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.

Directions:

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.

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~ Update: This was interesting. We had a good turnout with 2 new people! Welcome! We all shared our information on Scientology. We still had a lot of questions though, but really, only a high level scientologist could answer those questions. Dinner afterward was at Los Mariachis.

~

We are going to talk about Scientology. Everyone bring in 2 or 3 wacky Scientology facts. I suppose if you have any sensible Scientology facts, that would be interesting as well.

We can’t find a Scientologist who would be willing to come talk to us, or better yet, an EX-scientologist, so we’ll have to just make do ourselves and see what we can dig up.

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~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.

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~Update: We talked about the 4 gospels and ended up with some questions, such as:

When did the Pharisees move into Jerusalem where Jesus was hanging out? I remember reading somewhere that the Pharisees weren’t in Jesus’ area until around 50 or 70 CE, long after Jesus’ death, so it brings into question all the interactions they have with him.

~

We are reading God Hates You, Hate Him Back: Making Sense of The Bible by CJ Werleman.

We will be going over the Gospels, pages 182-229:

• Intro to the New Testament section
• The Gospels (lumped together for a more cohesive narrative)
• Summary of the Gospels

Since it’s all lumped together, and this is the most important 4 books of the Christian bible, please consider bringing other sources like your bible. We’ll mainly use CJ’s book as a jumping off point for deeper discussion into the gospels.

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~Update: We had a great time! We had so many people come that we had to go find more chairs. The talk was quite interesting and the discussion was lively.

~

Morgantown Day of Reason 2010
Madeleines Restaurant, back room
Social 6-7
Dinner and Reason Lecture 7-8:30
Meals with drinks $15 (4 choices)
Beer,wine on your own

Lecture by Philosophy Professor Andy Pintus on Reason, Reasoning and the History of Reason. Discussion will follow.

A short presentation on Unreason will be given by a surprise speaker before the lecture.

There’s also an official site where you can endorse reason by adding your name to the list, post an event, read about why we want a National Day of Reason, and more.

Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.

FFRF celebrates National Day of Prayer Victory:

It’s not every day that the president of the United States gets enjoined — prohibited by judicial order from a certain action — but it happened on April 15, 2010.

U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb decided in favor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in a ruling that the federal law designating a National Day of Prayer and requiring a National Day of Prayer proclamation by the president violates the establishment clause of the Constitution’s First Amendment.

In her ruling, Judge Crabb wrote: “The same law that prohibits the government from declaring a National Day of Prayer also prohibits it from declaring a National Day of Blasphemy.”

Unfortunately, Obama is still going to declare a proclamation for the National Day of Prayer this year, I think.

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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:

• Professor Richard Wiseman has a Friday Puzzle and also does quirky science experiments
  • I’m combing through his book Quirkology for some experiments we can try together
• Try Googling brain puzzle, reason puzzle, logical thinking puzzle, etc.
• Try Googling science party experiment, although most of these involve explosions. Not a good idea at the Blue Moose!

If you have good ideas to spare, leave comments to share with the rest of us!

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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:

• freethought
• atheism
• philosophy
• science
• skepticism
• history

Feel free to comment and let us know what you’ll be talking about, or keep it as a surprise!

Ivy and Daniel’s place:

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.

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Update! Boobquake results are in: Our immodest hair and cleavage did not cause any earthquakes. In fact, the mean magnitude of quakes actually went down during the experiment. Read the full results over at Blag Hag.

~

Jennifer over at Blag Hag decided to start something by asking women to dress immodestly to show that it doesn’t cause earthquakes. It was spurred on by some little Iranian man who said:

“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Sedighi is Tehran’s acting Friday prayer leader.

Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but many, especially the young, ignore some of the more strict codes and wear tight coats and scarves pulled back that show much of the hair.

“What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?” Sedighi asked during a prayer sermon Friday. “There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam’s moral codes.”

“A divine authority told me to tell the people to make a general repentance. Why? Because calamities threaten us,” Sedighi said.

Minister of Welfare and Social Security Sadeq Mahsooli said prayers and pleas for forgiveness were the best “formulas to repel earthquakes.”

“We cannot invent a system that prevents earthquakes, but God has created this system and that is to avoid sins, to pray, to seek forgiveness, pay alms and self-sacrifice,” Mahsooli said.

So on April 26, I will show my cleavage for science. I dress for comfort, not looks, so I’m a perfect person to “tip the scales” towards total devastating earthquake on Monday April 26. This is a scientific experiment.

You can read the whole thing over at Blag Hag. She also clarifies that she’s not trying to offend anyone in a follow up.

There is a Facebook Event and you can twitter about it: #boobquake.

Here is what Jennifer says:

Sedighi claims that not dressing modestly causes earthquakes. If so, we should be able to test this claim scientifically. You all remember the homeopathy overdose?

Time for a Boobqauke.

On Monday, April 26th, I will wear the most cleavage-showing shirt I own. Yes, the one usually reserved for a night on the town. I encourage other female skeptics to join me and embrace the supposed supernatural power of their breasts. Or short shorts, if that’s your preferred form of immodesty. With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I’m sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn’t rumble. And if we really get through to him, maybe it’ll be one involving plate tectonics.

So, who’s with me? I may be a D cup, but that will probably only produce a slight tremor on its own. If you’ll be joining me on twitter, use the tag #boobquake!

I think it would be good to post pictures to the facebook or twitter pages for scientific verification on the 26th, and to make sure to attend the event on Facebook, etc.

If you’re a skeptic woman, this is a good experiment. We’ll look for a significant increase in earthquake activity on April 26th to see if our immodesty pisses off God enough to tear the Earth apart in his jealous rage.

Again from Jennifer:

Dressing modestly won’t end earthquakes, so help out the victims of inevitable natural disasters at the Red Cross: http://www.redcross.org/

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A full schedule of events:

Saturday, April 24th:

- Social Gathering at the CFI DC Center with Pizza and Salad in the evening; Welcome to DC by Matt Separa, OPP Policy Analyst

Sunday, April 25th:

- AM: Policy briefings on legislative issues and lobby training

- PM: Two Exhibits at the Smithsonian: One on Charles Darwin and one on Human Evolution; Coffee and Dessert with Doug Crandall

Monday, April 26th:

- AM: A walking tour of Robert G. Ingersoll’s life in Washington DC led by Steve Lowe; lobby training; briefing by an invited member of Congress on current legislative priorities

- PM: Tour of Capitol Visitor Center including a visit to the House of Representatives’ Gallery

Tuesday, April 27th:

- All Day: Lobbying visits on Capitol Hill, debriefing, and departures.

Cost: $100.00 per Person, $ 25.00 per Student, $90 for Friends of the Center.

We are holding a block of rooms at the Donovan House Hotel for $119 single or double per night. For reservations, contact The Donovan House at 800-383-6900, Monday through Friday from 9:00am – 5:00pm Eastern Time. Reservations must be guaranteed with a credit card. An email confirmation will be provided.

The rate is only guaranteed until the cut-off date, March 31, 2010 under the code “Center for Inquiry,” so hurry!

Participants are encouraged to book before the cut-off date because April is a busy month. There is a 24-hour cancellation policy in order to avoid cancellation fees for the hotel reservation. The Donovan House is located at 1155 14th Street NW in downtown Washington—just blocks from the White House—and has easy access to the Metro system.

To register for Civic Days, please visit CFI’s online registration page. For more information, contact Matt Separa at 202-546-2330 or msepara@centerforinquiry.net.

New Info for Students: Hostelling International Washington DC!

For our student participants, we are pleased to offer the option of staying at a hostel that is close to both the Donovan House and the Metro – Hostelling International Washington DC. Room prices range based on selections and reservation timing, but will generally be less than $40 per night. Students wishing to book accommodations are encouraged to do so as soon as possible. To make a reservation, contact the Hostel at 202-737-2333, or reserve online.

Not included: transportation to or from Washington or accommodations, meals, or transportation while in the city. Everything, including all times, agenda, and pricing are subject to change.

Cancellation Policy: All funds are non-refundable for any reason. Cancellation policy is strictly enforced.

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A chili dinner will be held at 6pm at Kent’s home in Morgantown. Kent and Lynne will cook chili and cornbread. Guests should bring drink/desserts

The First Annual Thomas Paine Doubles Ping Pong Tourney will be held

Dinner,drinks,ping pong ,and casual talk from 6 to 8 , then some serious Paine discussion for about 1 hour starts about 8. Bring a quote, comment, reading, or just contribute/listen. The loose ‘focus’ is “the later years: 1793-1809.

Contact Tim for details: timothynelms@hotmail.com, 304-685-9673 to reserve your seat.

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