The Pope is Wrong, Put a Condom on!

It seems that there has been a whole lot of discussion about the intersection of sex and religion doing the rounds recently.

The Sydney Atheists recently participated in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade, wearing buses with slogans including 'Keep religion out of the bedroom', 'Out of the atheist closet' and 'Queer and happy without god'.

Also at the mardi gras were nuns (1, 2), Jews, devils, angels, and of courde, the Raelians. It looks like they had a lot of fun and it was a good opportunity to reach out to a portion of the population which is generally frowned upon by organised religion.

The pope publicly announced that that condoms could make the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa worse.

Which has been reported much better than I could by the BBC (1, 2 3), Guardian, Times, and the Age , among many others.

Basically, with over 22 million African people infected with AIDS, it is criminal to be putting forward such unfounded crap. I agree with the 'experts' quoted in the video below, who say "People really just need to listen to the healthcare workers and experts of the community leaders on how to avoid HIV infection."

Listen to religious experts for religious advice, listen to health experts for health advice.




I came across this little Jesus and Mo 'toon which helps to unearth the real problem.
But I guess things could be worse... this guy probably just needs a good shag! (the xtian gay-fixer, not Sascha Baron Cohen)

Sydney Atheists Blood Drive #2

Well, we've done it again.

The Sydney Atheists have potentially saved the lives of 27 people!


Saturday was the Sydney Atheists' second blood drive, bringing our total to 51 lives saved!

It's great to be able to do such a positive thing for the community and with each community outreach event, we do more to spread the idea that atheists can be positive, productive members of the community and we aren't just locked into the negative pursuit of sitting around mumbling about how we thing that there is no evidence of gods.

I can Imagine that our meetings would be a lot shorter and more repetitive if this were so. "Meeting opened. First order of business, have any gods revealed themselves?"
"No."
"Meeting closed."
It might not be the most interesting meeting, but on the plus side, there'd be more time for beer!



During the draining, as we lay there amongst a series of tubes, we could barely contain ourselves, as we heard the faint sound of a song nominated for the 2008 MTV Europe Music Awards... yes, as we were donating blood WE WERE RICKROLL'D!

We took this as a divine sign that we are on the path to salvation and have decided to amp up our efforts. We will be donating again on the 4th of April, and would like to get at least 15 people this time. Please consider donating with us, it's the perfect way to give something vital to those who need it and to stand up for secular benevolence, showing the world that you can be good without god!


(Don't worry, the needle's not quite that big!)

Sydney Atheists Now On Twitter

The Sydney Atheists are now on Twitter, so follow us and keep up to date on the latest news and events!

Just click the link and click follow!

http://twitter.com/SydneyAtheists

Critical Mass Podcast #3

The Critical Mass Podcast #3 is fresh off the presses, download it now before the ink dries!

On this months panel we have:

• Dave the Happy Singer as host
• Jason Brown
• Ian Woolf
• Alan Conradi
• and Anthony Englund
  

And the topics we cover include:

• Exorcism in Western Sydney
• Hindu rape shame
• Calvinists beating Atheists at scrabble
• and a whole lot of other stuff!
  

Download the show directly here (34mb)

Subscribe to the podcast rss

Or find us on iTunes


To dive a bit deeper into the subjects we cover, here's some links...

Expelled!

Lie correcting subtitles YouTube teaser


Download the lie correcting subtitles torrent and add it to your DVD to vastly improve it's quality.

You can still watch the movie here (sans lie correction though)


The Bethlehem Experience

Read our blog about it, or check out the flikr set


Hindu Rape story

News report here


Clean feed

Visit the no clean feed site or the no censorship site

Read about Dave the Happy Singer at the rally here


Exorcism in Western Sydney

The Mercy Ministries exorcism links:
‘Restoring the foundations’ pages photocopied
Curing anorexia with exorcisms
Exorcism in the suburbs
Exorcism books leaked here and here

Other Mercy links
>Nancy Alcorn Mercy Ministries (1hr)

Cynic Sage questions mercy ministries


Baby hammer kill:
Couple bit child more than 20 times in fatal exorcism here and here
Man charged with exorcism death should have been in jail

Critical Mass Podcast #2

We have just released the Critical Mass Podcast #2

Alan Conradi, Rachel Macalpine, Dave the Happy Singer and Ian Woolf talk about religion and psychopathology.

Atheist news about Newtown festival, Parody religions, Atheist advertising, and blessed oil.

Download Critical Mass Podcast #2

Or you can lisen to it straight from the blog:


Subscribe via iTunes by searching for 'Sydney Atheists'

or through the RSS feed

You can also keep up to date through the Sydney Atheists site's podcast page.

Happy listening.

The Bethlehem Experience

Bethlehem has come to Penrith, let the lord be praised!


Tonight, Rach and I decided to have a bit of a laugh and check out the Penrith Christain Life Centre's interactive display 'The Bethlehem Experience'. Basically, it's a reconstruction of the town of Bethlehem, full of actors playing everything from beggars, and shopkeepers to angels and centurions.

We arrived and got our tickets, which were free, but necessary to keep our place in line. After getting the rundown from the ticketperson, we thought we'd check out the festivities. There was a christain youth band playing, so we thought we'd sit down and soak up the luls. They were playing a song about a sky prince that went:

Let's party with Jesus,
Jump high and touch the sky
Let's party with him,
Tell the world that he's alive!

My suggestion was to change the last word from 'alive' to 'a lie', which wouldn't even change the ingenious rhythmical structure one little bit, and would make the song much more pragmatically consistent.

After playing some games with the kiddies and getting them to dress up like a nativity scene, the band played a 'humorous' (evil) version of 'The 12 Days of Christmyth', in which 'my mother made me eat' cows tongues, chicken feet, sheeps brains, goats eyes amongst other delicious treats for the kiddies. The most disturbing thing about this was the overhead photos that were displayed, especially the slimy, bleeding sheeps brain (yum yum!),


which were meant for CHILDREN to view! If they were trying to scare the demons out of them, I think they might have just succeeded!

Soon after we had regained consciousness, our group was called out and we headed off to line up for our turn in the Bethlehem Experience.

When we entered, we had to take part in the census, which involved standing and listening to some banter between out guide and a census taker, before entering the gates of Bethlehem. We were stopped by a guard, who made snide remarks about the people in the group (obviously to reinforce the idea that the pagan romans were mean and nasty people). We were then stopped by the tax collector, who collected donations (from most people) before we could be let into the town square.

Once we entered the square, we were impressed with the amount of effort that had been put into it, there were little market stalls hawking their wares, children playing in the street and cityfolk milling around. The actors were all dressed in robes and were doing a pretty good job of impersonating ordinary folk from the past. We were led from stall to stall, and at each, our guide engaged in some friendly banter with the shopkeep

"How's your salty fish today?"
"Not bad, by the way, a baby's been born in a muck trough!"
"Oh that is interesting... goodbye"

At each stop it told you a little more about the virgin birth myth and we learned some interesting historical facts about the days of yore, like the bakers were supplied by bakers delight and the salty fish merchant was the originator of the slogan 'the fresh food people'.


We went through a house, meeting a family and then on to some more shops and a synagogue. I must admit that I was a bit distracted during the sermon, as there was a child in a cage at the next exhibit and I was trying to snap some decent pics while there was no crowd around and I could get a clear shot.

As we moved on, we were informed that we would not be able to find any lodgings as the last possible bed had been taken by a pregnant tart and her suspicious boyfriend. Apparanly the town was busy, as it was christmas, and as we all know, it's terribly difficult to find accommodation during the holiday season.

We moved along and saw some enthusiastic kids hamming it up as much as they could (seriously, those kids were really enthusiastic. It's a shame thet their talents are being focussed into something like this, really) before goinig to see the three wise men, who thought that a lightbulb had led them to the birth of the saviour.

Next was the manger and the nativity scene, which was pretty much as you would expect it. Hay all over the floor and some people who had come to visit and worship the newborn and his family, who were sat in a postcard pose.


We then went to a miracle scene, where we were told of how Jesus had healed a woman's back problem (the woman was bouncing about like a crazy person and even more enthusiastic than the kids mentioned earlier!) and a man who Jesus rubbed mud in his eyes, then he could see.

The next scene was perhaps the most shocking part of the 'Experience' as we walked through a corridor, made up to look like a jail cell, with the Passion of the Christ (an MA15+ film no less) playing at one end. How they thought it was ok to take children through with a snuff film playing in the darkness is beyond me. They are penticostals, they are nutjobs, don't take your kids!

Then was the crucufix scene, peppered with more blood and low, spooky lighting, followed by the empty tomb, with the shroud inside. A couple of weeping ladies came up to the tomb and were bawling their eyes out (ok I know what you're thinking "Isn't this meant to be the christmyth story... just the baby jesus bit? Aren't we jumping seasons now to easter? Doesn't that just seem to be an excuse to use the feel bad for Jesus argument? Isn't it just blatant prothletising, exaggerated by being so out of context? Did that even happen in Bethlehem?" but stop. Remember that we didn't come here o think, we came to get some religion in us!). An angel came by and told them not to worry, he wasn't dead or vanished, he'd just nicked off to the pub for a quick one and he'd be back soon enough (I may have misheard, it was pretty noisy).

The next scene was of some angels looking very holy, which would have been entirely dull if not for the fact that one of the children in the group began to cry and hide his head in his jumper like a turtle. Obviously it was getting to him. Again, don't take young children to this, it could be pretty unsettling.

Just to cap it off was the mother of all scary scenes. We were handed on to an evangelist, who did the "pray with me and if you haven't found Jesus, or it's been a long time since you had Jesus in your life please come and talk to one of our friendly ministers and get guilted into signing up to our church". Like I said, it was pretty scary, but we were tough and made it past without being drowned in the blood of christ and found orselves in the gift shop, where the good folks from the Koorong bookshop and Bikers for Jesus were there to see us on out way. We picked up a handfull of pamphlets including "How to know god", "The Good news story" and "what on earth am I here for?". We got some pictures with the bikie christains and said thanks to some of the staff for such a fun evening, then left, having been thoroughly entertained.


It was much more fun than a move, and the price was definately right!

It's just a shame they are selling this stuff to children.


See the full photoset here

Critical Mass #3

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CRITICAL MASS

Newsletter of the Sydney Atheists

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#3 November 08

Hello everybody and welcome again to the newsletter of the Sydney Atheists. It’s been another busy month for us! We have been expanding our public image this month through various events, while also maintaining a bust social event schedule. It truly is great that everybody seems to get more involved the more active the group becomes. It’s like fuelling the fire and watching it glow white hot.

Firstly, Sydney Atheists has successfully received incorporated status, formalising the organisation and allowing us to deliver a more professional front to our activities, events and products. A big thanks is in order for Anthony and everyone else who has worked hard to make this happen.

The biggest event this month (and arguably in the history of the Sydney Atheists) was our involvement in the Newtown Festival. We shared a stall with the Secular Party where we handed out pamphlets, signed up new members, sold bumper stickers and t-shirts, had a lot of really interesting conversations with passers by and even sang a few tunes to the crowd. There was an estimated crowd of 80 000 people, only a few of whom took umbrage at our message of positive atheism. Read more about it at Critical Mass.

Our 100^th meetup was a booming success, with a terrific talk about Fake religions by Ian Woolf. He covered Pastafarianism, The Church of the Subgenious, and the Universal Life Church (of which Ian has been canonised as a saint!) among a smattering of others. It was a great night, well attended and a lot of fun. Check out the photos on the Sydney Atheists Flikr stream.

A small group of our members attended a bible study of Riverstone Baptist Church, which was a civil night of discussions about the similarities and differences between the Baptists and the Atheists. We must have made a good impression, as we were invited back and a few of the Baptists said that they would come along to one of our meetings some time. Read more about it in Tiffany’s report below.

In what has become a worldwide phenomenon, atheist advertising is coming to Sydney! We have been working on an advertising campaign and are now ready to release it to the public. We will be running with the slogan ‘No God? No Worries!” and have a variety of different approaches through which we will be presenting the message. We are currently looking for donations and sponsors, so please donate to make this happen, spreading reason and positive secular values throughout Sydney. You can donate through Electronic funds transfer to the Sydney Atheists account:

BSB: 112-879

Account No: 410136189

Or contact us via eMail at: sydneyatheists@gmail.com

Finally, we will be running our second blood drive on Saturday, 10^th of January at the Elizabeth St Donor centre. Last time we had 8 donors, which was excellent! This time, lets see if we can get even more people to donate to such an important cause. If you can’t make it on the day, you can still donate for the cause, just say that you are donating under the Sydney Atheists’ club red group and fill out the form when you donate. Please consider giving blood. It is a great way to make a positive contribution to those who need it and an embodiment of our ‘good without god’ message. We will create events on Facebook and Meetup for those who are coming. For more information contact Alan at criticalmass@live.com.au

Articles by members:

Here's a hand-picked selection of articles from members of the Sydney Atheists. To submit an article for inclusion in either this newsletter, or the Critical Mass blog, email criticalmass@live.com.au. We would like to use this newsletter to share what members have been up to, so get writing!

A Friendly Encounter with Riverstone Baptist

By Tiffany Day

On Tuesday November 18^th, the Sydney Atheists were kindly invited to attend a bible study held by the Riverstone Baptist Church, at the home of Pastor Marcus and his wife Reem. The purpose of the evening was not for us to attempt to de-convert the Baptists, but rather to gain an insight into their worldview and into their thinking; ultimately attempting to establish some common ground between our two very different groups.

After first arriving at their home, we enjoyed some nibblies and refreshments which allowed for some informal introductions and chatter between both parties. We then proceeded to the living area where we sat around each other in a circle, and discussed a select part of the Bible. This particular study mainly dealt with the definition and meaning of sin, how to approach it and how to deal with it in your daily life. Needless to say, this sprung vigorous amounts of friendly questions from us atheists, which were answered quite interestingly, and gave us a clear insight into their day-to-day thought process about God.

Some important subjects were discussed, with morality being the key issue. The Baptists explained to us the importance to them of their relationship with God, and of living the way that they think they know God wants them to. On the other hand, we expressed our passion for being good, ethical and moral without a need for any particular belief system in a supernatural being. The general vibe in the room was a positive one, with all opinions from either side expressed in a friendly manner. The conversation proved to be so interesting that time escaped us, and two hours seemed to have flown by in 2 minutes! Having to stop our discussion short due to time, the study was ended with a prayer (of which we only observed). We then hung around for some more informal discussion before making our friendly goodbyes.

All in all, the evening was considered to be a great success by all in attendance. Later reports from the Baptists told of how they had stayed back after we had left, and discussed how friendly we were and how interesting they had found the evening to be. For many of them, they had never met a group of atheists before, nor been able to hear about how we approach the world and live without a belief in God, of which most of them have never known life without. The final outcome was a welcoming invitation for the Sydney Atheists to come back any time we wish, as well as many of their members being eager to attend one of our own future events in return.

Well done Sydney Atheists! We really showed this group of Baptists a positive side to atheism, and exposed ourselves as open-minded, friendly and approachable people.

What's The Harm?

by Rachel Macalpine

Too often I listen to and read apologists that use the phrase "But what's the harm? These are private beliefs, and who are we to challenge what people believe?" Well, all too often, irrational beliefs that are acted on cause a great deal of harm. Just look at the fantastic website What's The Harm. "3,284 people killed, 306,068 injured and over $2,815,114,000 in economic damages ..." and that's just the beginning.

The three terrorists known as the Bali bombers are due to be executed by firing squad sometime within the next day or so. In 2002, they targeted nightclubs packed with western tourists, killing 202 people, 88 of which were Australians. They have never expressed one ounce of remorse, with Amrozi often seen with a huge grin on his face, which gained him the name "the smiling assassin."

They view themselves as martyrs for their religion. Their brother believes that when they are executed, they will be placed in paradise because they stood up for their religion. Their mother is pleased that they will be put to death, again because they will be martyrs for their religion and will be sent to paradise. There are no doubt countless others that believe the same thing.

In the interview below with CNN, the interviewer tries to insist that the bomber is "twisting the Muslim religion completely", however the bomber is able to point out an exact passage in his holy book that justifies killing for his religion.

The interviewer asks "What gives you the right to take the lives of other people?"
The bomber answers "The verse... blood by blood, soul by soul."

That is the harm.



This also raises another point which I often struggle with understanding. These people not only believe that they are right, they "KNOW" that they are right and are willing to give up the one life that they are certain to have. If you don't hold the belief that they do, then you are either going to hell, or not going to heaven, or whatever particular teaching that religion has. Then there are people from other religions that make similar claims about their own belief systems, and they believe and "know" JUST as much as the other group. It goes on and on, with countless religions making these claims. Some one MUST be wrong. They cannot all be right. Yet each group is just as convinced as the other, and in some cases willing to die for the cause.

As an atheist, I reject all claims of any type of god/s until I have good reason and am justified to believe. Hence there is no dogma, no beliefs to follow, nothing to worship, nothing to want to die or kill for, and in fact makes me love and enjoy every day I have in this life, doing as much good as I possibly can.

It seems to me that atheism makes far more sense.

Book Review:

Your Inner Fish, A journey into the 3.5 billion year history of the human body. by Neil Shubin.

Neil Shubin is an expeditionary palaeontologist who, due to a staffing shortage at his university, found himself teaching introductory anatomy to first year medical students in the cadaver dissection room. What does human anatomy have to do with palaeontology? Well that's what he thought too, and the answer is surprising. It turns out the easiest way to explain the paths of nerves in the human head is to show students how things work in sharks, before things were twisted, shifted, and co opted in the evolutionary path to humans. Limbs owe their design to fish, the human brain is simply extensions on the reptile brain. Shubin's experience as a palaeontologist proves invaluable to the upcoming medical students. This book emerged out of his experiences in the classroom.

Every chapter of Your Inner Fish explains the origin of an aspect of human anatomy using evolutionary genetics, paleontology, embryonic development, and the great tree of life. From teeth to breasts, knees to facial nerves, eyes and hearing, even why we get dizzy when drunk. All is lucidly explained in an accessible and engaging style showcasing the personal stories of the scientists making the discoveries.

The first chapter is Shubin's own exciting, deeply personal story detailing a ten year search for a transitional fossil lying between fish and amphibians. This search culminated in the discovery of Tiktaalik, arguably the most spectacular transitional fossil ever discovered.

Tikaalik's discovery is a resounding confirmation of Darwin's Theory of Evolution, ten years in the making...
1, Shubin predicted that a transitional form had to exist in an extremely precise time period,
2, He studied university geology maps together with oil company aerial surveys to determine the best locations where rocks of that exact age were being exposed by erosion in a manner that wouldn't destroy any fossils that may be present.
3, He led three palaeontology expeditions to the remote frozen islands in Canada's far north to dig up rocks.
4, and he found exactly what was predicted, in exactly the right place, in exactly the right time strata.

Evolutionary Theory predicted an incredibly rare fossil with a stunningly exacting set of features, in an area less than one billionth the possible surface area of the earth. And it was exactly where it was supposed to be!!! I've never seen the "power of prayer" prove useful enough to predict so much as a coin toss beyond you would expect by random chance, and I've never understood the wilful ignorance that pervades the religious mindset. How can they possibly ignore a fish with elbows such that prayer seems useful and Darwin wrong?

Your Inner Fish is a great read, you will be fascinated by the personal stories contained within its pages. Infectiously carried along as the science is done and discoveries are made. Highly recommended.

More information on Tiktaalik, and transitional fossils in general can be found at these sites
http://www.transitional-fossil.com/ gives the only possible response to creationists
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transitional_fossil gives basic info and further links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiktaalik gives more information specifically on Tiktaalik
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transitional_fossils manifestly disproves the common creationist claim that there are no transitional fossils.

Review by Nathan Dunn

Further reading:

There's a lot going on out there, and this section will collect the best and most relevant content from the web and funnel it down for you. In the meantime, here's a collection of interesting stuff to keep you busy. Content suggestions can be emailed to criticalmass@live.com.au

The Australian Government wants to censor the internet, which will disable access to many interesting sites and slow down speeds dramatically. Read the stories here, here, here, here, here, and here. There will be a protest in Sydney on the 13^th of December. Come along and stand up for freedom of information.

The financial crisis has been called an ‘act of God’ by Labor MP, James Bidgood.

Dorothy Rowe, a psychologist, talks about how churches are keeping her in business.

And there have also been baby beatings, crucifixions, and exorcisms here there and everywhere! It’s a mad, mad world indeed.

Other stuff
A selection of links that members might find interesting. Each month there will be a different selection of sites.

Religion News Blog- Keep up with the latest religion news headlines from across the globe. This blog brings together stories from all over so you don’t have to search through all those news blogs to catch up with the wacky world of the religiously afflicted.

This month I have collected so many links to share that to list them all with descriptions would make this newsletter ridiculously long, so instead I’ll put together a ‘Lucky Link Dip’. Click around and see what you get, there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there! Each “I” links to a different article, site, video blog etc. Have fun!

I I I I I I I I I I I

I I I I I I I I I I I

I I I I I I I I I I I

I I I I I I I I I I I

I I I I I I I I I I

I I I I I I I I I

To find out more about the Sydney Atheists, check out our sites below

Sydney Atheists Website

Sydney Atheists Meetup Group

Sydney Atheist Photo Stream

Sydney Atheists Facebook Group

Critical Mass Blog

Please forward this newsletter to all of your atheist, agnostic, secular, humanist, freethinking, critical thinking, rationalist, open-minded or generally interesting friends and help to spread rational thinking.

Sydney Atheists

There's been a lot of movement in the Sydney Atheists over the past few months and it's been fantastic to be a part of this group as it loses it's baby teeth and becomes a fully fledged organisation. I think that the time has come to let everybody in on the changes, structure and growth of the organisation that have come to be lately.

But first, a bit of background is required. It all started a couple of years ago, when the Sydney Atheists meetup group was created by Ansgar (perhaps he will expand on the process in the comments?). This group would hold regular monthly meetings with the vision to bring likeminded people together and facilitate the free exchange of ideas in an open and comfortable environment. The meetup would host a monthly meeting, which would include a topical talk, as well as plenty of general discussion and opportunities for socialisation. Additionally, there were also monthly social lounge events, which would not have an agenda and were more of a meet-&-greet, get to know you kind of affair. Both of these are still running and now form the basis of the social aspects of the organisation.

At some time in the development of the Sydney Atheists (someone will be able to clarify when), about a year ago, a group of interested people formed a sub group called the 'Sydney Atheist Action Group' which would get together and work on a variety of projects that were outside of the scope of the more socially based meetup group.

This group (unappealingly acronymed to SAAG) toiled with a variety of projects, but it wasn't until 'World Youth Day' that the cogs really began to turn.



[World Youth Day was the misnomer for the week that the Pope visited Sydney, earlier this year]

During WYD, the Sydney Atheists mounted a campaign of reason to stand up against the ridiculous nature under which the Pope's visit was conducted (including a massive overspending and a controversial ban on annoying the pilgrims). During this time, the SAAG group was responsible for organising various campaigns promoting reason and secular values over faith and dogma. (including the now infamous 'Good without god' message, along with 'the pope should pay his own way' and the 'sponsor a lion' messages)



This brought much interest to the SAAG group and following the WYD protests the momentum that the group had picked up was funneled into the formation of the Sydney Atheists Committee, marking the beginning of the 'Next Steps' for the Sydney Atheists

The committee consists of a group of people interested in promoting, developing, organising and maintaining the group. We have a variety of roles (President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer) and stream coordinators (Social, Educational, Media, Policy, IT) which focus on the different areas of the organisation.

So far the committee has been working on our charter, becoming incorporated, branding, and various projects such as T-shirts, bumper stickers, fliers, posters, business cards, membership forms etc.
Events that we have organised have been regular topical meetups on the first Sunday of the month (recent talks included joke religions and teaching evolution), regular Atheist Social Lounge meetups on the last Thursday of the month, a blood drive, diabetes charity walk, and the Newtown festival stall.

We also provide information about other events happening in Sydney that members of the organisation might be interested in. Recent examples include a Humanist talk, debates and a lecture on the God Delusion.

We have a website, blog, photos, podcast, newsletter, Meetup site and a Facebook group.

With so much happening, there is bound to be something for everybody in this vibrant and energetic group, so if you haven't done so already, check us out, let us know what you think about what we are doing and think about becoming a part of it. All of our events are open to all atheists and atheist friendly people, we welcome civil discussion with those who have different views to our own and we are more than happy to answer any questions that you may have (see the 'Ask an atheist' form on the website).

There's plenty of opportunities to get involved coming up, including:

• a social night out to watch SA committee member, Dave the Happy Singer, as he performs his unique blend of musical comedy (Nov 16, details here )
• The November Atheist Social Lounge (Nov 27, details here)
• The December topical meetup (Dec 14, details here)
• The next Sydney Atheist Blood Drive (Jan 11th, details to come)
  
• We will also be celebrating Festivus (details to come)

Check us out, get involved have a great time and be Good Without God.

Hope to see you soon!

Newtown Festival

Saturday was the Newtown Festival, a large festival in Sydney that attracts upwards of 80 000 people. There were a bunch of stalls selling clothes, trinkets, food, all the regular market type stuff and also live music. It was a massive day and the crowds were packed in like sardines the weather was terrific, the sun was shining and not a cloud to be seen.

The Sydney Atheists had a stall at the market, where we were handing out pamphlets and invitations to our meetups. We were also signing up members, accepting donations, selling T-shirts and bumper stickers ('Good without god' and 'Test drive your faith, drive with your eyes closed') and generally spreading the concept of positive atheism through discussing our positions on various topics with the crowds, singing various secular themed songs, and handing out lollybags with 'card carrying atheist' cards attached.


We had a really good time and enjoyed an overwhelmingly positive reponse from the crowd, with only a few people getting upset. One of them tried to set their dog on us, as they saw out banner, they said 'sick 'em'! There was also a few people that made faces at us and flipped us off, but that was pretty much the worst of it.


One of the gimmics that we had there was a gong, where passers by could declare their lack of belief in gods by 'giving the atheist gong a big bang'. It was a real hit and was ringing constantly (and as a result I had a splitting headache that saw me well into monday afternoon!). Heaps of children were also ringing the gong, with parents in tow, ringing it after their children did!


We ended up selling a bunch of shirts and tons of bumper stickers and signed up around 80 new members, so the day was a complete success!

Afterwards, we had our 100th meetup, where Ian presented a talk on 'Joke Religions', covering Pastafarianism and a bunch of others. It was a terrific talk and a great end to a terrific day.

To everone who helped out a big thankyou is in order and the event's organiser, John deserves a massive congratulations on a job well done! It wouldn't have come together without your tireless efforts!

It seems that we have caused a bit of a stir, at least as far as the author of the blog 'Sydney Anglican Heritics' is concerned. In the blog post, they talk about turning up to the festival in such an uplifting way:

Upon entry to the site I was overwhelmed by the number of stalls and the multitude of people just browsing around, most of whom I suspect are "dead in their sins".

Then goes on to mention a group fairly well known amongst readers of this blog:

What I did see, however, was group with a stall who were keenly proselytizing the passing crowd. It was a group calling themselves Sydney Atheists. So consider the scene. Here we are on the eve of Connect 09. Within a few hundred metres of the the engine room for mission within the Diocese is a crowd of over 80,000 people just browsing around and who is there to reach them? The Atheists!

My friends, I cannot help but have seen a vision of the effectiveness of Connect 09. In year 2010, when measuring the effectiveness of Connect 09, remember Newtown Festival 2008 ... Atheists 1 vs Moore 'Collage' 0.

So they seem to be a little shaken up by our prescence at the festival, which is pretty good news. It just proves that a candle in the dark really is a force to be reakoned with!

Keep up the good work, Sydney Atheists!

For more pics of the Festival, go here


Thanks to William for the video

Podcast #1 out now!

The first Critical Mass podcast is available now!



You can get to it via this site,

or you can just download the file here (high quality 47 MB) or here (med quality 23 MB)

On the show are Anthony, Ian, Dave and myself

We talk about

• What the Sydney Atheists have been up to
• What we're all about
• Religion invading schools
• Kevin Rudd's argument from design
• The London buses

Also, Dave does the topical song, On the buses 'Freethought Bus'

Check it out now!

You can subscribe to it by clicking the feedburner link at the top of the page.

Dr Michael Shermer vs John Lennox Sydney Debate

Back in August, we attended a debate between Dr Michael Shermer and John Lennox at the Wesley Centre in Sydney. The full video is now out on youtube for your viewing pleasure.

Part One




Part Two




Part Three




Part Four




Part Five




Part Six




Part Seven




Part Eight




Part Nine




Part Ten

Sydney Atheist Charity Walk

Today the Sydney Atheists participated in the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation's "Walk for a Cure" we raised close to one thousand dollars for the foundation and had a great time in the process.
Thanks to all those who donated, and a special thank you to everybody that turned up for the walk.

Sydney Atheists Blood Drive

Often atheists get stigmatised as bad people because we don't believe in a god, therefore we are immoral, baby-eating scum.

One of the primary objectives of the Sydney Atheists is to show that we can be good without god. We have a charity branch to the group and as our first charitable act in the community, we donated blood.



Blood donation is a terrific way to really help the community and show that we are willing to go the extra mile to help others out.

I'd like to thank Tynan, Nathan, Ansgar, Peter, Phillip, Karen and Robbie for donating and thanks to all of those who turned up for support.



Anyone can donate and contribute to the Sydney Atheists 'club red' pool, just tell them you are donating under a club red group and fill out the slip. And you don't have to wait until our next blood drive to get involved. You can donate at any time (with three months in between leakages). If you do, let me know by emailing me at criticalmass@live.com.au



Our next charity event is a sponsored walk for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation this Sunday (12th of October). You can donate to us online through our site, or in person. So far we have raised $482 and I'm sure we can get a bit more before the weekend. Donations are tax deductable (for Australian residents) and it will do wonders to help in the research of Juvenile Diabetes.

This coincides with the sad news that our good friend from the Atheist Community of Austin, Matt Dillahunty has recently been diagnosed with Diabetes. We hope you're doing ok, Matt and we will be thinking of you on our walk.

Walk to Cure Diabetes

The Sydney Atheists have joined the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's "Walk to Cure Diabetes". We will be completing the 5km walk on October 12th at Sydney Olympic Park.

To help us make a difference, please consider sponsoring us though my walk website, or choose your favorite Sydney Atheist to donate to from our group site. It will be great to be seen doing good in our atheist t-shirts, but it would be even better if we actually raised some money!

To find out more about the JDRF and how you can help go to the JDRF website.

Sydney Atheist's that would like to join the group can register here. We are registered as a company.

Critical Mass Newsletter No1

CRITICAL MASS
Newsletter of the Sydney Atheists

#1 September 08

Hello everybody and welcome to the first edition of the Sydney Atheists' newsletter.

We have been really busy over the last few months planning the direction that this group is going to be taking and there have been a lot of interesting developments coming out of the committee meetings (formerly SAAG). The major shift has been in growing the group from being a meetup group to becoming an actual organisation, with a variety of different pursuits and chances for people to be involved in more productive ways. The branches and projects that have been identified are:
• The development of a survey to gather information about the group members and non-believers in general.
• Education and Syllabus, which is looking at the possible introduction of atheist teaching in educational environments and could include doing talks for schools, productions that demonstrate scientific and rational topics in ways that are accessible to all levels of audiences and influencing syllabus in the educational system.
• Charity, which is looking into both outgoing and incoming charity. A blood drive is being organised, see below for details about how you can get involved. A book drive and community service events are also being considered. Then there is the possibility of doing some fundraising for our group, which will develop as the need for funds increases.
• Media, which is involved in the production of a blog and this newsletter. A podcast will also be developed and is expected to be launched by the October meetup event.
• Vision and Values, which has been working on the core principles that the Sydney Atheists will be built on.
• Networking, which involves increasing awareness of Sydney Atheists amongst various organisations, communities and other such outlets.
• Legal, which have been looking into the details of becoming an incorporated body, applying for a tax exempt status and discrimination against atheists.
• T-Shirts, which is a continuation of the production of the t-shirts being made around world youth day.
• Lobbying, which will be responsible for organising and producing press releases, letters to government officials and other opportunities for the Sydney Atheists to make their voice heard.
On top of these new directions, the Sydney Atheists will also continue holding monthly Meetings and various social events throughout the month.

We are all really excited about the future of this group and are looking forward to the increased opportunities to make a difference.


Articles by members:

Here's a hand-picked selection of articles from members of the Sydney Atheists. To submit an article for inclusion in either this newsletter, or the Critical Mass blog, email criticalmass@live.com.au. We would like to use this newsletter to share what members have been up to, so get writing!
1. Hill$ong Crosses the Line... Again!
2. Poisoned by Secular Dinosaurs
3. Shermer vs. Lennox: Does God Exist?
4. Does Atheism Entail Materialism?


Further reading:

There's a lot going on out there, and this section will collect the best and most relevant content from the web and funnel it down for you. In the meantime, here's a collection of interesting stuff to keep you busy. Again, content suggestions can be emailed to criticalmass@live.com.au
1. Dale McGowan receives the "Harvard Humanist of the Year" award
2. How to be an atheist activist
3. Carnival of Evolution #1
4. Humanist Symposium #24
5. The Skeptics' Circle
6. Tooth or Consequences
7. Tips for Dating Believers
8. Swift Bulletin


Blood Donation

We have been working on some charity and community service events for members of the Sydney Atheists to get involved with. The first charity event we will be holding is an atheist blood drive. It’ll be a chance to do something really positive and spread the notion of positive atheism.

The Australian Red Cross Blood Service Sydney CBD blood donor centre is at 20 Elizabeth St, Sydney – right near Martin Place.

The Sydney Atheists encourage all members to take time out of their day on Saturday the 4th of October to participate in the first Atheist Blood Drive at the Elizabeth St Donor Centre.

Blood donation is completely safe and won’t take much time out of your Saturday. If you are interested in taking part in our Club Red donation day please contact Alan Conradi at criticalmass@live.com.au for details on how the program works, eligibility information and what happens on the day of the blood drive.

Blood is not only needed during times of emergency, but for many people in the community, including cancer patients, burns victims, expectant mums, premature babies, and people with blood disorders who need blood on a daily basis for their survival and quality of life. Help save lives and share the positive message of the Sydney Atheists.

If you would prefer to donate at the alternate Sydney donor centre in Clarence Street please call 13 14 95 to make your individual appointment.


Sydney Atheists Charter

The Sydney Atheists committee have been working on the charter and have come up with the following as the core of the organisation:

Vision, mission and values
Our vision is of a society that lives and grows through evidence-based reasoning and secular values.
Our mission is to be:
• an active atheist resource for the wider Sydney community; and
• an open and welcoming community for atheists and atheist-friendly people.
We work through education, charity and by representing the voice of reason in public debate. We also get together to celebrate life and have fun.
Our values are:
• an open and inquiring attitude
• evidence based reasoning
• inclusiveness and diversity
• respect, compassion and goodwill.
The above is based on three core positions:
• we want to engage the wider community, not isolate ourselves from it;
• we seek a level playing field with religious organisations —we donʼt want to discriminate against religious people or seek special status ourselves; and
• we are also about the wonder and awe of existence.


Other stuff
A selection of links that members might find interesting. Each month there will be a different selection of sites.

Atheist Foundation of Australia
The James Randi Educational Foundation
Richard Dawkins. Net
Atheist Nexus
The Atheist Community of Austin
The Infidel Guy


Contributors to this newsletter

Sydney Atheists
Critical Mass Blog
Engaging Preachers
A Drunken Madman

Please forward this newsletter to all of your atheist, agnostic, secular, humanist, freethinking, critical thinking, rationalist, open-minded or generally interesting friends and help to spread rational thinking.