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What are you doing for Darwin Day?

Whoops, I forgot one thing which could be of interest to the board...

This is indeed a very interesting, and imo welcome, development. It seems as if the silent majority of religious folks out there are beginning to stir...

http://www.uwosh.edu/colleges/cols/rel_evol_sun.htm

"On 12 February 2006 hundreds of Christian churches from all portions of the country and a host of denominations will come together to discuss the compatibility of religion and science. For far too long, strident voices, in the name of Christianity, have been claiming that people must choose between religion and modern science. More than 10,000 Christian clergy have already signed The Clergy Letter demonstrating that this is a false dichotomy. Now, on the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, many of these leaders will bring this message to their congregations through sermons and/or discussion groups. Together, participating religious leaders will be making the statement that religion and science are not adversaries. And, together, they will be elevating the quality of the national debate on this topic."

Check the website to see if there are any places near you participating in this event. I personally wouldn't mind going to check out one of these sermons, just so long as no one reacts nastily to my espousing atheism (if they ask I'll tell them). If this becomes a regular thing, I think the radical creationists won't know what hit them :)

What are others thoughts on this?

Cheers - Mattus
 
I'll be flying home from visiting my father & step-mother on the 12th. I'll miss all the festivities. Maybe I'll be seated next to a fervent anti-evolutionist on the plane and we can have a good debate. :)
 
SkepticScott said:
I'll be flying home from visiting my father & step-mother on the 12th. I'll miss all the festivities. Maybe I'll be seated next to a fervent anti-evolutionist on the plane and we can have a good debate. :)
Click to expand...

A frevent debate? You mean like them hitting you over the head with the Bible while you try to choke them with a fossil?

I'd pay real money to see that! :D

Cheers - Mattus
 
MattusMaximus said:
You mean like them hitting you over the head with the Bible while you try to choke them with a fossil?
Click to expand...
No, I don't use fossils. I hit them back with my books! I've got them out-massed, since I have at least two feet of shelf-space devoted to Dawkins' and Gould's books alone. When I add in the Biblical criticism books, I violate several arms controls treaties -- they're Weapons of Mass Education after all. All that's left of the poor anti-evolutionist's arguments is an "Origin of the Species"-shaped dent.


:) :)
 
MattusMaximus said:
Whoops, I forgot one thing which could be of interest to the board...

This is indeed a very interesting, and imo welcome, development. It seems as if the silent majority of religious folks out there are beginning to stir...

http://www.uwosh.edu/colleges/cols/rel_evol_sun.htm

"On 12 February 2006 hundreds of Christian churches from all portions of the country and a host of denominations will come together to discuss the compatibility of religion and science. For far too long, strident voices, in the name of Christianity, have been claiming that people must choose between religion and modern science. More than 10,000 Christian clergy have already signed The Clergy Letter demonstrating that this is a false dichotomy. Now, on the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, many of these leaders will bring this message to their congregations through sermons and/or discussion groups. Together, participating religious leaders will be making the statement that religion and science are not adversaries. And, together, they will be elevating the quality of the national debate on this topic."

Check the website to see if there are any places near you participating in this event. I personally wouldn't mind going to check out one of these sermons, just so long as no one reacts nastily to my espousing atheism (if they ask I'll tell them). If this becomes a regular thing, I think the radical creationists won't know what hit them :)

What are others thoughts on this?

Cheers - Mattus
Click to expand...

Well - I just finished 'The End of Faith' by Sam Harris - and while I used to be somewhat moderate on the issue of religion/science playing nicely in the sandbox - I'm changing my position. Religion, particularly organized religion in the most commonly encountered forms is just plain WRONG. While moderation on the part of the religious camps is a pleasant change - the bottom line is that for the truly faithful, their beliefs and those of atheists, and many skeptics, secular humanists etc... are simply incompatible. In the bible and the koran there are references which suggest atheists should not be tolerated / put to death. That some religious folks choose not to follow their beliefs to the letter in this regard is nice - but religious moderates allow the ferverous to carry out their extremes by virtue of their tolerance.

I'm sorry - I'm not going to spend Darwin day being apologetic. I'm going to be a curmodgeonly atheist in Kabul and enjoy it, dammit.

-AH.
 
Darwin's Birthday is it?
Well, how appropriate....

I'll be driving up into the Dandenong Ranges, about a ten minute trip from here to park at the Musk Park Reserve and trek along the Olinda Forest Trail. I should get back in time for lunch if I start out at sunrise! I've not been there before, so it'll be a new discovery for me. But I don't expect to be finding any new species along the way! (Not that I'd recognise any if I did.)

Next year I'm going to West Papua :D

BillyJoe
 
BillyJoe said:
I'll be driving up into the Dandenong Ranges, about a ten minute trip from here to park at the Musk Park Reserve and trek along the Olinda Forest Trail.
Click to expand...
Well then, you might well run into Kaz, as she lives in the Dandenong/Olinda area.

Tell her I said "hi."
 
Big Old Darwin Day event at CFI-West in Hollywood

Darwin Day 2006!

Sunday, February 12

-12:01 am through 5 pm; reception to follow-

On the 197th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, CFI-West will sponsor a party celebrating the father of the Theory of Evolution. As a symbolic gesture of science's solidarity with Darwin, CFI-West will host a staged reading of the entire text of The Origin of Species, Darwin's revolutionary work which explains that life evolved on Earth over millions of years.

Beginning at midnight on Saturday, Feb. 11, pro-science volunteers of all kinds will begin reading the several hundred pages of text onstage at the Center. Readers and audience are invited to float in and out all through the night and day of Darwin's birthday. The book is expected to take about 16 hours to read aloud.

The reading will culminate with celebrities and science notables finishing the book sometime between 3:30 and 5pm on Sunday, February 12.

Stay for the reception to see a couple of live exotic animals, and to have a piece of birthday cake!
 

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