Free Inquiry Forum

From the Herald-Tribune:

Meg Lowman, a noted ecologist, has studied jungle canopies for years and will share her stories at the Women’s Equity Day luncheon on Aug. 23. Lowman will speak about how gender inequality still affects science, and how she overcame challenges.

Read the full article.

Event details:

Date: Aug. 23; registration 11 a.m., lunch starts at noon.

Place: Bradenton Municipal Auditorium at City Centre, 1005 Barcarrota Blvd. in Bradenton.

Tickets: $30; call Vicki Waters at 753-9741. For exhibit information, call Gini Hyman at 961-7982. More info / buy tickets online

Contact: Yvette Kimm at yvettekimm@aol.com

Noted feminist author and researcher Barbara G. Walker will speak on the subject of “Sexism” at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, 3975 Fruitville Road (map), on Sunday, August 24, at 10:30 a.m. Ms. Walker is the author of “The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets,” “The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects,” “The Crone,” “Feminist Fairy Tales,” and many other books and articles. She is a member of the Gulf Coast Humanists and the Unitarian Congregation of Venice, and has given talks and workshops to a number of groups around our area.

James Randi has offered the role of President of the James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) to Dr. Phil Plait, who accepted.

You can read the press release here.

Some new and exciting changes may be coming to the JREF. From the press release:

With Dr. Plait at the helm, the JREF will be expanding its efforts, including educating children. “I want to teach kids about the wonders of the real Universe. We can do this by partnering with the educational community and developing fun, hands-on materials that schoolchildren can use in the classroom to teach them about critical thinking and the scientific method. Science is sometimes taught as being cold and dull, but nothing could be more wrong! It’s exciting, it’s fun, and it’s cool. Kids are natural scientists, and we need to encourage that, foster it, and let it grow.”

Below is a photo of me with Phil Plait.

From the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster:

Pastafarian Families Needed For Major Primetime Show!

Wife Swap, ABC’s hit primetime reality show, is looking for Pastafarian families for an upcoming episode.

Families must consist of two parents and at least one child between 7 and 17.

Families that appear on the show receive a generous honorarium. Anyone who refers a family receives $1,000 if that family is cast in an episode.

Email Greg at your earliest convenience if you or anyone you know have what it takes for this amazing opportunity. Please include names and ages of all family members and a brief description of your family and a photo.

Greg DeLucia
Casting Producer
RDF Media USA
greg.delucia@castingrdf.com
646.747.7954

From Meigs:

First Friday Freethinkers Group at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Saraota - All are welcome!

Due to the July 4 holiday, the meeting will take place Thursday, July 3. This discussion group has been formed with the goal of nurturing a social climate in accord with humanist, secularist, rationalist, and Unitarian Universalist principles. Both Bill Sorrell and Rick Sandler will tell us how they came to Unitarian Universalism. This will be followed by the topic: “The Battle For Your Mind: The Media’s Influence on the Public” presented by Rick Sandler. A discussion of the topic will follow. Suggested reading: “Just How Stupid Are We?: Facing the Truth About the American Voter,” by Rick Shenkman.

When: Thursday, July 3, 2008 (due to the July 4 holiday)
Where: Jefferson Room
Time: 10:00-11:30 am
Membership: Open to all
Questions: Call Tom Dente 921-1598

Sarasota UU, 3975 Fruitville Road, Sarasota, FL 34232

Sam Harris is looking for volunteers:

The Scripture Project
Volunteer Editors Needed

Steve Wells, the creator of the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible, Qur’an, and Book of Mormon, has donated the full contents of his website to the Reason Project. This is a very generous gift, as Steve spent the better part of a decade annotating these holy books and highlighted all passages notable for their historical inaccuracy, internal contradictions, scientific errors, absurdity, injustice, cruelty, sexism, intolerance, etc. (he also flagged the good parts).

At the Reason Project, we intend to refine Steve’s work in a section of our website entitled “The Scripture Project” where we will have religious scholars, historians, scientists, and other qualified people continue to annotate these texts on a Wiki. With the input of the right scholars, we are confident that the Reason Project website will quickly become the preeminent place for scriptural criticism on the internet. We are happy to say that Steve Wells will continue to supervise the Scripture Project as it moves forward.

In the meantime, however, we need help porting the full contents of the Skeptics Annotated Bible, Qur’an, and Book of Mormon over to the Reason Project website. Unfortunately, the entire process cannot be automated. We are seeking volunteers to help us edit each page of the Scripture Project Wiki to see that it correctly duplicates the parent-page on Wells’ site. This is a big job, but it will be quickly accomplished by a hundred or so volunteers. If you are familiar with adding to Wikis and are willing to donate a few hours over the next few weeks to the launch of the Reason Project website, we would be enormously grateful for your help (some knowledge of HTML would also be useful).

Instructions and relevant links can be found here.

All the best,

Sam and Annaka Harris

FREE Obama For President Bumper Sticker

• Limit one free bumper sticker per customer.
• Offer valid while supplies last.
• Online submissions only.
• This offer is not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee.
• Please allow 4 - 6 weeks for delivery.

From Sam Harris:

We are preparing to run another fMRI study of belief and disbelief, and we need volunteers to help us refine our experimental stimuli. This promises to be the first study of religious faith at the level of the brain. By responding to the four surveys I have posted online, you can make an enormous contribution to this work.

Please answer as many of the surveys as you can. If you only have time to answer one, please choose at random (otherwise, we will have many more responses to the first than to the others).

Feel free to post this message to your blog or to forward the relevant links to your friends. We especially need Christians to respond, as one of the goals of these surveys is to design stimuli that a majority of Christians will find doctrinally sound.

Please note: Each survey starts with the same first page of questions.

Belief Survey A

Belief Survey B

Belief Survey C

Belief Survey D

Tonight on NIGHTLINE (April 24, 2008):

Growing Up Scientologist

The Church of Scientology is opening lavish new facilities around the globe, and it claims its membership ranks have grown to the millions — helped no doubt by the very high profile of believers like Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley. But this expansion is in the face of a mounting wave of criticism — in online videos, and in protests across the country. Tonight on Nightline, we hear from a woman who is part of that wave. Yet her criticisms of the church are even more surprising, perhaps, given her family tree. Not only was she raised in the church — she is a niece of the church’s leader. She tells us her story of her life in the church — including how she grew disillusioned, and how she reached the point when she finally left. ABC’s Lisa Fletcher reports. Read more here.

VIDEO

Part 1:

Part 2:

Actor Jason Beghe is the first celebrity Scientologist to sit down and publicly talk about his experiences after leaving the group.

Video was pulled from YouTube. Still available here.