Rising from the A.S.H.-es

My goodness, has it really been over a year since this old blog was updated?

In other news: Brown Freethought underwent a change in management in May of 2011. A young, dashing, ambitious Secretary made his bid for power in the vacuum left by former president David Sheffield, who left us for graduate school in a faraway state.

This charming, intelligent master of self-aggrandizement pushed through several policy changes in his first week of office: First, the position of "benevolent dictator" would have its air-quotes removed from the group's official letterhead.

Second, the group would adopt a staunchly pro-secular stance in order to maximize its impact on Brunonia. This would not be a mere discussion group for haughty academics to mock religion in secrecy whilst casually sipping Johnnie Walker Black (a favorite of the late Christopher Hitchens). Oh no, there would be petitions, marches, t-shirts, book readings, post-rapture parties and a snazzy new organization logo!

Last, but certainly not least, the group would be forever known as Brown Atheists, Skeptics and Humanists — "B.A.S.H." for short.

In one short semester, group attendance at regular meetings increased by 400%. New blood was recruited from the incoming freshman class. Things have been going smoothly ever since. B.A.S.H. celebrated its first Darwin Day with a classy film screening. It has been keeping careful tabs on the Cranston HS Prayer Banner case, and several members will be attending the Reason Rally in in the D.C. area over Spring Break. It will be pushing for frequent "Ask an Atheist" tables in the mailroom lobby and on the main green (once the weather clears up). In short, the group has emerged from obscurity to become a real beacon of secular activism in a rapidly changing world.

We are the B.A.S.H. Resistance is V/I.

Hitch has cancer

Smoking has apparently caught up with Christopher Hitchens. He's been on a book tour, promoting his new memoir Hitch-22. Today, Hitchens announced that he has esophageal cancel and is canceling further events.

I have been advised by my physician that I must undergo a course of chemotherapy on my esophagus. This advice seems persuasive to me. I regret having had to cancel so many engagements at such short notice.

Brown Freethought will be gathering at some point to sacrifice a goat so that the gods might heal our most-beloved horseman.

CLS v. Martinez

Today was an important day. Last night Senator Robert Byrde and Martin Ginsburg died. Justice John Paul Stevens also retired after serving on the Supreme Court for a sixth of its existence.

There was, however, some happy news from the Supreme Court today. Martin's wife, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, attending today's final session of the term to give her majority opinion on Christian Legal Society v. Martinez.

The Christian Legal Society was denied official recognition at Hastings College of Law, which is part of the University of California, because of their policy limiting membership and offices to good Christians. They had to affirm their belief in Christian values like forswearing "unrepentant participation in or advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle" [1]. Read: no homos. Justices Ginsburg, Stevens, Kennedy, Breyer, and Sotomayor concluded that Hastings was not violating the rights of Christian students when the college refused to recognize and give money to a group that discriminates against queers and non-christians.

I'm mentioning this for two reasons. First, CFI submitted an amicus brief in the case (see the brief and CFI's comment on the decision). The second reason is that all groups at Brown must include the following statement in their constitution:

Eligibility to [the group] is open to all full-time undergraduate members of the Brown community and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, age, national or ethnic origin, disability, status as a veteran, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or sex. Majority Membership consists of full-time undergraduate students.

I pulled that quote right from our constitution. We, like every other group at Brown, are willing to accept members of all different beliefs and sexual orientations. We happily have attendees who are devout Christians and others that are unrepentant sodomites. It's good to see that groups in public institutions can be held to the same standard.

CFI and Paul Kurtz

I haven't done a good job of blogging in the past few months. Writing an opinions column in the BDH directed my attention away from In Ratione Speramus. I'll try to write some things over the summer, but I first need to work on another monologue for the BadCast.

For the time being, I though I should post a link to this blog post about Paul Kurtz and the Center for Inquiry (CFI). Brown Freethought is affiliated with CFI - On Campus.

Paul Kurtz is one of the founders of the modern skeptical movement. He helped found the Council for Secular Humanism; CSICOP, now called the Committe for Skeptical Inquiry); CFI, which both of the previous groups are affiliated with; and Prometheus Books. He built up a mini empire of rationalism.

Until recently, Kurtz was the CEO and chairman of the board for CFI. Two years ago, Ron Lindsay became CEO and president with Kurtz remaining chairman of the board. Then, last year, Kurtz became chairman emeritus of the board and was replaced by Richard Schroeder in his former position. Finally, last month Kurtz gave the board his resignation as chairman emeritus.

I occasionally see an article about what's been happening. Some people think that Kurtz was unfairly pushed out by Lindsay or other members of CFI and some people think that Kurtz was no longer the person we needed to lead the organization. Based on what I've seen, I side with the latter camp. Kurtz has done many great things for rationalism, but it was time to move onto a new person. Over the years, Kurtz has grown soft. While CFI has supported events like Blasphemy Day, Kurtz has opposed them. Now that rationalism is gaining wider recognition, it is important that CFI maintains its edge.

I should also note that CFI has a major budget problem this year. For the past several years, an anonymous donor has been giving $800,000 a year to the organization. However, they have not heard from this donor recently so their already-large deficit has grown even larger. As the blog post says, they have so far only raised an extra $50,000. Anyone interested in donating should. I haven't done so directly, but I did recently renew my subscriptions to Free Inquiry and Skeptical Inquirer, both published by CFI affiliates. (Admittedly, I was going to renew those subscriptions anyway.)

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[Update 16:08] After writing this post, I received an email from Richard Schroeder that dealt with this subject. No, it was not an email directed at this blog, it was sent out to all CFI members. Maybe this is why Russell Blackford wrote the blog post that I linked to above.

It contains a more complete descriptions of what happened in the past few years:

In implementing the reform process, the Board did not rely on its own intuition. Instead, it retained the services of Greyledge Consulting, a well-known consulting firm that has worked extensively with many organizations, including nonprofits. After a months-long review, Greyledge provided its report, which included the following observations and recommendations: in recent years, Paul Kurtz’s management had become erratic and arbitrary and staff morale was low, so clear, impartial personnel policies had to be announced and followed; the organization had expanded too rapidly into too many areas, and it needed to focus its work on areas essential to its mission; the Board of Directors had all too often acted as a “rubber stamp,” and it needed to take responsibility and exercise its legitimate oversight authority; an executive officer needed to be appointed promptly to take over day-to-day management, with this person having both academic credentials and some business experience and being a person who could work with Paul Kurtz. The Board of Directors accepted these recommendations and in June, 2008 implemented some of the proposed recommendations. One of the Board’s decisions was to appoint Dr. Ronald A. Lindsay as President & CEO. Greyledge had conducted extensive staff interviews and had determined that Dr. Lindsay was supported by many on the staff. Critically, he was also recommended by Paul Kurtz, who had known Ron Lindsay for over twenty-five years. The Board hoped that Paul’s friendship with Ron would help make for a smooth transition.

Well, it did not work out that way. Without getting into all the disputes that started within a few months of the June 2008 decision, suffice it to say that Paul resisted ceding any control of the organization; the Board had to intervene repeatedly to try to resolve Paul’s objections to Ron’s exercise of authority.

Paul’s unwillingness to cede any significant authority resulted in his stance at the June 2009 board meeting, at which he informed the Board that he did not want to remain Chair unless the CEO position was restructured, basically denuding it of any significant authority. The Board declined to restructure the CEO position and, pursuant to Paul’s ultimatum, voted to remove him as Chair.

Everybody Draw Mohammed Day — Mark your Calendars!

If I haven't already contacted you through Facebook (all seven regular members of the Freethought group, anyway), I'd like to invite you all to an international celebration of free expression, secular activism and pissing the hell out of a bunch of religious nuts. I'm talking, of course, about Everybody Draw Mohammed/Muhammad Day: May 20th, 2010.

I won't bore you with the details, but from the Danish cartoons of just a few years ago to the controversial South Park episode of just a few weeks ago, muslims both radical and moderate have made their opinions abundantly clear: depicting the prophet Muhammad results in threats of violence and death. This is a breach of freedom of expression that the free world CANNOT TOLERATE. So, on the twentieth of May, we're going to get as many individuals as we can to draw Muhammad and post their pictures online. Since no one knows exactly what Muhammad looks like, he may be depicted in any way we see fit. If the leaders of our benevolent atheocracy will permit us, we may even post them here on the Freethought Blog.

Please, this is about more than being bitter or contrarian. Our values have been threatened. All I ask is that you tell all of your freethinking friends, draw something resembling your idea of the prophet Muhammad on the twentieth, and post it online for the world to see.

For support, join this group (over 19,000 strong): Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!

We will not be intimidated. We will not be coerced. We should all stand and fight.

Pew Study: 25% unaffiliated

There's a secular trend toward secularism. Each study shows a greater proportion of the population is made of atheist, agnostics, and the unaffiliated. A recent Pew study of peopled aged 18 to 29 found that:

One in four American millennials — which it defined as those who were born after 1980 and came of age around the millennium -- are not affiliated with any faith tradition, Pew found. They characterize their religion as "atheist," "agnostic" or "nothing in particular."
That compares to fewer than one in five Generation Xers — Americans born from 1965 to 1980 — who were unaffiliated with a religion when they were in their late teens and early 20s.
Just 13 percent of American baby boomers — those born from 1946 to 1964 — were unaffiliated with any religious tradition when they were young adults, according to Pew.

I am pleased with the increases in atheists but I have mixed feelings about the growth in the "unaffiliated." I like that they are moving away from organized religion, but that does not mean that they are free of nonsense. They likely are switching to new-age beliefs various other "spiritual but not religious" things. This will mean that religions will have less influence, and no single form of woo will become dominant. However, it does mean there is more out there to deal with.

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And now for a tangent: I don't like the term "millenials." Apparently, "generation kickass" was already in use for people born from 1870 to 1885. Though I must admit, it's better than "generation Y," which is derivative and uninspired. Here's a list of cultural generations of western society from Wikipedia: "Lost Generation • Interbellum Generation • Greatest Generation • Silent Generation • Baby Boom Generation • Generation X • Generation Y • Generation Z". Can you spot where someone stopped trying?

Family Guy: "Extra-Large Medium"

List night was yet another reminder of why Family Guy is one of the best shows on television. Lois visits a psychic who tells her everything she wants to hear. When Brian sees how Lois has fallen into the psychic's trap, he demonstrates to her that even an idiot like Peter can duplicate anything that a psychic can do. But, much like real life, Peter mistakes his own trickery with actual psychic abilities and puts on a show of his amazing powers.

Brian has had some problems with woo in the past. He's had acupuncture and said some credulous things in the past, but overall he might be the best rationalist character on television. The only rival I can think of is House, but as far as I know, House never attended Brown.