and chanted and drummed and sweated. I tried my hand at everything I could think of. I had heard others talk about connecting with the divine, of having mystical experiences. But in those many years of spiritual searching and experience, I never felt anything mystical. I never felt a sense of timelessness, or one with the universe. I never felt a sense of sacredness or ultimate reality. Not once.

Maybe, unlike 85% (or more) of humanity, my god gene is turned off. So, I thought I’d ask you a few questions. You can answer by email or in the comments below. But I’d love to know the following:

Have you ever had a mystical experience?
If you had a mystical experience would you consider it religious (pertaining to God), or spiritual (more universal, not religious), or just a brain phenomenon at the time and after contemplation?
Did the mystical experience cause you to seek out a way to try to make it happen again? Did it make you try to be more religious or spiritual in some way?
If you have experienced something mystical, are you still spiritual or religious now? Is that in part because of your experience in any way?
If you had a mystical experience and you’re now an atheist, how did you reconcile that with being a nonbeliever now? Did it make it harder to lose your faith, do you think?
Are you like me? Have you never experienced anything like what I’ve described?
If you’ve never had a mystical experience, do you think that has made it easier for you to be a nonbeliever?
If you’ve never had a mystical experience and you’re religious or spiritual, how does that make you feel? Are you actively searching for this experience that others are having and you are not?
Do you have anything to add that I didn’t think of?

Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to answer these questions. I’m wondering if it’s just me who is devoid of the mystical, or if maybe there is a correlation to those of us who don’t believe in any gods.

Cross-posted from Heaving Dead Cats

Our Rail Trail Cleanup 2: September 3

Neece — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:53:24 +0000

We met Friday, September 3 at 5:30 pm at Hazel Ruby Park to clean our Rail Trail. This was our second cleaning. Everyone brought gloves.

~Update: Thank you to everyone who showed up to clean our Rail Trail! We had 10 people and with all those busy hands we finished in no time. It had been raining and thunderstorming not long before we met but we took a chance. We were “blessed” with no rain while we cleaned.

Thanks again!

Let’s meet at the roundabout where our trail starts (Decker’s Creek Trail), at Hazel Ruby Park behind Wings Ole’. There’s a small parking lot to the left where the trail starts.

Any questions, just email me.

We’d love your support and help!

A Map

If the weather is poor, we’ll reschedule. Stay tuned to this post for any change of plans, email me, or call me (Neece) at 304-449-4664 for last minute information.

Religion of the Month Club: Aug 29: A Field Trip To Church

Neece — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 02:00:37 +0000

We went on a field trip! We met at 11 am, Sunday August 29 at Chestnut Ridge Church for our Religion of the Month club.

Update: I wrote about my experience here: I Didn’t Get Struck By Lightning

Let’s meet in the parking lot of the Burger King: exit 10 off of Rte 68 at 10:30 am and go in together. We are going on a fact and experience gathering mission and will be courteous.

After church we’re going to Daniel and Ivy’s for a POTLUCK (around 12:30 or thereabouts). Bring brunch kinds of things. Ivy wants everyone to leave a comment below with what you’re going to bring. Ivy and Daniel directions are below:

Also, I have an idea. For when they pass the plate around I thought we could each donate an envelope that has a great quote in it instead of money. I think I’ll bring one with some Carl Sagan wisdom in it.

Daniel and Ivy’s for the Potluck:

486 Hite St.
Morgantown, WV

It’s off of Dorsey Ave. A few blocks up from White Park and the skating rink.
A house with a blue door.

Directions to the church:

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.

Book Club Meeting: Aug 15: The GOD Part of the Brain

Neece — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 05:00:43 +0000

We met at the Blue Moose at 5pm on August 15 for the Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club.

We read The GOD Part of the Brain by Matthew Alper. We 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.

Our Rail Trail! August 15: First Cleaning

Neece — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:58:20 +0000

~Update: After our book club meeting 12 of us walked, talked and picked up trash along the Rail Trail. Thank you to everyone who came along and helped out! You made it fun and easy. We picked up quite a bit of trash.

Rachel took some pictures so once she emails them to me I’ll post them here and on our Facebook group page.

Thanks again, everyone! It was a great success!

Everything is moving forward with our Adopt a Trail program! After our regular meeting August 15, we’ll go to Hazel Ruby Park together and clean up the trail for the first time. If you can’t make the regular meeting but want to help out, I suggest calling one of us ahead of time to figure out when we’re heading over. (Rough guess? Around 7pm-ish)

We have adopted the first half mile of the Decker’s Creek Rail Trail.

Please comment below if you plan on coming along to help out. The trail is relatively clean so it won’t be hard. It would be great if you could wear your Good Without God shirts, too. We’ll get a group picture.

Don’t forget to bring gloves!

Any questions, just email me.

Suggest Books For Us To Read

Neece — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 04:30:42 +0000

Here are the books that were recommended at our last Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club meeting. Please feel free to comment with other suggestions. Also comment with which books you would like to read out of what is listed. For the previous books offered, go to the Library page. But comment here with which ones you like.

Our September Selection: Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil Shubin

Our October Selection: Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Daniel L. Everett

Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe by Greg Epstein (already selected, we just have to decide when to read it)

Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life by Carl Zimmer

Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (And Why We Don’t Know About Them) by Bart Ehrman

God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question–Why We Suffer by Bart Ehrman

Sham: How the Self-Help Movement Made America Helpless by Steve Salerno

The Invention of Air: A Story Of Science, Faith, Revolution, And The Birth Of America by Steven Johnson

Superstition In All Ages (Common Sense) by Jean Meslier