Its time to get the word out:

Its time to get the word out:

I've been as thrilled as I can be by one of the unexpected results of attending last month's highlighted events - Skepticons II.  That result is the very strong possibility of a similar event following suit in Joplin this coming spring - Four State FreeThought Convention.

A handful of group leaders sat themselves down for breakfast on the second morning of Skepticons and did a little brainstorming.  That brainstorming session is still happening and its fruit has grown into creating the first of what is likely to become an annual convention style meeting of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kansas freethinking groups.  Whoopie...!

A Facebook page has been created to organize the ground workers for the event and it's been actively doing so right from the start.  Check it out to get involved.

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In memory of...

In memory of...

A great deal of religious thought and energy is spent on contemplating "afterlife" or, in other words, on surviving the natural state of being dead as a door nail.  Somehow this kind of thinking makes no sense to most non-religious people, me included.

Being saved to live on after death, ascending into Heaven (or going to Hell) or being raptured to live with Jesus, Allah, God or whomever one dreams holds the keys to his escape from ultimate oblivion has no real substance to give critical thinking minds reason enough to accept faith in an afterlife.  So, what of it?  Why does the devout believer go through so much personal sacrifice and torment on account of this empty hopefulness for surviving death when death is so obviously and empirically inescapable?  What brings them to believe such nonsense?

The answer might be found somewhere hidden within the words "In memory of" since, as the preachers often put it, "Ones rightful place in heaven will be decided by how one lived his life."

It is argued by religionists, by Christians and others, that one cannot "buy" his way into Heaven - that making donations and doing good deeds is not enough; and yet, there are a seemingly endless stampedes of the faithful, each stumbling over the next and competing with his neighbor to be recognized for what good he gives to others and to his lord.  I'm of a mind to say that this behavior, that of being focused on seeking positive recognition, is in deed an attempt to buy a seat in Heaven and to be thought of well enough by ones peers during life to insure being remembered equally well after death.

Eastern religions seem to have a better idea of how to treat the want we may have to be remembered well.  They tout honoring their dead ancestors, but not as living souls having managed to cheat death, rather, as truly bygone lives, as passed lives, as dead people each having contributed a small part to the whole of humanity. and to life By this form of "afterlife remembrance" they gain comfort in spite of death's onset.  Easterners allow themselves to know that each will ultimately die, truly die, and that each will become oblivious to everything  that is such that they're able to realistically recognize the fact that all life is ifinite.  This honest affirmation ultimately yields one very few concerns for imagining his own impending doom.  Short of knowing that one may know pain and suffering during the process of daeth, living such a philosophy as theirs causes no dependence upon false beliefs. For anyone who has conducted his life honestly and morally, deadness is not feared.

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It's not an attack, it's a counter-offensive.

It's not an attack, it's a counter-offensive.

There are a whole lot of people complaining that atheists are ruining their Christmas.  They claim that Christmas is under "attack".  Bah, humbug.

In deed, our atheist and secular communities are laying claim to an equal share of the holiday season; we're grabbing up small segments of advertising space on buses and along roadsides, securing patches of grass on state capital grounds and erecting placards here and there - and for what? Well, how about for the purpose of celebrating our idea of what the winter holiday season is all about.... Its not only about the birth of Jesus H. Christ.

Atheists, agnostics, Humanists and the host of other non-religious people as well as Jews, Muslims, Hindus and the rest of the non-Christian religious population of America aren't "attacking" Christmas... not at all.  Non-Christian Americans are merely stepping froward to celebrate the holidays according to their own ways of thinking.  Attack?  No.  If it's anything, it is a counter attack.  For every "Merry Christmas" wish heard, there can now be heard a resounding echo of "Happy Holidays" and for non-Christians, that's a nice change to hear.        

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