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 »
For some time we’ve been working behind the scenes on a way for atheists and people questioning their faith to talk to someone who can give some friendly atheist advice. We have started a voice mail system, an email address and a website called Atheist Hotline!
Ways to Contact Us:
You can call, email or post a question on the site now. The phone number is to a voice mail system. We are volunteering this service so we will get back to you as soon as we can. Leave your email address if you call, too please. It will be easiest for us to get back to you by email.
Our Goals:
What we’re NOT: Read the rest of this entry »
As you may know, I’m the co-cat herder (co-director) of Morgantown Atheists. I’m also the coordinator for Morgantown Coalition of Reason, an umbrella organization that encompasses Morgantown Atheists and other local groups so that we can work together in the name of Reason.
The funny thing is, I’m not really a people person. Like a lot of atheists (supposedly), I’m quite an outsider, as much of a hermit as I can get away with, in fact. I have never liked going out in crowds or socializing with large groups of people.
Why am I telling you all of this? Because I have realized something that I want to share with you. Even though I’m a curmudgeonly hermit-y atheist, I love going to the 3 atheist/freethinker meetings we have every month. That’s 3 Sundays a month where I happily leave the house and go socialize with a small group of people. And I look forward to it. The one or 2 Sundays where we don’t meet I miss it.
Even people like me benefit from social community and contact. The beauty of the atheist/freethinker community is that we are relatively like-minded. We have a foundation of common ground. But we are also quite different, of course, which is good because that makes things interesting. The added bonus of freethinkers, skeptics and atheists is that we seem relatively level-headed and we argue and discuss matters with interest and fairness. No drama llama is invited! So it’s actually fun and mentally stimulating.
I think we all need some type of community, which is one thing that religion has in its favor that being a lone atheist does not.
But this is easily remedied. I thought I’d share some thoughts on how to get involved with a secular group of like-minded people. If none exist in your area, you can start one up.
Tips For Finding A Local Atheist/Humanist/Freethinker/Skeptical Community Read the rest of this entry »
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.
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 »
Hello fellow Nonbelievers!
Update: A huge Thank You to everyone who made our first Secular Service Event a great success! Matt at the Bartlett House was amazed at how much stuff we brought in, and commented on the name of the Morgantown Coalition of Reason when he filled out our receipt for their records. 
~
One of the goals of Morgantown Atheists is to help others in our community. As the holidays approach, now is a great time to launch our first Secular Service Event.
We have opened this event to all of Morgantown Coalition of Reason so Brights, Freethinkers, UU’s and Thomas Paine lovers join in and help out! 
Between now and Saturday, November 21, please collect any of the following items to donate to the Bartlett House and the Salvation Army in Morgantown.
We will donate on the 21st in the name of Morgantown Coalition of Reason, and the participating groups that make up the CoR, to help the less fortunate for Thanksgiving. Meeting location is The Blue Moose at 1pm.
The Salvation Army:
The Bartlett House requests the following:
Comment below to let us know you’re going to participate.
Hello Morgantown Atheists!
Last Wednesday, October 21, we became an affiliate of American Atheists!
We’re listed on the affiliates page. Just click on the icon in WV.
Here is what AA said:
American Atheists is honored to welcome Morgantown Atheists to the growing list of Affiliates across the United States. A good synonym for Affiliation is friendship and that is exactly what we look forward to with Morgantown Atheists.
Morgantown Atheists can now begin taking advantage of the many benefits that come with being an Affiliate of American Atheists, including:
“Who Are These Doubters, Anyway? The Demography of Unbelief”
presented by Tom Flynn, Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism and Editor of Free Inquiry magazine
Thursday, October 29, 7:00 p.m.
Carnegie Science Center
1 Allegheny Avenue, Pittsburgh
You’ve seen the various religion polls and the reported percentages of unbelievers – and the polls vary widely. How do you know which polls are more reliable? Join Tom Flynn as he explores how sociologists and pollsters measure religious belief and unbelief. He will also cover the controversies and scandals in the polling field, and what the polling data on religion really mean (for example, how many of those “no religious preference” people are really atheists?).
Tom Flynn is Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism and the Editor of Free Inquiry magazine. A journalist, novelist, entertainer, and folklorist, Flynn is the author of numerous articles for Free Inquiry, many addressing church-state issues, as well as the best-selling The Trouble With Christmas, about which he has made hundreds of radio and TV appearances in his role as the curmudgeonly “anti-Claus.” He is also the author of the critically acclaimed anti-religious black comedy science fiction novels, Galactic Rapture and Nothing Sacred. His latest work, The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief, is a comprehensive reference work on the history, beliefs, and thinking of America’s fastest growing minority: those who live without religion.
General Admission: $6
Friends of the Center: FREE
For more information about this and other CFI Pittsburgh events, please visit www.centerforinquiry.net/pgh or email pgh@centerforinquiry.net.
Hello Everyone!
The billboard is up and making the news! You can see all the press we’ve gotten so far here: http://morgantown.unitedcor.org/press . Some of the comments at the different articles are fun and interesting. The Charleston Gazette has 100 comments, the most popular story at the moment. It appears that there are about 3 or 4 positive to each negative comment! Here is the link: http://wvgazette.com/News/200909290601
Rachel has done a great job as our spokesperson. She even got on TV: http://wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=67641 Watch the video too!
So, MorgantownCoR comprises the Morgantown Atheists, the Morgantown Brights, the Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club and the Morgantown Thomas Paine Society. One thing we all want to do is make a positive difference in our community. Through our actions, we can show the traditionally religious people in our area that we are good, moral people too. Together we can make even more of a difference.
As Rachel said earlier today, “Right now, we have the attention of not just our neighbors, but our state. Let’s show them that we are a valuable force in the community. Let’s have a strong showing for our Habitat for Humanity Build this Saturday.”
You can get all the information you need at the Morgantown Brights page: http://www.morgantownbrights.com/2009/09/27/habitatoct3/
Another project we’re looking into is Adopt A Road. Rachel has already started this process rolling. Please let us know if you will be willing to help clean a road with us. We need to show the Brights that the Atheists, Freethinkers and Thomas Paine lovers are also interested in this great endeavor. Read the rest of this entry »
(Morgantown, WV, September 29, 2009.) Atheists and agnostics in Morgantown, West Virginia, have organized around an electronic billboard on Mileground Road. The billboard reads, “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone.” These words are superimposed over an image of blue sky and clouds.
Four groups of freethinkers and humanists have pooled their efforts to launch the new Morgantown Coalition of Reason, sponsor of the billboard. Their aim is to educate the public about their worldview and what their groups do. The billboard invites like-minded people to visit the coalition’s website at www.MorgantownCoR.org. Motorists traveling west on Mileground Road into Morgantown will see it.
Under the co-sponsorship of the United Coalition of Reason, a national coordinating body, this billboard is part of a larger nationwide campaign aimed at raising the public profile of nontheists and organizing nontheistic groups in major cities. The United Coalition of Reason plans to fund billboards in a dozen additional states before year’s end.
“The primary goal of a billboard like this is to act as a beacon for nontheistic people–such as atheists, agnostics, freethinkers and humanists–letting them know they aren’t alone,” explained Fred Edwords, communications director for the United Coalition of Reason. “This message is particularly important in a part of the country that, for many, has been identified with traditional religion. Nonreligious people in the area may be unaware there is a thriving community for them.”
The Morgantown billboard joins others around the country that appeared earlier, including in Denver, Dallas, Fort Worth, New Orleans, Philadelphia, and Phoenix. The United Coalition of Reason also cosponsored the recent controversial bus ads in Des Moines, Iowa. Unique about the Morgantown effort is that it marks the first time an electronic billboard has been used in the nationwide campaign.
Local organizers say that, although religious believers aren’t a target of the campaign, they too can learn something. “We want the public to see that atheists and agnostics are part of the community, just as the faithful are,” said Rachel Cather, spokesperson for the Morgantown Coalition of Reason. “We have the same compassionate values and, in most other ways, are just like them. We are hard-working, tax-paying, moral citizens who care deeply about family, community, state and nation.”
The local groups that have launched the Morgantown coalition are the Morgantown Atheists, Morgantown Brights, Freethinkers Morgantown Book Club and Morgantown Thomas Paine Society. “We encourage other like-minded groups in Morgantown and elsewhere in West Virginia to affiliate,” Cather added.
The billboard will remain in place for one month. An image of the billboard design can be found online at www.MorgantownCoR.org.
# # #
The United Coalition of Reason exists to raise the visibility of nontheists and change the way they are perceived by average Americans. The organization carries out its mission by bringing local nontheistic groups together for the purpose of creating a stronger community voice. United CoR is a nonprofit educational and charitable organization, online at www.UnitedCoR.org.
The Morgantown Coalition of Reason is a community of nontheistic groups in the Morgantown area. Morgantown CoR works to raise the public profile of and cooperation among all such local organizations.
# # #
For more information contact:
Fred Edwords, communications director, United CoR:
(202) 550-9964, fredwords@unitedcor.org
Rachel Cather, spokesperson, Morgantown CoR:
(304) 906-6724, morgantowncor@gmail.com
Neece, Coordinator and Webmaster, Morgantown CoR:
morgantowncor@gmail.com
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(304) 534-9440
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