Morgantown Atheists » CoR

We’re Making a Video!

Neece — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:08:51 +0000

Here at Morgantown Atheists, we have been thinking about how awesome it was that a small area like ours was able to get a billboard. Less than a year ago, MA was just starting up. Look how far we’ve come in such a short period of time!

So we thought it would be fun to make a video for youtube chronicling our meteoric rise to fame and glory. Or something like that.

We have settled on a theme.

Theme: How the relatively small town of Morgantown, WV got its own godless billboard.

You don’t have to participate, but we’d love to have your thoughts and ideas.

One thing we’ll definitely include is some of the emails we’ve received because of the billboard. If you have other ideas for what it should include, comment below!

Teaming Up, Doing Good

Neece — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 01:01:25 +0000

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.

We’ll send out more details of what is involved in the Adopt a Road project, but give us an idea if you are interested in helping by commenting below.

So let’s keep the momentum from the billboard going! Please consider showing up for the Habitat for Humanity Build, and let us know we can count on you for the Adopt a Road project.

Also, we will be happy to meet new faces at our upcoming meetings! We’ll keep you posted in the following locations on what events are coming up with our different groups:

Morgantown CoR (includes all events)
Morgantown Atheists (includes the Freethinkers Morgantown Schedule and will also include any Thomas Paine Society Meetings)
Morgantown Brights

We hope to see you soon. You can follow the events by getting our email updates from the Atheists and Brights sites.

Godless WV Groups Organize around Morgantown Billboard

Neece — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 12:50:21 +0000

(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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