Probability of Cognitive Dissonance = 1 / 0

When I decided to restart this student freethought group at UF, I asked our faculty advisor, Prof. of Philosophy Gene Witmer, whose books I should get if I really wanted to read the strongest arguments that theism had to offer. His suggestion?

Richard Swinburne, Oxford philosophy professor, prolific author of serious works of theistic apologetics (e.g., The Existence of God, Is There a God?, Providence and the Problem of Evil)...who has apparently lost his marbles.

He claims in The Resurrection of God Incarnate to have mathematically calculated the likelihood of Jesus' resurrection, using Bayesian probability, at 97%. His logic [lack thereof]?

1. The probably of God's existence is one in two. That is, God either exists or doesn't.
2. The probability that God became incarnate, that is embodied in human form, is also one in two.
3. The evidence for God's existence is an argument for the resurrection.
4. The chance of Christ's resurrection not being reported by the gospels has a probability of one in 10.
5. Considering all these factors together, there is a one in 1,000 chance that the resurrection is not true.

oy vey!

Mark Chu-Carroll has an analysis, if one is even deserved for this kind of madness, which can be summarized thusly:

By a similar argument, I can say that probability of pink winged monkeys flying out of my butt is one in two: that is, either they will fly out of my butt, or they won't. The probability that those monkeys will fly to the home of this Oxford professor and pelt it with their feces is one in two. If pink winged monkeys fly out of my butt, that's an argument for the likelyhood of a fecal attack on his home by flying pink monkeys.

Do I really need to continue this? I don't think so; I'd better go stock up on monkey food in my bathroom.

On another note of sadness, five Mexican children were killed as they prayed at a cross by lightning. Why should we believe there was a God on the other end of those prayers, again? Oh wait, I remember now, everything God does is good, including allowing five children, ages 9-16, to be killed by lightning while offering up prayers and thanksgiving to God. What was I thinking? I'd better go pray for forgiveness...at a plastic cross, of course.

Meeting 3 Wrap-up

Our third and final meeting of the semester went down Tuesday. Basically, we met and discussed a lil' business, then went and drank a few pitchers at Cafe Gardens. We had some interesting topics of convo [as always], and I have the hankerin' for a debate with a campus group this fall.

Over the summer, those interested are still going to meet up for social activity. I'll post tentative plans here for the summer, but I gotta have some feedback on events that you all would like to attend [eg concerts, conferences, sporting events], for something other than the now-typical chats over good brew.

We had two new guys check out the group, and I hope to see them both back.

Tonight is Jess's 21st birthday bash. See her directions below, and she has the details listed in a Facebook event. Hope to see you all at Friday's [or a bar].

Sam Harris on the Colbert Report

Those of you who missed it, you must see Steven Colbert hosting Sam Harris. Hilarious. Sam Harris authored The End of Faith.

The Raving Atheist has the transcript and commentary, if you don't want to watch the video. Harris' book endorses the idea of meditation and some forms of mysticism, oddly enough. Since Harris studies neuroscience, and upon reading more about his views on it, I understand his interest in and endorsement of meditation to be a rational thing. Those more interested in Harris' thoughts on meditation can read the interview series with RA.

Topic for Thought: Free Will

Tonight over food and beer, hopefully we can have a good topic of conversation that we can all weigh in on, at least superficially. I propose the idea of "free will" as tonight's central topic.

1) Are we free moral agents? Can we choose and act freely? What does this mean?
2) Are we morally responsible for what we do? In all contexts? In some?

I suggest reading the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy's entry just to get a feel for the views on the topics: compatibilists, determinists, incompatibilists, libertarians, pessimists...

Looking forward to it.

Meeting 3: Tonight at 7PM CLB 414

We will meet in the fourth-floor conference room of my building for maybe 20-45 mins, depending, then go out for food and beer. I have a lot of material from the SSA, CFI, CSH, AA, AHA, etc.

Davy did a fantastic job making some really nice banners and handouts/flyers and business cards and such. See them HERE and HERE. I will print those out too. Basically, I want to quickly show everyone our material, talk about getting a poster and table stuff together, and get set for the fall recruiting drive. We need some tangiable goals. I also want to encourage everyone to stay in touch through this site for the summer, and find out who is going to be in G'ville through the summer, and who may want to keep meeting and working on GF.

Click HERE for a campus map showing CLB. It is at 17th St [Buckman] and Univ. Ave. See you at 7!

FFRF and Shakespeare

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, FFRF, has a really nice feature worth checking out: Freethought of the Day (FTD). Members of the FFRF, or subscribers to Freethought Today, have the ability to get these emailed to them daily (as I do). Joining FFRF is easy and cheap -- $25 for student membership.

Today's FTD is about William Shakespeare, since today's his birthday. I have reproduced FFRF's post in its entirety below, and copyright laws apply:

William Shakespeare

On this date in 1564, William Shakespeare was born in England. He died in 1616. The "master" playwright was eulogized by 19th century agnostic orator Robert Green Ingersoll. In one of his famous lectures, Ingersoll said that when he read Shakespeare, "I beheld a new heaven and a new earth." (The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Interviews, Vol. IV, p. 39.) "All well-educated ministers know that the Bible suffers by a comparison with Shakespeare." (Vol. VIII, p. 297) "If Shakespeare could be as widely circulated as the Bible . . . nothing would so raise the intellectual standard of mankind. Think of the different influence on men between reading Deuteronomy and 'Hamlet' and 'King Lear' . . . The church teaches obedience. The man who reads Shakespeare has his intellectual horizon enlarged." (ibid, p. 313)
No one knows Shakespeare's personal religious views, although he certainly was not orthodox, and put many different types of sentiments into the mouths of his characters. His philosophy seems most succinctly described in the famous "Seven Ages of Man" speech from "As You Like It," which begins:

"All the world's a stage/ And all the men and women merely players:/ They have their exits and their entrances;. . ."

ending with

"mere oblivion./ Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything."

Below are several of Shakespeare's most famous irreverencies.
"In religion, what damned error but some sober brow will bless it, and approve it with a text, . . .?"
-- "The Merchant of Venice," Act III, Sc. II
"Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian."
-- "Twelfth Night," Act I, Sc. III
"His worst fault is, he's given to prayer; he is something peevish that way."
-- "The Merry Wives of Windsor," Act I, Sc. IV
"We are such stuff as dreams are made of, and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
-- "The Tempest," Act IV, Sc. I
"Modest doubt is call'd the beacon of the wise."
-- William Shakespeare, "Troilus and Cressida," Act II, Sc. II

I hope some of you will consider joining FFRF. They do really good work, and all donations (including membership fee) are tax-deductible. I especially enjoy Dan Barker's writings.

Food for Thought

I know that some of you thinkers in this club have interesting stuff worth posting and passing along. If you haven't posted here, please don't be afraid to. Read over the Contributors page (if you need to) for help with the format. If you aren't signed up to contribute to our blog, please, please email me (aafsa.uf@gmail.com) and I will get you fixed up. You can use a pseudonym if you wish. We really need people to stay in touch through this site over the summer.

Now, I wanted to direct you to Sam Harris' new article: The Myth of Secular Moral Chaos. For those of you unawares, Harris published The End of Faith, and an excellent essay, An Atheist Manifesto, both of which I have linked to in our "Reading Rainbow" section of the sidebar. Please send me suggestions and requests to add content to that portion of our sidebar, and I can link it as your own suggestion, or just an anonymous one. Thanks!

I also want to direct you to: The 10 Commandments -- Updated for a Modern Age

And get your response to this short quote:

The God of the Crusaders sent them to kill Muslims. The God of the Catholics had them kill scientists. The God of the Puritans told them to kill witches. The Hindu god is OK with killing cow-tippers. The God of the evangelists tells them to kill pro-choicers. The God of the Islamists wants them to kill just about everybody else.

Pity, then, the poor atheist. With no god to tell him whom to kill, he can only practice peace on earth, good will toward men.

Lawrence Manes

We've probably all heard the trite tripe about Stalin and Hitler enough to hurt our heads, so what do you make of this assessment? Thoughts, comments?

Last Meeting, Women in Freethought

This coming Tuesday, April 25th, will be our last meeting of the spring semester. We will meet at 7 PM. I am still unsure if I will have a room on-campus, or if we will meet somewhere within proximity, as we did last time at the Copper Monkey. Check the Meetings page, as always, for up-to-date details.

The SSA has a nice article about the balance some of us had to strike between being honest and open with friends and family, and the fear and anxiety that comes with admitting we chosen to live our lives without religious faith to those who make faith such a priority.

I received some information from Alison Bates, a Staffer with SSA, a while back about getting more women involved in our freethought group, and I smiled. We don't seem to have the problem. In fact, roughly speaking, we've had as many or more women at our meetings, and on our Facebook, as men. I'm quite proud of that fact. Read below for more on women in freethought:

I think that diversity is integral to the long-term success of any group [and one reason why orthodox religions struggle to accomodate culture and preserve often-antiquated beliefs]. Check out Alison's resources for attracting more females to our group. Although I am grateful for our relatively hearty number of freethinking women, I would like to see more racial and ethnic diversity in our group. Infidelguy has a list, "Famous Black Freethinkers", that is worth a look.

Can you name some famous black atheists off the top of your head? If not, read this little article. Famous women atheists?

From Alison's list, "Women in Humanism":

• Bobbie Kirkhart-- President of Atheist Alliance International bkirkhart@aol.com
• Jo Ann Mooney-- Operations Manager of Atheist Alliance International joann@freethinker.org
• Molleen Matsumura-- writer of Sweet Reason for the Institute for Humanist Studies www.sweetreason.org molleen@sbcglobal.net
• Annie Laurie Gaylor-- co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and author of Women Without Superstition algaylor@ffrf.org
• Margaret Downey-- President of the Freethought Society of Greater Philadelphia downey1@cris.com
• Susan Jacoby-- author of Freethinkers: A History of American Secularism
• Helen Kagin-- co-founder of Camp Quest and retired physician helenkagin@fuse.net
• Jen Adams-- atheist/humanist/skeptic activism polymath
• Martha Knox-- former SSA board member, campus activist, artist http://paintedprimate.com/ mamamarfa@yahoo.com
• Jen Hancock-- Executive Director of the Humanists of Florida Association jen@floridahumanist.org
• Amanda Metskas-- President of Camp Quest, Inc.
amanda@camp-quest.org
• Chris Lindstrom-- President of the Garrison-Matrineau project and Camp Quest West stsam@garrison-martineau.com
• Maggie Ardiente-- Executive Assistant at the American Humanist Association and SSA Board member mardiente@americanhumanist.org
• Rena Levin-- Grassroots Organizer at Americans United for the Separation of Church and State and SSA Board member, levin@au.org
• Mary Ellen Sikes-- atheist/humanist/skeptic activism polymath sikesme@adelphia.net
• Katie Hladky-- Camp Quest board member and graduate student in religious studies hladkykm@muohio.edu
• Mynga Futrell-- Ph.D., Brights co-director and head of Objectivity, Accuracy, and Balance In Teaching About Religion (OBITAR) oabitar@aol.com
• Ellen Johnson-- President of American Atheists EllJhns8@aol.com
• Arlene-Marie-- Michigan State Director of American Atheists Godfree1st@aol.com
• Kelly Browning-- Director of the Carl Sagan Academy Kelly@carlsaganacademy.org
• Gin Kohl Lieberman-- Curriculum Director for the Carl Sagan Academy vkohl@tampabay.rr.com
• Carol Smith-- Secretary of Atheist Alliance International humanist@ameritech.net
• Judy Disco-- Director of Administration at the Institute for Humanist Studies JDisco@humaniststudies.org
• Alison Bates-- Campus Organizer for the Secular Student Alliance alison@secularstudents.org
• Lisa Swinehart-- former Campus Organizer for the Secular Student Alliance isaleistar@yahoo.com
• Anne Lyster-- Program Coordinator for the American Humanist Association alyster@americanhumanist.org
• Lisa Smith-- Technology and Office Manager for the American Humanist Association lsmith@americanhumanist.org
• Sara Ryan--Youth and Campus Organizer at Americans United for Separation of Church and State ryan@au.org

Those of you with ideas to help us increase diversity, please comment below. Just some food for thought...

The Bible of the Good and Moral Atheist

For those interested in defending your lack of faith, or even in engaging in rational discussion about why you reject any particular religion, I have two resources well worth your time.

I found a really nice resource for any godless person, or for anyone interested in learning more about godlessness. It contains a plethora of information on atheism, virtue, famous atheists, arguments, philosophy, etc. Check it out (right-click, and "Save as" the first link):

The Bible of the Good and Moral Atheist [FREE]

Also, Francois Tremblay authored a book available for download for only $4.13 (at this moment, that's the price) that is well worth it, as I can attest first-hand:

Handbook of Atheist Apologetics

I know that all atheists are not as interested in philosophy or debate as I am, but I think that lack of "handbook"-style resources is one reason for it. When a Christian attempts to persuade you using rational argument (rare, usually emotional appeal), it is integral to have studied the arguments for fallacies and the premises for weakness. Those of us committed to following logic and evidence, wherever it leads, ought to ensure that our own arguments are not weak or in error, IMHO. Anyway, let me know what you think, should you decide to download these!

Positive Atheism

Even a superstitious man has certain inalienable rights: the right to harbor and indulge his imbecilities, provided only that he does not try to inflict them upon others by force; he has the right to argue for them as eloquently as he can. But he has no right to be protected from the criticism of those who do not hold them. He has no right to demand that they be treated as sacred. He has no right to preach them without challenge.
H.L. Mencken

Given that religious persons feel motivated to save our souls by their own beliefs, and thus evangelize us, are they morally wrong, in following what they truly believe, an in trying to "help" us?

By the same line of reasoning, those of us who feel that some religious systems promote and induce unethical behavior, intolerance, ignorance, anti-scientific and anti-intellectual attitudes, theocratic tendencies, etc., may be ethically motivated to try to argue against these systems, or at least to reasonably present our alternatives to those willing to listen. Are we, therefore, evangelical atheists? Are we wrong, in following what we see as the truth?

Brian Flemming, of The God Who Wasn't There, is now behind a campaign to plant his DVDs, and generally anti-Christian materials, in churches for their Easter services. The aim appears to be to "hide" these things within churches so that worshippers on Easter Sunday will discover them, and hopefully watch/read them. This appraoch, in my opinion, crosses the line of ethical behavior and decency. Standing out in the parking lot, holding a sign like this one, however, I think is completely innocuous.

What are your thoughts on the balance between promoting a worldview and "going too far" in "evangelizing"?

Read this interesting take on positive atheism.

Meeting 2: Copper Monkey Epilogue

The meeting last night went well. It was a social, not much business to speak of, besides Davy's preview of the sketches you find in the post below. Please weigh in on the designs, giving constructive comments and criticisms.

We had six new people show up this time, and if my head count was correct, there were 15 people there. I was pretty happy with it, since I got word that a couple of people probably went to the Margaret Cho show last night.

The group is in building-up phase, and the officers are going to have to connect behind the scenes for the business end. The thrust of our efforts needs to be directed to getting things organized for the fall -- a canvas/banner for tabling, business cards/flyers, setting up regular (2-3 weeks) meetings on-campus, setting up frequent socials and group activities (weekly?)...that sort of thing. I would appreciate it if any of you who will be here this summer would email me just to let me know if you would be interested in helping out.

I finally got the permitting forms available online, just yesterday afternoon. I can now post group meetings to the SAC events calendar, but check out our meetings page for the most up-to-date and reliable 411.

I reserved a more apt URL for the group: aafsa.blogspot.com. For the time being, I am just redirecting the traffic here. Later on, I may migrate everything over there. Obviously, our final designs and logos need to be adjusted accordingly before printing, so we (the officers) can talk it over. Also remember that the old Grove page is still available, for those of you interested in perusing that material for inspiration/ideas.

Thanks for everything! Looking forward to seeing you again.

"This is Your Brain...on God"

A quite interesting article on Wired talks about a "neurotheologist", of sorts (really a neuropsychologist):

Michael Persinger, a neuropsychologist at Canada's Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. His theory is that the sensation described as "having a religious experience" is merely a side effect of our bicameral brain's feverish activities. Simplified considerably, the idea goes like so: When the right hemisphere of the brain, the seat of emotion, is stimulated in the cerebral region presumed to control notions of self, and then the left hemisphere, the seat of language, is called upon to make sense of this nonexistent entity, the mind generates a "sensed presence."

Persinger has tickled the temporal lobes of more than 900 people before me and has concluded, among other things, that different subjects label this ghostly perception with the names that their cultures have trained them to use - Elijah, Jesus, the Virgin Mary, Mohammed, the Sky Spirit. Some subjects have emerged with Freudian interpretations - describing the presence as one's grandfather, for instance - while others, agnostics with more than a passing faith in UFOs, tell something that sounds more like a standard alien-abduction story.

The article ends with:

"Seeing God" is really just a soothing euphemism for the fleeting awareness of ourselves alone in the universe: a look in that existential mirror. The "sensed presence" - now easily generated by a machine pumping our brains with electromagnetic spirituality - is nothing but our exquisite and singular self, at one with the true solitude of our condition, deeply anxious. We're itching to get out of here, to escape this tired old environment with its frayed carpets, blasted furniture, and shabby old God. Time to move on and discover true divinity all over again.

When noted atheist Richard Dawkins was put in the machine, what happened? Nothing:

Horizon introduced Dr Persinger to one of Britain's most renowned atheists, Prof Richard Dawkins. He agreed to try his techniques on Dawkins to see if he could give him a moment of religious feeling. During a session that lasted 40 minutes, Dawkins found that the magnetic fields around his temporal lobes affected his breathing and his limbs. He did not find god.

Persinger was not disheartened by Dawkins' immunity to the helmet's magnetic powers. He believes that the sensitivity of our temporal lobes to magnetism varies from person to person. People with TLE may be especially sensitive to magnetic fields; Prof Dawkins is well below average, it seems. It's a concept that clerics like Bishop Stephen Sykes give some credence as well: could there be such a thing as a talent for religion?

People may want to check out the scientific literature on the "God gene" as well. I think that correlating brain chemistry to general "belief" is pretty unscientific [as of now], but I think that specifically honing in on tendency to ascribe immaterial agency to "mysterious" natural events may indeed prove to have a physiological basis. Dennett argues about the same -- that humans' ever-expanding mental capacity enabled them to recognize patterns and, much as we recognize the physical laws of nature, our ancestors developed the capacity to assign agency. Basically, it's saying that we got smart enough to fill in the blank "why" of "things don't fall up, the sun and moon move in intervals, the sound of sticks in the woods when it's dark often signals something scary...etc.," with intentionality.

Hat tip: Pharyngula

Thoughts? Comments?

Organizational Update

As mentioned in the previous post, we had some willing AAFSA enthusiasts step up to the plate to take officer spots. As of this morning, you can now view the updated student organization information. I put in the number of active members as equal to the number of people signed up via the AAFSA Facebook group at the time: 34. You can always view our SAC listing from the link in the sidebar.

Of course, the SAC has assured me that we have "program permitting forms" access (to sign up for a room), since I faxed in the confirmation that I did their little "tutorial" and they said they know this, and that they have enabled us...however, they haven't. Therefore, the drag-assing and general cluster-f***ing are holding up our ability to get a regular meeting time on-campus going. Sorry, folks. Nevertheless, we will always meet, somewhere! Some good news includes the fact that more than a few of you have indicated you will be here this summer, which gives us more time to prepare a whiteboard/poster/table canvas to do some heavy recruiting and awareness-raising come the fall semester.

See you tomorrow night, Copper Monkey, 6:30 PM. (**Time changed from 7 PM!**)

Officers Update, Meeting Tuesday at Copper Monkey

First, we will be meeting Tuesday evening, 6:30 PM, **TIME CHANGED BY 1/2 HR** at the Copper Monkey (just western-adjacent to the Swamp, University & 17th St). Even if you can't/don't want to eat, come out and fraternize. Officers, please have one interesting/thoughtful topic for conversation in mind and at hand. I don't plan to "direct" conversation, and I'm not particularly worried about it, but please have some thoughtful prepared convo-initiators just to make things flow smoothly.

One of the issues on the agenda is getting a logo approved by the group. David graciously offered to put together some sketches for us, which we can all look over and have a vote on Tuesday. Whenever he can get the time to Photoshop the approved logo together, we will post it to the banner here on this site, on the Grove site, for use as a table canvas (or poster for the table), and I may work with David to get some flyers/business card designs to get printed up.

Always check out the meetings page (link in sidebar) for reliable meeting information.

Our officer information update: (order joined)
President -- Daniel Morgan (dmorgan@chem.ufl.edu)
Treasurer -- Chelsea Pavey (cpavey@ufl.edu)
Vice President -- Jessica Grady (dsotm43@ufl.edu)
Secretary -- David Misvel (blue.chicago.moon@gmail.com)

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Meeting on Tuesday, LISTSERV

Sorry for the delay in informing you all of some updates. First, I want to let you know that the SAC has still not given me access to sign us up for a room. I have just sent them yet another email this morning. I’m sorry they are so slow. As soon as I have a room, I will hold an official meeting.

Unofficially, I would like to have another social event next week. I was thinking we could meet somewhere convenient to campus−maybe the Copper Monkey or Leonardo’s, Tuesday evening, 4-11-06, at around 7PM. If you can’t afford to eat, that’s fine, just come out anyways. I’ll finalize the locale this weekend and re-post the official meeting under our meetings link. Another option is to meet at the coffee shop there at Target Copy, or at the library (Marston, or West, when it opens).

I will be meeting with the officers and any other interested parties again within the next two weeks to do some planning. We really need a banner, something I can get printed onto business cards and we can use at our table later on. That’s something I need help with. I'm about as artistic as one of my Saint Bernards (yes, I got another one, Caesar). Also, we need a secretary, just for perception’s sake, not because there is a lot of work for that person to do − organizations look better if they have all of their officer positions filled, and any one of you with a serious interest in this group can step up and take a leadership role. Please check out the delegation page.

I will also be writing a contributor’s page by this afternoon, and placing a link in the sidebar, for any/all of you who want to post on occasion to this site but find yourself intimidated by the html code and/or etiquette. Please email me (aafsa.uf at gmail dot com) if you would like to be added to the contributors list (see bottom of sidebar on right) so that you can make posts here. Those of you on the list, please feel free to throw in your $0.02.

You did NOT receive an email because I chose not to send one out. Instead, I set up an AAFSA LISTSERV (hereafter LS). Read on for more:

I made this decision after consulting with a few other people, because we all experience inbox clutter, and many people would rather just come and check on the website at their leisure, rather than being sent information they may not particularly care about at that time. Now, instead of sending unsolicited emails, I will only send emails to the LS occasionally, and its major purpose will be to facilitate communication between members. I had hoped that the blog would serve this purpose, but only Rob and myself (Daniel/aafsa.uf) seem to have posted anything other than a comment thus far.

You will not receive emails from this LS until you subscribe to it. To subscribe, send an email to LISTSERV@LISTS.UFL.EDU and in the body (not the subject line) type:
subscribe aafsa-l

You can also manage your subscription here.

In order to send an email to the entire LS, you must send an email to: AAFSA-L@LISTS.UFL.EDU.

Please be aware these are going to be very public, so write with the awareness that many people will be reading the email. I am the moderator of the LS, so all messages are approved before being distributed, therefore there will be a delay in seeing a message you send out to the group. Also note that there are archives stored on the server for public viewing for every email.

To save yourself some heartache, I recommend setting up a folder and message filter within your email client (e.g. Thunderbird, Outlook) to have all emails from the LS automagically filed away to.

Okay, that’s pretty much it for now. I will update again this weekend with an official place and time to meet next Tuesday. I will also have some topics for discussion by myself and the officers ready. I invite you all to bring along godless-relevant news and anecdotes, and please feel free to email me anytime (aafsa.uf at gmail dot com) with any suggestions or information. Again, feel free to subscribe to the LS and send out emails that way.

Best regards, see you all soon.

April Fool's

I know it seems like we just got started with this blog, but Daniel and I have been talking and we think it's a mistake.

Daniel, Jess, Chelsea and I have all been really studying the bible a lot these last few days and we think we were wrong. Everything in the bible really IS true. I mean, look at the world around you, how can you NOT think it's being taken care of by a Supreme Being named Jesus who died on the cross for your sins 2000 years ago?

So let it be stated: Today, April 1, 2006 is the day that atheism died.


(yes, this is an April Fools' Day post)