New Year, New Officers
Hello Everyone,
Tomorrow, (Monday Oct. 11th) we will be holding our first *official* meeting of the new year. It will be held in Smith Hall, Room 115 at 5:30 PM.
All members (and prospective members) are welcome to attend, this is going to be one of the most important meetings of the year as we are going to be electing brand new officers who will be deciding the clubs direction and setting the standard of activity for the year to come.
Once again:
Tomorrow, Monday October 11th 5:30 PM
Smith Hall, Room 115
-Anthony Castanza
(Hopefully someone will be elected to take over the site responsibility)
The SSU Dawkins event was a huge success!
With over 4,500 people in attendance, the UW's Secular Student Union's hosting of Prof. Richard Dawkins at the Hec Edmunson Pavilion was a smashing success.
The event has set the bar as the single largest freethought event in the Pacific Northwest... ever!
Go us!
Members of the SSU pose with Prof. Dawkins
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UW Atheists Featured in the Daily
By Lael Telles
November 3, 2009
Chris Busby, a UW junior, was raised in a Southern Baptist community in Alabama but now identifies himself as an atheist.
When Michael Amini walked out of a Mormon endowment ceremony in May 2006, his parents asked him if it was the most amazing experience of his life. The UW senior was about to embark on his mission trip to Singapore, but he emerged from the temple questioning the entire foundation of his faith.
“I found the ceremony disturbing,” Amini said. “I was immediately convinced the whole church was false.”
But instead of turning his back on the first 18 years of his life, Amini opted to leave for mission training in Utah. After several days, he phoned his parents to explain that he had confessed a sin to the bishop and he would not be permitted to continue on the mission.
Meeting for Oct 13th
Topic: What does non-belief mean to you and how did you arrive at your position.
Time: 4:30, Tuesday Oct 13th
Location: Hub 209B
For the next meeting, we're going to talk about the different approaches to atheism/agnosticism/unbelief. Everybody has a unique story about how they arrived at their beliefs and it's interesting to see the diversity of opinions that are under the big tent of non-belief. We'd love for you to bring your personal stories and share with the group.
Thank you!
I want to thank all of you for making the Dawkins event such a big success. According to the facilities management, we had approximately 4500 people come to see Dawkins speak which makes it the biggest crowd he's ever spoken to in North America! I especially want to thank the excellent group of volunteers we had that made the entire event run like a well oiled machine. Without you guys, we never could have pulled the event off.
If you have any thoughts or comments about Dawkins' speech, please post them in the comments. Try to be civil and respect the viewpoints of others in the comment section.
Richard Dawkins Comes to Seattle!
Exciting news!
This October, Richard Dawkins will be coming to the University of Washington to discuss his latest book, "The Greatest Show on Earth: the Evidence for Evolution."
When is it? Thursday, October 8th at 7:30PM
Where is it? Bank of America Pavilion (Hec Edmunson) at the University of Washington (map)
Do I need to get tickets or reservations? No, the event is free, and there is no registration required. We'll have around 5,000 seats available.
Do I have to be a UW student? No, this event is free and open to the public
Can I help? Yes! We need volunteers! If you would like to volunteer, please send an email with your name and phone number to secular(at )u.washington.edu.
I have another question... Any questions regarding the event may be sent to secular(at )u.washington.edu as well.
More details are forthcoming.
Hope to see you there!
Northwest Freethought Coalition’s 3rd of July Picnic
There will be a Northwest Freethought Coalition's Freethinkers' Picnic on July 3rd, starting at 1PM at Ravenna Park. See the Meetup.com event for more information.
The difference between being Christian, and being Christlike
The following represents the opinions of single member of the SSU, and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the SSU as a whole.
Being an atheist with many like-minded friends, I often detect great amounts of animosity toward the modern form of Christianity, and Evangelical sects in particular. Sometimes, this is directed at the Dominionists, as they attempt to override our laws in order to enforce Biblical law upon the rest of us. Other times, it stems from the frustration of being pre-judged as immoral, degenerate, foolish, or ignorant.
Today, however, I saw this animosity coming from the clear hypocrisy of purported "Christians," swirling around a recent news story:
Churchgoers more likely to back torture, survey finds
WASHINGTON (CNN) — The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the torture of suspected terrorists, according to a new analysis.
More than half of people who attend services at least once a week — 54 percent — said the use of torture against suspected terrorists is “often” or “sometimes” justified. Only 42 percent of people who “seldom or never” go to services agreed, according the analysis released Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
White evangelical Protestants were the religious group most likely to say torture is often or sometimes justified — more than 6 in 10 supported it. People unaffiliated with any religious organization were least likely to back it. Only 4 in 10 of them did.
http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/30/churchgoers-more-likely-to-back-torture-survey-finds/
These Christians claim to follow the man who has long been lauded for his pacifist philosophies which have affected Western thought for centuries.
I speak out of the frustration felt by many whom see these abhorrent policies sanctioned so, when I ask:
How is torture...
- Turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-42)?
- Loving thy neighbor (Leviticus 19:18)?
- Loving thine enemies (Matthew 5:44)?
To any who continue to sanction such acts, I quote your Christ (John 8:7), and say:
Let he who is without sin...
- Administer the first lethal injection
- Tie the first hanging rope
- Flip the first electric chair switch
- Waterboard the first suspect
The god of the Old Testament slaughtered mercilessly those who opposed him or his people. However, Jesus commands his followers to turn the other cheek, and leave the stone throwing to god himself.
To the self-proclaimed Christians that support and sanction torture, I ask:
Why do you disobey the god you claim to worship so? Why are you not the first to stand up against those who commit these atrocities in your names?
How dare you condemn the non-religious as amoral, when we reject torture in greater numbers, and even without divine commandments. Take the beam out of thine own eye before condemning the mote in ours (Matthew 7:3).
Buddhism and Atheism
Disclaimer: this post represents the views of an individual, and not of the Secular Student Union as a whole.
Today in my philosophy of religion course, we discussed Buddhism. I've heard a lot of atheists who, while incredibly derisive about Christianity, are incredibly enthusiastic about Buddhism. This was the case for most of the students in the class. I have to confess, I'm perplexed. But I think it says something about our psychological need for belief, for spirituality, that when people leave or lack theism, they feel a need to turn to some, any form of religion or areligion.
I don't understand the attraction of Buddhism. To me, much of it reads like a poetically written self-help book. The beliefs espoused by Buddha are not, in my opinion, religious, although it certainly depends on your definition of religion. Which is not to say that Buddhism isn't a religion. Despite the Buddha's rejection of any form of idiosyncratic metaphysics, the vast majority of Buddhists do hold such beliefs, believing in a soul, reincarnation, and nirvana as distinct from the body in this life. As in, the Buddha is basically telling people ways to be happier in this life. You can find many modern equivalents to his work that are better supported by recent psychological research in any supermarket. No one would call those religious. Neither would anyone study them in the way I have seen some atheists study the teachings of Buddha. Why are the works given such respect? I don't think atheists are giving Buddhism (if one can call the teachings of Buddha "Buddhism" when the two often have large metaphysical differences) the serious critical attention it deserves as both a theory of human psychology and happiness and as an ethical theory. It appears to me, instead, that they are almost giving it the respect of a somewhat dogmatic occasionally questioning religious practitioner. If you're interested in human flourishing and how to live, I would recommend a combination of modern positive psychologists and modern virtue ethicists as much better sources.