Scam Your Friends!
Award winning magician, fire eater, and scam artist Brian Brushwood will be letting you know how he and other scammers are able to socially manipulate people. Learn the psychological backdoors that make scamming possible, and recognize them to prevent these tricks from being used on you!
April 24th 6:00pm
Ohio Union – US Bank Theatre
Sponsors: Students for Freethought, The Humanist Community of Central Ohio and the Ohio Union
Learn more about Brian at http://www.shwood.com/
RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=113124848708544&ref=mf
Category: Uncategorized
You Screwed Up & the WBC
Date: Thursday, April 8, 2010
Time: 7:30pm – 9:00pm
Location: Ohio Union – Round Meeting Room 3rd Floor
So… You screwed up, and now you need to be forgiven.
What does it mean to be forgiven? Who should be doing the forgiving? Are there biological origins to forgiveness? Are there limits to how much a person should be forgiven? Is it always right to forgive someone? Do public figures ever owe an apology to the average person, and do they deserve to be forgiven?
Bring your thoughts this Thurs, April 8th @7:30pm in the Ohio Union Round Meeting Room (3rd Floor)
RSVP HERE: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=115349115148853&ref=mf
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Date: Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Time: 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: Delaware Ohio
Come on out and help the Westboro Baptist Church support gay rights! You may have already seen us raising money on the oval for the Human Rights Campaign, and I encourage you to spread the word!
Tomorrow we’re going up to Delaware Ohio to help support Ohio Wesleyan with their peaceful counter-fundraiser in response to the WBC’s protest against their film showing, Anatomy of Hate. Bring cash because there will be a BBQ:
$1 per hotdog
$2 per burger or veggie burger
50 cents for a can of soda
Free ice cream
If weather turns sour their event will not be open to off-campus members.
In the meantime we need to organize rides. Those willing to drive need to contact me so I can organize everyone’s ride tonight. Those who need rides please leave a comment below. We will leave no later than 4pm so if you need a ride you must be ready to go by then!
Please note this is a *peaceful* counter to the WBC. Anyone not complying to Ohio Wesleyan’s rules and being disruptive will be sent home.
See you all tomorrow! 
RSVP HERE: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?invites&eid=106725509366961
Category: Uncategorized
New Orleans Destruction + With Video
So I’d love to tell you that we had a superfantabulous week of building – but it simply wasn’t the case. While we did have a great time with our fellow atheists and Christians on Bourbon street, we didn’t build a single thing. Instead, we united under or love of destroying things with sledgehammers and pickaxes.
Don’t get me wrong, these houses will ultimately be re-built, but the work that we did was demo work. We took down drywall, ceilings, destroyed pianos, and just all around gutted these houses for future work. One of the houses we worked on hadn’t been touched at all since Katrina — and that was 5 years ago. Food was still in the fridge and all.
Always, I recorded a daily vlog for this, so if you want to see precisely what we did on our trip, see the videos below. I still have two vlogs to edit an upload, so you can go back to my channel, healthyaddict, to see those when they get uploaded. Until then, enjoy!
The Journey down South:
Lazy Day:
Destroying Sin with a Pickaxe:
Bourbon Preachers:
Piano Meet Pickaxe:
Category: Uncategorized
2010 New Orleans Trip
It’s that time of year again. The dirty piles of snow have melted, the final exams are over, and the annual migration of the OSU Atheists and Christians to New Orleans is upon us. The plan is to leave Saturday morning, survive the grueling ride down, take Sunday off to explore the city, and get to work Monday through Thursday building during the day, and unwinding in the evenings.
Stay tuned for updates and video blog entries as we spend spring break cooperating with the Thomas Society to help to rebuild New Orleans (and maybe have a few drinks along the way).
Category: Uncategorized
Evolution of Men
So boys, what does the evolution of women look like?
Category: Uncategorized
Auction Items
Sure, the video fundraiser is over for our New Orleans Trip -but we still have some items up for auction til Friday!
The Knitted Flying Spaghetti Monster (Rum not included *sniffle*)
Scarlet Letter ‘A’ Black Scarf (wear your godlessness in the death of winter!)
Ray Comfort’s Origin – Copy 1
Ray Comfort’s Origin – Copy 2
The Bone Conjures (Jon’s novel, coming out in October. Must be patient for this one!!!)
Be sure to share with your friends, and get over there to bid before its too late!
Category: Activism, Fundraising
The Division of Humanity
So here we are. New year (albeit 17 days in), a new beginning, and one step closer to a brighter future. The recent events in Haiti really proved to me that there really is good in humanity, which is something I’ve wondered about for some time. However, no sooner did I regain a bit of hope than this video shows up online.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5TE99sAbwM
If you don’t feel like following the link, I’m sure you’ve seen it before. It is of everyone’s favorite minister, Pat Robertson, declaring that Haiti had sworn a pact with the devil in order to be released from French oppression. Shortly after seeing that, I found this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBTtv7nTYzY
To summarize for those of you who are too lazy to follow the link: A “prayer-cast” was organized in an attempt to stop health care reform (If you were at the meeting in which we watched Jesus Camp, you may see a familiar face in that video).
That’s right, we need to pray to end health care reform. That’s what Jesus would have wanted. Everyone knows that Jesus was heavily in favor of an economy run off of greed and money. While I don’t know that full universal health care is the answer, I know what we have now is not working.
So why show these videos? It is to show the kind of people who divide humanity. Using their religion, they cast people into clear distinctions of “them” and “us”. It is people like this who do no good for this planet or the living things on it.
All of that being said, it is easy to cast the blame on the religious. Religion has, to an extent, a history of dividing people. This doesn’t mean that the godless are blameless though.
For those of you who did not see the fund raiser last night, it began with Jon Weyer having a discussion with PZ Myers. Key word: discussion. This was not meant to be a debate. The conversation went well, in my opinion. Both PZ and Jon having their high and low points. This morning, I found on PZ’s blog that he had posted that he was on BlogTV. Here are some of the comments that his readers have posted.
“Couldn’t watch all the way to the end. The pastor just keep ranting on and on. He said he didn’t agree with the “God of the Gaps” idea, however, when PZ asked what compelled him to Christianity, he basically pulled out that argument and was ranting on about nothing.”
“ Quote- “Theology is self-correcting, like science.”
Yep, gotta love all them peer-reviewed theological journals that strictly evaluate the data and evidence, and would never deduce any conclusions based on what’s written in their holy books.
Crackpot.
Quote- I think I gave a good example of why I think theology is self correcting during the chat. However, I’ll be posting something about it on the Thomas Society blog in the next day or so
Thanks, I’ll pass.
Changed Quote- I don’t want to hijack PZ’s space for that discussion be laughed out of the room.
Fixed.”
And the Nicest one I could find: “Yeah, PZ doesn’t look as clear but he sure speaks more clearly. The pastor stutters and doesn’t make any kind of sense. Another nice guy who doesn’t know how to think straight. Sad really.”
Clearly, the religious are not the only ones to blame for the division of humanity. When one is so stuck in their belief that they aren’t willing to budge an inch on anything, they become the exact same thing that they claim the other side is.
So who is responsible for the division of humanity? It is clear; those who aren’t willing, at all, to give anything to the other side. Those who refuse to work with the other side, even for the good of all. Those who aren’t willing to even hear what they other side has to say.
With each side we have to judge people on an individual basis. No stereotype of Christians will accommodate all, nor will one stereotype of Atheists cover all. Fighting over little details when we all have the same basic moral principles will lead to nothing good. In one of the waiting rooms during the broadcast, there were atheists defending the viewpoints of others from people who would attack them. We must be willing to work with, and accept, those who have different views and beliefs. Otherwise, we as a species, will eventually fail. Don’t do what you accuse others of doing, or you are just as guilty.
Category: Uncategorized
PZ, the Preacher, & New Orleans
Further details on the workings of the fundraiser, or to donate early, click here!
Please show your support!
Category: Uncategorized
God of the Gaps
Greetings Heretics,
“Science is a philosophy of discovery. Intelligent design is a philosophy of ignorance. You cannot build a program of discovery on the assumption that nobody is smart enough to figure out the answer to a problem. Once upon a time, people identified the god Neptune as the source of storms at sea. Today we call these storms hurricanes. We know when and where they start. We know what drives them. We know what mitigates their destructive power. And anyone who has studied global warming can tell you what makes them worse. The only people who still call hurricanes “acts of God” are the people who write insurance forms.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson
Several weeks ago, Ray Comfort’s minions descended upon OSU and campuses nationwide to distribute “enhanced” copies of Darwin’s The Origin of Species. These copies featured a fifty page introduction intended to defame the name of Charles Darwin and make the case for intelligent design. One of the arguments they try to make in favor of intelligent design involves the claim that many of the great intellects of the past relied on faith, and believed in the “God of Creation”. I felt that this argument seemed particularly weak considering that most of the scientists they referenced were prominent long before The Origin of Species was published. Nonetheless, it’s one of the more common claims I hear from creationists, so I thought I’d give it a look. (Let me say that as far as I’m concerned, creationism is intelligent design. You can change the packaging, but the product stays the same.)
The question that must be asked is simple. Would these men have been in lockstep with the people who lobby out of the Discovery Institute, or were these men merely victims of their own limited tools and resources?
In the second century AD, Ptolemy conceived the geocentric theory of the universe, which prevailed for centuries. At the boundary of his primitive understanding of the universe, he had the following to say about his observations, “I know that I am mortal by nature and ephemeral, but when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself, and take my fill of ambrosia.” I’d like to think that if Ptolemy were alive today, he would have at worst been a deist. His curiosity and inquiring mind were unique in his time. Still, to tout someone who lived nearly two millenia ago, and had the tools to acquire only the most basic understanding of our planet and its processes seems to be a stretch.
Galileo, whose conflicts with the religious establishment were well documented, seemed to understand that religion had its limits when it came to describing the physical properties of the universe. He is famously quoted to have said, “The Bible tells you how to go to heaven, but not how the heavens go.” This great mind was reprimanded repeatedly for the heresy of insinuating that humans were not at the center of the universe. His heliocentric view caused him to be placed under house arrest by the Catholic Church, but his work helped to establish the independence of science from the dogma of religious authority.
Despite Galileo’s obvious disdain for the long reach of religiousity, you will often hear creationists say that much like Galileo’s Heliocentric Theory, intelligent design is often dismissed as absurd. They infer that their views haven’t been given a fair shake, like Galileo’s, and that they are being shut out by the close-minded scientific establishment. These people try to pretend that they are the advocates for critical thinking. There are not two sides to this issue. There is science, and then there are things that masquerade as science.
Sir Isaac Newton, sometimes regarded to be the most brilliant man who ever lived, created calculus on a whim. He single-handedly discovered the laws of motion, force, and gravity without once invoking an intelligent designer. Predictably, when he struggled to describe the stabilization of the forces in the solar system, he realized he had reached his limits. “This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the council and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being,” Newton decreed. This quote is often touted by Intelligent Design proponents as evidence that Newton himself would have subscribed to this theory. They fail to notice that these great minds only invoke a creator at the boundary of their understanding, if they do at all. I highly doubt Newton would have espoused this belief in the twenty-first century in the face of all the advances in astronomy, physics, and mathematics.
What would have happened if the many brilliant minds of our species had failed to move past the boundaries of contemporary understanding, but had instead accepted the roadblocks their predecessors ran into as inevitable and a result of the mysterious will of a supernatural being. You will often hear from religious types that the great scientists of the past were aware of their limits and believed that ultimately God was responsible for everything we observe in the universe. This is supposed to convince us heathens of our own arrogance in the contrast to the humility and concessions to design made by these intellectual giants. What you are not likely to hear is that these men only conceded the rest to a supernatural being where they could not continue on the strength of their own abilities. Progressive waves of scientists would expand on the limits put forth by their predecessors.
In the United States, almost 90% of the public believes that a supernatural being is responsible for the existence of the universe. Even more shocking, nearly half of these people believe this process took place close to six thousand years ago. A scant 10% of people believe in the accepted naturalistic view of evolution, and we wonder why math and science literacy in this country is so low?! We must learn the lessons of history and accelerate our understanding of the natural world by denouncing the use of mythology and irrationality to bridge the gaps in our knowledge. I think that those who would say, “Yes, I can see clearly that I would be a great fool to deny the evidence for evolution and the origin of our cosmos, but what came before that?” These people need only look to the greatest minds of our time and understand that had these brilliant men not become victims to the limits of their intellect, they would have continued to dazzle the world with their discoveries.
There is so much left to be discovered in our cosmos. For all we know, understanding the origins of this universe could only be the beginning. Even as we speak, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider are whizzing protons around at just under the speed of light in the hopes of unraveling the secrets of the first moments of the Big Bang. (They are also crafting hilarious music videos detailing this process.) Would we be doing experiments such as these had creationists gained access to our classrooms. I suspect not. Incredible intellectual progress is limited by the halting force of religion. When one admits with great humility that he or she does not know the answer, but is currently striving to find and identify the solution, this is seen as weakness and far too often god is used to fill the gap.
Category: Uncategorized
Jesus is the reason for the season. And he has the firepower to prove it…
I’ve already done my blog but I thought everyone who reads these blogs might enjoy this news story.
Nothing like artistic vision is there?
Category: Uncategorized
