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.

Related posts

• Time Travel Lecture – WVU – Sept 23 (3)
• September 13 Meeting – Favorite Logical Fallacy (10)
• October 11 Meeting – My Personal 10 Commandments (8)
• November 8 Meeting: Gratitude and Giving Thanks (2)
• Morgantown Atheists Meeting January 3 (0)

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).

Related posts

• Liquid Glass Is Groovy! (0)
• Darwin Day Potluck Dinner (2)
• September 13 Meeting – Favorite Logical Fallacy (10)
• October 11 Meeting – My Personal 10 Commandments (8)
• November 8 Meeting: Gratitude and Giving Thanks (2)

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:

• science
• philosophy
• atheism
• religion

The size of the group will determine how long we get to talk about our Show and Tell.

Related posts

• September 13 Meeting – Favorite Logical Fallacy (10)
• October 11 Meeting – My Personal 10 Commandments (8)
• November 8 Meeting: Gratitude and Giving Thanks (2)
• Monthly Meeting March 7: Who We Admire (0)
• February Meeting – Celebrating Darwin and Evolution (9)

~

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!)

Related posts

• September 13 Meeting – Favorite Logical Fallacy (10)
• October 11 Meeting – My Personal 10 Commandments (8)
• November 8 Meeting: Gratitude and Giving Thanks (2)
• Morgantown Atheists Meeting January 3 (0)
• Monthly Meeting March 7: Who We Admire (0)

Our monthly theme was Gratitude and Giving Thanks.

As atheists we don’t thank a deity for good things that happen in our lives, but gratitude is still a wonderful attitude to have. It has been shown that being grateful helps enhance your well-being.

The meeting was awesome! We had 12 people and quite a few new faces sitting around the table. We talked about what we’re all grateful for, came up with new ideas for Morgantown Atheists, and generally enjoyed each others’ company and made new friends.

Thanks to everyone for showing up and hanging out. It was fun!

Related posts

• September 13 Meeting – Favorite Logical Fallacy (10)
• October 11 Meeting – My Personal 10 Commandments (8)
• Morgantown Atheists Meeting January 3 (0)
• Monthly Meeting March 7: Who We Admire (0)
• February Meeting – Celebrating Darwin and Evolution (9)

The October Theme was: My Personal 10 Commandments.

Make a list of 10 (or less) New Personal Commandments. These are 10 rules or virtues you set for yourself that you might hang on your wall, keep on your desk, or wish to teach to others. These 10 Commandments are like your personal creed for living. Write them down and bring your list. We’ll share them at the meeting.

Remember to keep each commandment succinct. It will be easier to remember.

Also, call it whatever you like. You certainly don’t need to call them commandments. That’s just used for familiarity.

EDIT: I found this and thought it might help you: A List of Virtues. It seems interesting for at least looking at a list of virtues that you might connect with.

SUMMARY: Last night’s meeting was interesting and fun. We had 11 people and it was quite lively.

If you shared your 10 “commandments” last night, please email them to me if I can include them on this page. Or, feel free to leave a comment with your list here to share with us! I think it would be nice to have them all written down for people.

Personally, I got a lot out of listening to others share their principles and rules for living.

Butch’s Codex

1. Be passionate about something.
2. Never give in to a bully (make a stand) and never be a bully.
3. Be as honest as possible, never fear the truth.
4. Do not fear things just because they’re different.
5. You are no better than anyone else, but you are as good as everyone else.
6. There is humor in all things, it is up to you to find it.
7. Neece’s Platinum Rule: Treat others as they want to be treated, in their best interest.
8. Learn as much as you can and as many different things as possible. Use empiric methods to improve your knowledge.
9. Never accept things at face value; think for yourself.
10. There will be disappointments in your life. Get over them and move on.
11. Accept the consequences of your actions!

~

Neece’s Principles

1. Golden Rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated.
2. Silver Rule: Do not treat others as you would not like to be treated.
3. Platinum Rule*: Treat others as they want to be treated, *in their best interest.
4. Learn from your mistakes, and when possible, learn from the mistakes of others.
5. Be pragmatic. Choose your battles. Be responsible.
6. If it harms no one, do what you like. (do no harm)
7. Think critically. Think for yourself. Be skeptical. Question everything.
8. Learn as much as you can. Never stop learning. Be curious. Wonder. Use the scientific method.
9. Strive to be your best, and to improve yourself whenever possible.
10. Laugh often. Have a great sense of humor.

Related posts

• September 13 Meeting – Favorite Logical Fallacy (10)
• Events (0)
• December 6 Meeting: The Great Conversion! (2)
• Teaming Up, Doing Good (0)
• Reminder: Events This Weekend (0)

We talked about logical fallacies and socialized a bit. Please email the information that you shared to Neece so that I can post it to share with everyone. I’ll be posting the different fallacies as I get them.

September Topic of the Evening: Your Favorite Logical Fallacy

We all chose a logical fallacy and talked a bit about it.

So, for this meeting:

• bring your logical fallacy
• an explanation of what it is
• several examples to share with us
• If someone uses that fallacy on you, how would you refute it?
• Bring a legible copy of your notes for us to post on this site after the meeting, to share with everyone. Even better, send a companion email to Neece before the meeting so we can share it with everyone in a big post the next day.
  

Choose from either list, they are a bit different:

• Logical Fallacies on Wikipedia
• Logical Fallacies on SkepticWiki

If you couldn’t make the meeting, you can still participate! You can comment below with your fallacy and the above information to share with us, or you can email us and we’ll share it with everyone.

NOTE: we are looking for a permanent meeting place where we can relax, talk comfortably and have different numbers of people show up. If you have ideas or suggestions, let us know!

Related posts

• October 11 Meeting – My Personal 10 Commandments (8)
• Events (0)
• December 6 Meeting: The Great Conversion! (2)
• Book Club September 27: Nonsense 1 (2)
• Book Club November 15: Nonsense 3 (4)