Project Reason is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation devoted to spreading scientific knowledge and secular values in society. The foundation draws on the talents of prominent and creative thinkers in a wide range of disciplines to encourage critical thinking and erode the influence of dogmatism, superstition, and bigotry in our world.
Thank you for your post.
I have been thinking along the same lines for a while now.
It would be great to start a Church of Science-ology (love of science) rather than Scientology (whatever that stands for). The internet appears to be providing the start of this anyway with sites such as this and the great work of Hitchens/Dawkins/Harris etc. Maybe the answer is for people like ourselves to try to hire out local institutions(Meeting Halls/Village Halls and why not even Churches/Mosques) in order to conduct gatherings of like-minded folk wishing to discuss the science of the moment over a cup of tea and a slice of cake.
Avokat, not trying to speculate about your career field or say this is the only way to go. This is the only honest advice I can give because its my advice to myself. If science is your interest maybe no forum will satisfy your needs. I’ve always been interested in science and the natural world. I’ve recently registered with my local college and am beginning studies in environmental science and biology. A lot of this has been due to influence from people that I look up to like Sam Harris , Richard Dawkins, Neil Tyson, and Lawrence Krauss. I know that the scientific community is where I belong. This organization is also high on my interests ;but, my plans to change career fields from skilled labor metal fabrication to ,hopefully, a future in biology is the only way I can see of involving myself in what most interests me. Chat rooms can only help when your organizing to do more than chatter about conflicting views with no intention of affecting the world around you.Im new here to ;but, if you look around for a while you will see, like i have,that there are people here that you can share interests with. This place was just what the doctor ordered for me. Its lonely when everyone you know and meet is on a whole different plane of thought concerning religious belief and the world in general. Thats enough rambling for me tonite. later
Why does the concept of Atheism have to offer anything? It is simply the nonbelief in supernatural agency. Everything else, which is all we know of reality, is offered as….life.
It doesn’t get any better than that and doesn’t need to.
Why does the concept of Atheism have to offer anything? It is simply the nonbelief in supernatural agency. Everything else, which is all we know of reality, is offered as….life.
It doesn’t get any better than that and doesn’t need to.
Why does the concept of Atheism have to offer anything? It is simply the nonbelief in supernatural agency. Everything else, which is all we know of reality, is offered as….life.
It doesn’t get any better than that and doesn’t need to.
I think that’s right. If one is not satisfied with reality one must change it so reality is more in accord with one’s preference. Atheism or non-beilef in gods in itself has nothing to offer except a clearer picture of reality. The actual reality is what we then make or not make of it.
I joined this forum to ask one question that I haven’t seen yet, but let me know if this should be under another thread…
When I was a kid I went to church in a California mission. The mass was unbearably boring, but I have very vivid and fond memories of certain rituals, particularly that everyone would wish “peace be with you” to total strangers on a weekly basis. After church everyone would gather in the foyer to eat donuts and talk with their neighbors.
For whatever reason I have never able to make myself believe religious myths, though I’ve certainly tried. Finally I resolved to appreciate science and its beauty, but now that I’m an adult I miss that group exclusivity and connection with a “private club” of kind-hearted and like minded people. I’ve moved to several cities in the US and abroad now and always felt a certain jealousy of the religious people I met who were instantly plugged into a close community.
In a Real Time with Bill Maher show some time ago, when Bill told a guest (Patton Oswalt maybe?) that he should be an atheist, the guest said “Why? What have you got over there?” I couldn’t agree more, and I feel like we are not offering those who are in religious communities with an attractive alternative community, one that could actually have a voice in American politics. I live in San Francisco and and the groups available seem to be interested only in talking about why one SHOULDN’T believe myths. I feel that I’m well beyond that - where are the groups for those of us who don’t believe, are done analyzing their faith, who don’t have any interest in pursuing the nature of belief or the truth of deism anymore, and yet enjoy the beauty of ritual and the warmth of a local community of similar-thinking people?
So my question is: would Project Reason or its members be interested in creating a club or civic society that is based on humanist values and the promotion of science, instead of a religious organization? The Freemasons seem to have done an incredible job of promoting rational values through the use of symbols and studies, and are certainly cliquish enough, but require belief in a god to join.
Looking forward to your replies!
Well there are many local Secular Humanist/Atheist organizations of that sort around my town. But yeah, I agree with you. We should totally have more of our own club/society for atheists and agnostics - only it won’t be religious and highly ritualistic where we can discuss issues regarding science and reason and stuff.
Look for secular humanist groups in your area. I’m pretty sure you’ll find something, even if it’s nascent. You could get involved on the ground floor and drive it toward the types of things you’re seeking.
Avocat, if you realy want to feel involved and be included and loved why not join us in Melbourne for the Global Atheist Convention. Tickets in the very back rows are still available. I will pick you up at the airport and you can sleep on the floor of my presidential suite at the Hilton which is right above the conference center. My room is on the same floor as Sam’s and Richard’s. You will be very welcome. After the conference you can go home and root for your city to host the next convention. You will organise it. I will come. You will be so involved in the atheist cause you will get dizzy. It doesn’t matter how, just get to Melbourne and you’ll never look back.
I have always felt strongly that atheist/skepticism/rational thinking etc etc really is in need of claiming more ground in the “pointless” social structures field.
Basically to rip off all of the social structures that religions maintain. In my experience the majority of people who believe in religions and new age woo in the west don’t do it because they got really convinced of the factual claims of their local nonsense factory. They are in it because of the social stuff, because of the rituals, the traditions and the community and so far the non faith community has not done a particularly good job at stealing this massive market share away from them.
The Christians actually already outlined how you defeat a dominating belief system, they did it almost 2000 years ago and became the dominant belief system in Europe. We should learn from how they did it and one of the primary ways that the Christians outmaneuvered the pagan beliefs is that they aggressively worked to assimilate what those groups already had. Our modern religious holidays is an excellent example. Almost every Christian holiday just happens to occur on what was previously a pagan holiday. There was not religious lore reason for the holiday to occur on those dates they took the pagan holidays, made up their own explanation for why it was a christian holiday and then they eventually took them over.
Sadly there is little coordination in creating an agreed upon set of rationalist/scientific holidays, what I would really love to see would be someone just taking a list of every religious holiday be it christianity or islam and then making a replacement with important scientific events and discoveries instead. A complete ripoff of the religious calendar. The problem is that while I could do this myself even it would be meaningless to have such a holiday set unless it was embraced by most atheist and skeptic groups and organizations which it could not be unless it was developed in collaboration. Unless it is semi official it means nothing. But it would be awesome to have an official set of rationalist days instead be it Darwin’s birthday, the moon landing or the day that Einstein first published his theory of relativity etc
I have always felt strongly that atheist/skepticism/rational thinking etc etc really is in need of claiming more ground in the “pointless” social structures field.
Basically to rip off all of the social structures that religions maintain. In my experience the majority of people who believe in religions and new age woo in the west don’t do it because they got really convinced of the factual claims of their local nonsense factory. They are in it because of the social stuff, because of the rituals, the traditions and the community and so far the non faith community has not done a particularly good job at stealing this massive market share away from them.
The Christians actually already outlined how you defeat a dominating belief system, they did it almost 2000 years ago and became the dominant belief system in Europe. We should learn from how they did it and one of the primary ways that the Christians outmaneuvered the pagan beliefs is that they aggressively worked to assimilate what those groups already had. Our modern religious holidays is an excellent example. Almost every Christian holiday just happens to occur on what was previously a pagan holiday. There was not religious lore reason for the holiday to occur on those dates they took the pagan holidays, made up their own explanation for why it was a christian holiday and then they eventually took them over.
Sadly there is little coordination in creating an agreed upon set of rationalist/scientific holidays, what I would really love to see would be someone just taking a list of every religious holiday be it christianity or islam and then making a replacement with important scientific events and discoveries instead. A complete ripoff of the religious calendar. The problem is that while I could do this myself even it would be meaningless to have such a holiday set unless it was embraced by most atheist and skeptic groups and organizations which it could not be unless it was developed in collaboration. Unless it is semi official it means nothing. But it would be awesome to have an official set of rationalist days instead be it Darwin’s birthday, the moon landing or the day that Einstein first published his theory of relativity etc
Excellent! Suppose we just start by coming out with a SCIENCE CALENDAR. In line with your reasoning, we won’t call it an atheist calendar. We could nudge Tycho Brahe’s birthday from December 14 to December 25, or something like that. You’re quite right. Like Constantine and his PR team nudging make-believe Christian dates into the solstice and so forth, we can nudge important scientific discoveries and birthdays into the Christian holidays. Arbor Day could be shifted to December 25. Instead of cutting down a baby tree, you plant one. In Year One, I’d guess at least one million reasonable people would buy this calendar.
The day Christopher Hitchens agreed to be water-boarded could be on July 6, George W. Bush’s birthday, etc.
I have always felt strongly that atheist/skepticism/rational thinking etc etc really is in need of claiming more ground in the “pointless” social structures field.
Basically to rip off all of the social structures that religions maintain. In my experience the majority of people who believe in religions and new age woo in the west don’t do it because they got really convinced of the factual claims of their local nonsense factory. They are in it because of the social stuff, because of the rituals, the traditions and the community and so far the non faith community has not done a particularly good job at stealing this massive market share away from them.
The Christians actually already outlined how you defeat a dominating belief system, they did it almost 2000 years ago and became the dominant belief system in Europe. We should learn from how they did it and one of the primary ways that the Christians outmaneuvered the pagan beliefs is that they aggressively worked to assimilate what those groups already had. Our modern religious holidays is an excellent example. Almost every Christian holiday just happens to occur on what was previously a pagan holiday. There was not religious lore reason for the holiday to occur on those dates they took the pagan holidays, made up their own explanation for why it was a christian holiday and then they eventually took them over.
Sadly there is little coordination in creating an agreed upon set of rationalist/scientific holidays, what I would really love to see would be someone just taking a list of every religious holiday be it christianity or islam and then making a replacement with important scientific events and discoveries instead. A complete ripoff of the religious calendar. The problem is that while I could do this myself even it would be meaningless to have such a holiday set unless it was embraced by most atheist and skeptic groups and organizations which it could not be unless it was developed in collaboration. Unless it is semi official it means nothing. But it would be awesome to have an official set of rationalist days instead be it Darwin’s birthday, the moon landing or the day that Einstein first published his theory of relativity etc
Excellent! Suppose we just start by coming out with a SCIENCE CALENDAR. In line with your reasoning, we won’t call it an atheist calendar. We could nudge Tycho Brahe’s birthday from December 14 to December 25, or something like that. You’re quite right. Like Constantine and his PR team nudging make-believe Christian dates into the solstice and so forth, we can nudge important scientific discoveries and birthdays into the Christian holidays. Arbor Day could be shifted to December 25. Instead of cutting down a baby tree, you plant one. In Year One, I’d guess at least one million reasonable people would buy this calendar.
The day Christopher Hitchens agreed to be water-boarded could be on July 6, George W. Bush’s birthday, etc.
Not at all what I said but glad you are enjoying yourself.
edit: Just as a head up for any other potential trolls who are primarily interested in raising their own perceived self worth by going straight for ridicule as a means of trying to assert intellectual superiority note how the paragraph separates the first statement regarding how we in general should look at taking more market shares from religious people the way humanist organizations offer secular funerals and weddings thus not letting them have that monopoly, from the second statement about the absence of scientific holidays. It is a travesty that we celebrate so many useless things and yet the only scientific holidays even unofficially is pi day. Where as almost none of the important scientific events are ever recognized. Just another reason for why the average Joe has little or no concept of these events. To have holidays that actually honor the real advances of our civilization should be obvious. There are many of those events that does fall on existing religious holidays. Most occur on other dates and should obviously be recognized on their correct dates, obviously not moving anything to compete with the christian calendar, give me a fucking break.
