Q3 2011, VOLUME 9, NUMBER 3

QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER OF THE METROPLEX ATHEISTS

I n early May of this year we lost our dear friend and founder of Metroplex Atheists, Colin Sew-ards. Colin was born in Slea-

ford , England on August 11, 1928 . He met his first wife at the University of Edinburgh and she let him know that she wanted to live in the U. S. They immigrated to Can-ada in 1949 and to Akron , New York , USA in 1951. He was a re-tired Rubber Elastomer Chemist and consultant to the rubber indus-try.

Colin was an atheist since 1940. In the late 1980s he was involved with the organization that would become Metroplex Atheists (MA) when it was a local chapter of American Atheists (AA). He was a founder of the original group in 1991 when AA disbanded their local chapters and was one of the founding trustees, along with John Hattan, when MA organized formally in 2001.

Colin served as Vice-Chairman of the group and was its Treasurer for over sixteen years. Shelly Hattan has said there would be no Metroplex Atheists without Colin.

He was also continuously active in Atheist Alliance International (AAI) from it’s founding as Atheist Alli-ance, Inc. He attended their first convention in Los Angeles in 1995 and represented MA to the group

until his death.

To say that Colin was a character would be an understatement. He was a very quiet man but his ac-tions (and the stickers on the back of his ―wee Honda‖) showed he was

passionate about his causes. Most thought he was a Scot because of his accent and his frugality. He brought some of his own food to restaurants. He was dedicated to ―green‖ causes, collecting recycles at meetings and planting his vege-table garden (You can’t eat flow-ers.) He also recycled atheist lit-erature displaying a table full at every business meeting.

He was the ―keeper of the atheist pens‖. If you wanted one pen or a handful, you only needed to ask Colin. He was also the keeper of the Pickle Jar, a large one he used to collect donations. Our current collection box is not a jar but it’s named so because of Colin’s tradi-tion.

We knew Colin was older despite his youthful appearance (all of his treasurer’s reports were handwrit-ten) but we didn’t really get it until we were talking about an AAI con-vention on the Queen Mary at a business meeting when he an-nounced ―Yeah, I was there the day that ship was launched.‖ He was around for a very long time and he will be missed for a very long time by those of us fortunate enough to have known him.

MA Founder Colin Sewards

Remembered

2 Q3 2011

Celebrating the Rapture was a Picnic

Good food, great friends, and... the apocalypse? The Dallas/Fort Worth Coalition of Reason takes it all in stride.

This past spring marked the two-year anniversary of the DFWCoR; the umbrella organization was for-mally launched in 2009 with bill-boards that proudly told drivers on I-35 East and West that if they didn’t believe in God, they weren’t alone. Since that time, over two thousand North Texans have found a home in DFWCoR member groups.

C u r r e n t l y representing 15 secular g r o u p s across the M e t r o p l e x (and grow-ing) , the D F W C o R has received its share of local, na-tional, and international p u b l i c i t y , largely due to the ―Good Without God‖ adver t is ing c a m p a i g n that caused a stir in Fort Worth in De-cember of 2010.

No surprise, then, that local media know to seek us out whenever the subject of religious ridiculousness breaks into their news cycle.

The ―Rapture‖ as predicted by Har-old Camping, an 89-year old radio and television evangelist prone to making (failed) apocalyptic predic-tions, was a unique opportunity for the DFWCoR to represent a point of view shared by most mainstream

Christians in America: namely, that Camping is full of shit.

Every article written or story aired about Camping’s claim carried with it a quote by some other Christian authority who reassured everyone that the Bible doesn’t allow for the prediction of specific dates for events like the Rapture. Of course, as eager as these men of the cloth were to downplay Camping’s pre-diction, few stories mentioned that belief in a Rapture event at some point in the near future is wide-spread among American Christians.

This line of reasoning boils down to something like this: if you believe that the Rapture will happen at some point in the next decade or so, you’re a perfectly reasonable mainstream Christian. But if you believe that it will happen on July 24, 2014, you’re a nutcase.

It’s worth noting that journalists who sought out the DFWCoR for com-ment were friendly, respectful of our influence and position, and eager to

represent our views. As with the now-infamous Fort Worth advertis-ing campaign, the key to the conflict-addicted media’s interest is the perceived antagonism between atheists and Christians. What they printed was a message of concern for those true believers gullible enough to spend their life savings advertising a non-existent event.

The picnic they observed was, aside from the Rapture-induced frivolity (including a set of clothes left by a ―Raptured‖ Christian and a handful of ―Rapture Raptor‖ rubber

hats), reasona-bly mundane. Beginning at about 10:30 AM at Pavilion J-1 of Cedar Hill State Park, as many as a hundred athe-ists, freethink-ers, and hu-manists from Dallas to Fort Worth gath-ered to share a meal, meet new people, see old friends, p lay some games, and even engage i n s o m e friendly de-bates. The pa-

vilion area was quickly filled, as was the parking area; though we had plenty of privacy from other groups at the park, the consensus was strong that next year we need to reserve the largest pavilion to make room for all the people.

As the afternoon drew closer to 6:00 PM (the time widely rumored to coincide with a global earth-quake), the news crews took their position for a live feed of the

(Picnic on page 11)

Metroplex Atheists Business Meeting Location

METROPLEX ATHEISTS MEETS AT 1:00 P.M. THE

MEETINGS ARE HELD ON THE THIRD SUNDAY OF

EACH MONTH.

THIS MEETING WILL BE CONDUCTED AT: The Heritage Bldg, 217 Main St,

Irving, Tx—Heritage Park.

3 Q3 2011

Go to www.metroplexatheists.org

I have read several books about the existence of gods and why we believe in them. And the books tackle the sub-ject from all directions. There are books that take a purely scientific/materialistic approach. Such books may or may not even mention gods at all, allowing you to draw your own conclusion once they’ve shown that there’s little room for a magical realm. There are books that take on gods ―as they are described‖ by disassembling the claims of ancient holy books. And there are books, re-cently described as ―militant atheist bestsellers‖, that tackle the question of the existence of gods in the frame of most religions’ incompatibility with con-ventional morality.

And there are books that tackle the question of belief itself. Of these, I can only think of two. There’s Michael Sher-mer’s How We Believe, which draws its conclusions from surveys and inter-views. And now there’s Why We Be-lieve in God(s) : A Concise Guide to the Science of Faith by J. Anderson Thom-son, Jr, MD and Clare Aukofer, which is a purely psychological approach to the subject.

First off, Why We Believe in God(s) is a fairly small book -- about 90 pages of actual chapters, and about 50 pages of preface, notes, and glossary. It can easily be read in a single sitting. Heck, if you pruned it down to just its chap-ters, it could have been released as one of those E. Haldeman-Julius ―Little

Blue Books of Atheism‖ in the early 1900’s.

Why We Believe in God(s) likens our current religious fervor to the current ―obesity epidemic‖ in the world today. That is to say that it was an evolution-ary advantage that has been short-circuited by survival vectors that have shifted. Ten thousand years ago, hav-ing a keen taste for sugar and fat was a survival advantage, as your next meal might not be coming right away and you needed to stay alive until you could get it. But now that sugary and fatty foods are plentiful and cheap, this evolution-ary predilection is making us fat. Why We Believe in God(s) concludes that religious fervor comes from a related survival vector that has been short-circuited by a world that has changed. That same obedience to authority that kept children from swimming in croco-dile river now keeps the priesthood in business.

And the seat of our belief is chemical. Brains, when whipped up into a reli-gious frenzy, release dopamines not unlike those released by brains that are in the throes of romantic passion. While those people chanting rosaries or quacking like ducks to appease their gods don’t look too happy to the outside observer, the practitioners are doing it because it makes their brains feel good.

In short, are we religious not because we think the supernatural is logically

tenable but because we crave it like a Snickers Bar served to us by a gor-geous hottie? The author does describe experiments involving how stimulating the temporal lobe of the brain can bring about ―religious experiences‖, so it’s an easy conclusion that religion is cen-tered not in a magical realm ―elsewhere‖ but is inside our own heads.

The conclusions drawn by the book are more frustrating than those you’ll find in the books I mentioned earlier. After all, if you’re writing on the physics of black holes, you have Newtonian and Ein-steinian physics to back up your state-ments. If you disassemble the claims of holy books, you have matter-of-fact statements that are contradictory and/or absurd and must be addressed to main-tain the supernatural inspiration. Even if you are presenting survey data, you have reliable conclusions that can be drawn from data. But the realm of psy-chology often rests more on experience than logic. While a weeping Pentecostal who reaches up to God during a service looks very much like a toddler who wants to be picked up, are the events actually related? To quote Freud, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. You can certainly draw the conclusions yourself. And Why We Believe in God(s) makes several conclusions. You might not agree with them all, but you’ll certainly have some food for thought without a lot of time invested.

Book Review by John Hattan

METROPLEX

ATHEISTS

Officers

Terry McDonald – President

Randy Word – Vice President

John Hattan – Secretary

Bryce Lang – Treasurer

Board of Directors

John Hattan

James Hardwick

Richard ‗Dick‘ Hogan

Librarian

Terry McDonald

Editor

Randy Word

Membership Chair

Libba Murphey

Sergeant at Arms

John Hattan

AAA Representative

Terry McDonald

About

Metroplex Atheists is a 501(c)(3) non-

profit organized for the purpose of educa-

tion, maintaining Constitutional separation

of government and religion, protection of

atheists‘ rights and to provide social meet-

ings for those of similar worldviews. We

are affiliated with American Atheists,

Atheists Alliance of America and the Dal-

las Fort Worth Coalition of Reason.

4 Q3 2011

Just like any other atheist I’d like our society to be completely secular and free from religious influences. Polls seem to indicate that is the direction U. S. society is taking even though politicians seem to be getting more religious. Some say it’s just a cyclical swing but, I think, the large numbers of younger people moving in a secular direction indicate a major, long term trend.

Despite the trend I’ve always said we won’t get there ―in my lifetime‖. After reading David Silverman’s address to the American Atheists’ recent convention I’m not so sure. Dave talked about three movements in the last 150 years that started small and pow-erless yet overcame opposition by the rich, politically powerful reli-gious majority.

Slavery was a well established institution in a large part be-cause of the justification it received from the Bible. The abolition-ist movement certainly took some time, a civil war, and we are still dealing with the residue, but today slavery is universally con-demned. As Dave said ―Christians had to either admit their per-fect book was wrong or find themselves of the wrong side of a moral argument.‖ They just ―switched sides and claimed to be supporters of equality‖ all along. ―African American people had no money, no power and no vote. Religion was rich, had politicians in its pocket and over time, lost utterly.‖

Certainly Biblical misogyny has made a major contribution to the place of women, then and now, before the women’s suffrage movement changed their place in society. ―Once again, the women had no money, no power and no vote. Religion was rich, had politicians in its pocket and over time, lost utterly.‖

The LGBT movement started out with no support and no chance against their powerful opponent, organized religion. They are very close to defeating religion utterly. ―Indeed, we can now sit back and watch as religion, facing another moral defeat, changes sides and embraces the LGBTs in their community, and claims to have been on their side all along.‖

Now atheists are facing this same ―unbeatable‖ opponent, well-funded, politically-powerful religion. But Dave says that our ad-versary is ―a rich and powerful dinosaur, whose extinction has al-ready begun.‖ He thinks that for many reasons we are way ahead

(President on page 9)

5 Q3 2011

William McEwen

Metroplex Atheists

I am always amazed by the promi-nence of curse words on Facebook. It’s disappointing. I routinely block people who are fond of the F word, and sometimes post my status as ―Pottymouths un-friended here.‖

Maybe I’m biased by my education and background as a writer, but I be-lieve profanity in public is unneces-sary and in poor taste. And I’m old enough to still believe that poor taste is in poor taste.

Facebook is a public forum and Metroplex Atheists has an active page there. It is open to everyone to join and make posts.

After seeing too much profanity on the Metroplex Atheists Facebook page, I posted a plea to clean up the language. Two people responded to my post – both using profanity.

Not long after, the poor soul Suzanne Pannill showed up. She was a Chris-tian who came to us on Facebook to challenge our views. It was the same old Christian rhetoric, tired stuff we’ve all heard before.

The onslaught began immediately, and it didn’t take long for one person to call her – well, it rhymes with runt. Another member hit the ―Like‖ button on the comment. Others criticized Ms. Pannill for selling Mary Kay cos-metics. I was aghast at these class-less attacks.

Ms. Pannill was left battle scarred. She didn’t deserve it. And this one interaction with atheists convinced her, I’m sure, that atheists are hate-filled, degenerate low-lifes.

It’s probably worth noting that the profanity-laced comments came from people who aren’t considered active Metroplex Atheist members – that is, none of us have seen these folks at an MA business meeting or a social event. The MA Facebook page has grown bigger than the local member-ship, and anyone can post or com-ment there.

And maybe that’s unfortunate. Metroplex Atheist sergeant-at-arms John Hattan observed, ―The Face-book page is no longer about MA – it seems to be an outlet for some peo-ple to act like jerks.‖

Let’s do our best to elevate the dis-cussion. If we’re civil, our arguments might even be given consideration by the other side.

A few years ago, Metroplex Atheists president Terry McDonald and I were invited to speak to the religion de-partment at Texas Christian Univer-sity.

Terry and I showed up and were warmly welcomed by the group. They fed us lunch, and during the next hour we were allowed to make all our points about why we are atheists and where we believe the holy rollers have it wrong.

Guess what? We didn’t call anyone the C word. We didn’t use any pro-fanity at all. After the talk, a lot of people came over with questions and many thanked us for coming.

The holy rollers walked out of there having met a couple of nice, decent guys. Before we spent that hour to-gether, they probably thought athe-ists were incapable of being either.

We’ve also spoken to church Sunday school classes, and recently, Metroplex Atheists met with mem-bers of a Baptist church in Bedford.

My goal is this – when we part ways, I want the Christian to think, hey, he’s a pretty nice guy, and he did in fact give me a few things to think about.

I’d like to think we can nourish the seed of doubt that exists in most Christians. If we have a mission in life, I think it is that.

This is different than the Christian tenet to recruit everyone to their side. I don’t actively seek them out. But when they come calling, I will re-spond.

I’d like Christians and those enter-taining doubt to realize that that be-coming atheist isn’t going to mean he/she becomes an immoral person who worships Satan. Going after the believers with pitchforks and profan-ity isn’t going to benefit our position, and it will only strengthen theirs.

We open minds by being decent and respectful, no matter how whacked out we might find the other side. And we’re better people when we resist the opponent’s efforts to bring us down to his or her level.

I’d love to see our Facebook page retain a family-friendly atmosphere. If a Christian comes there out of curios-ity, or a non-believer comes for some fellowship, I’d like to know they won’t be blindsided by the spewing of ha-tred and vulgarity.

I apologize for being preachy – that’s probably the last thing we should do here. I welcome all opinions on this commentary, but please be nice about it.

(Decency on page 10)

Our Public Presence: A Call For Decency

6 Q3 2011

ARGUMENTS 25-28 OF 36 FOR GOD

25. The Argument from Suffer-

ing

1. There is much suffering in this world.

3. Some suffering (or at least its possibility) is a demanded by human moral agency: if people could not choose evil acts that cause suffering, moral choice would not exist.

4.Whatever suffering cannot be explained as the result of human moral agency must also have some purpose (from 2 & 3).

5. There are virtues — forbear-ance, courage, compassion, and so on — that can only develop in the presence of suffering. We may call them "the virtues of suf-fering."

6. Some suffering has the pur-

pose of our developing the vir-

tues of suffering (from 5).

7. Even taking 3 and 6 into ac-count, the amount of suffering in the world is still enormous — far more than what is required for us to benefit from suffering.

8. Moreover, there are those who suffer who can never de-velop the virtues of suffering--children, animals, those who perish in their agony.

9. There is more suffering than we can explain by reference to the purposes that we can dis-cern (from 7 & 8).

10 There are purposes for suf-fering that we cannot discern (from 2 and 9).

11. Only a being who has a sense of purpose beyond ours could provide the purpose of all suffering (from 10).

12. Only God could have a sense of purpose beyond ours.

13. God exists.

FLAW: This argument is a sor-rowful one, since it highlights the most intolerable feature of our world, the excess of suffering. The suffering in this world is ex-cessive in both its intensity and its prevalence, often undergone by those who can never gain anything from it. This is a power-ful argument against the exis-tence of a compassionate and powerful deity. It is only the Fallacy of Wishful Thinking, em-bodied in Premise 2, that could make us presume that what is psychologically intolerable can-not be the case.

26. The Argument from the

Survival of The Jews

1. The Jews introduced the world to the idea of the one God, with his universal moral code

2. The survival of the Jews, liv-ing for milliennia without a coun-try of their own, and facing a multitude of enemies that sought to destroy not only their religion but all remnants of the race, is a historical unlikelihood.

3. The Jews have survived against vast odds (from 2).

4. There is no natural explana-tion for so unlikely an event as the survival of the Jews (from 3).

5. The best explanation is that they have some transcendent purpose to play in human des-tiny (from 1 and 4).

(Arguments on page 7)

"This article has been reprinted from the Huffington Post with permission from the author. Landon

Ross is a contributor to the Huffington Post, principal founder of www.RationalApe.com, and Los An-

geles based artist."

"This article has been reprinted from the Huffington Post with permission from the author. Landon

Ross is a contributor to the Huffington Post, principal founder of www.RationalApe.com, and Los An-

geles based artist."

See Q1 2010 issue for arguments 1-3 See Q2 2010 issue for arguments 4-7 See Q3 2010 issue for arguments 8-11 See Q4 2010 issue for arguments 12-16 See Q1 2011 issue for arguments 17-20 See Q2 2011 issue for arguments 21-24 To view go to www.metroplexatheists.org

7 Q3 2011

6. Only God could have as-signed a transcendent destiny to the Jews.

7. God exists.

FLAW 1: The fact that the Jews, after the destruction of the Sec-ond Temple by the Romans, had no country of their own made it more likely, rather than less likely, that they would sur-vive as a people. If they had been concentrated in one coun-try, they would surely have been conquered by one of history's great empires, as happened to other vanished tribes. But a peo-ple dispersed across a vast di-aspora is more resilient, which is why other stateless peoples, like the Parsis and Roma, have also survived for millennia, often against harrowing odds. More-over, the Jews encouraged cul-tural traits — such as literacy, urban living, specialization in middleman occupations, and an extensive legal code to govern their internal affairs --that gave them further resilience against the vicissitudes of historical change. The survival of the Jews, therefore, is not a miracu-lous improbability.

COMMENT: The persecution of the Jews need not be seen as a part of a cosmic moral drama. The unique role that Judaism played in disseminating mono-theism, mostly through the or-gans of its two far more popular monotheistic offshoots, Christi-anity and Islam, has bequeathed to its adherents an unusual amount of attention, mostly negative, from adherents of those other monotheistic relig-ions.

27. The Argument from The

Upward Curve of History

1. There is an upward moral curve to human history (tyrannies fall; the evil side loses in major wars; democracy, free-dom, and civil rights spread).

2. Natural selection's favoring of those who are fittest to compete for resources and mates has bequeathed humankind selfish and aggressive traits.

3. Left to their own devices, a selfish and aggressive species could not have ascended up a moral curve over the course of history (from 2).

4.Only God has the power and the concern for us to curve his-tory upward.

5. God exists.

FLAW: Though our species has inherited traits of selfishness and aggression, we have also inherited capacities for empathy, reasoning, and learning from experience. We have also inher-ited language, and with it a means to pass on the lessons we have learned from history. And so humankind has slowly reasoned its way toward a broader and more sophisticated understanding of morality, and more effective institutions for keeping peace. We make moral progress as we do scientific pro-gress, through reasoning, ex-perimentation, and the rejection of failed alternatives.

28. The Argument from Prodi-

gious Genius

1. Genius is the highest level of creative capacity, the level which, by definition, defies ex-planation.

2. Genius does not happen by way of natural psychological processes (from 1).

3. The cause of genius must lie outside of natural psychological processes (from 2).

4. The insights of genius have helped in the cumulative pro-gress of humankind — scientific, technological, philosophical, moral, artistic, societal, political, spiritual.

5. The cause of genius must both lie outside of natural psy-chological processes and be such as to care about the pro-gress of humankind (from 3 and 4).

6. Only God could work outside of natural psychological proc-esses and create geniuses to light the path of humankind.

7. God exists.

FLAW 1: The psychological traits that go into human accom-plishment, such as intelligence and perseverance, are heritable. By the laws of probability, rare individuals will inherit a concen-trated dose of those genes. Given a nurturing cultural con-text, these individuals will, some of the time, exercise their pow-ers to accomplish great feats. Those are the individuals we call geniuses. We may not know enough about genetics, neuro-science, and cognition to explain exactly what makes for a Mozart or an Einstein, but exploiting this gap to argue for supernatural provenance is an example of The Fallacy of Arguing from Ig-norance.

FLAW 2: Human genius is not consistently applied to human betterment. Consider weapons of mass destruction, computer viruses, Hitler's brilliantly effec-tive rhetoric, or those criminal geniuses (for example electronic thieves) who are so cunning that they elude detection.

(Arguments from page 6)

Atheis ts are Coming to a Restaurant Near You

Since you can‘t come to a Metroplex Atheist event, why not have Metroplex Atheist events come to you?

We now have a Metroplex Atheists Meet–up Group on www.meetup.com. Over the years we‘ve had many folks lament

that they couldn‘t come to a MA social event because of time/location of our normal Wednesday get together.

Why not start one of your own?

If you have a good meeting place and you‘re willing to show up to be

somewhat of a host, then just contact Metroplex Atheists and we can put an

announcement out on the web.

All it takes is for you to say, ―Hey, why don‘t we meet at X?‖ and show up!

We‘d like to have a number of social groups that meet informally (because,

let‘s face it, the business meetings are only just so much fun). The real fun lies

in meeting other like minded people.

Where do YOU want to meet up?

.

Business Meeting

REGULAR MONTHLY MEETING: What: Meeting to decide general business of the group and to

discuss current events

Date: Third Sunday of the month

Time: 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Place: The Heritage Bldg, 217 Main St, Irving, Tx—Heritage

Park.

Social Meetings

DALLAS / PLANO ATHEIST MEETUP DAY: What: Meet with other local Atheists to talk about your beliefs

Date: Every Tuesday

Time: 7:00 PM

Place: TBA; For locations near you visit: atheists.meetup.com

MA ATHEIST MEETUP: What: ‗My dinner with Atheists,‘ social time with a bunch of

heathens

Date: 2nd, 3rd, 4th, (& 5th) Wednesday

Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Place: J. Gilligan‘s Bar & Grill (Meet on the grill side)

400 E. Abram Street, Arlington, TX

MA ATHEIST MEETUP: What: ‗My dinner with Atheists,‘ social time with a bunch of

heathens

Date: 1st Wednesday of the Month

Time: 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Place: Blue Danube, 2230 West Park Row, Pantego, TX

Adopt-A-Highway: What: Highway clean up volunteering

Date: Once every three months-check website

Time: Check website

Place: Hwy 157, Arlington-check website

To have your events listed email:

The Atheist Voice Editor at

editor@metroplexatheists.org

8 Q3 2011

Upcoming Events

THE ATHEIST VOICE is a quarterly publication of Metroplex Atheists.

For more information, please visit our website: www.metroplexatheists.org

To submit an article or letter to the editor, please email us.

The Atheist Voice Editor: editor@metroplexatheists.org

9 Q3 2011

Children’s Corner by Maggie Hattan

I am an atheist going into the fourth

grade, and I am going to discuss

the pros and cons of my third grade

year.

My first topic is going to be the

pros. I have a few I would like to

share. Being in third grade knowing

I was the only atheist was a little

scary, but I felt good when I found

out I wasn't alone. One of my best

friends didn't believe in God. It was

nice to have a friend like him. One

time he really stood up for me was

when two or three kids found out I

didn't believe in God. When I told

them that I didn't believe in God, I

didn't feel bad. They almost told the

whole class. I was kind of freaking

out until he got up and told them

they had no right to be saying

something that someone doesn't

want everyone to know. That was a

good-friend thing to do, and I felt

pretty good.

That was my pro, but sadly I have

more cons than pros. The biggest

problem in my year was one girl.

She was a HUGE Christian and

constantly bugged me. I have many

experiences with her, but the one

that I found the rudest was the time

she pulled me aside into the cubi-

cles, took out a Bible, threw it at

me, and yelled at me to read it. An-

other time was when some girls

were talking about religion when I

was working behind them. I asked

them to please stop. Her response

was "God is thankful, God is

great.", and she kept repeating it.

They stopped when I walked away.

So sometimes it's tough to be an

atheist. But I have lots of great

friends, and I know the cons can't

put me down.

of the other three movements cited and capable of winning our battle within the next twenty years. That’s where I come in. I’m not a young guy but there’s a pretty good chance that I’ll live another twenty years

―Not so fast‖ you may be say-ing, ―many things have to happen before we get there.‖ That’s right! We have a lot of work to do and that’s my point. I realize not

everyone can be the kind of atheist activist that some of us are but we all can contribute something. I real-ize not all of us can, or want to, hold up a sign at a protest but there are many levels of ―activism‖. If you can ―come out‖ then ―come out‖. Let people know that atheists can be as nice a person as you are. If you can attend meetings or other atheist functions and quietly support atheist causes, then do that. Whatever you can do that will help me see the truly secular soci-

ety I want to see before I die, I will really appreciate.

The last sentence is an attempt at humor, of course, but I am seri-ous about all atheists contribut-ing. If each of us contributes what he or she can to bring about a truly secular society, perhaps we can do it in twenty years.

Terry McDonald President Metroplex Atheists

(President from page 4)

Come join Metroplex Atheists in their

“Don’t Mess With Texas” highway trash

pick up once every three months and

help support our community. Just go to

www.meetup.com/metroplex-atheists/

and sign up.

10 Q3 2011

To read more about Metroplex Athe-ist members meeting with Christian groups, see the following articles in The Atheist Voice:

Atheist/Baptist dialogue

Issue 38/April 2011, page 1

http://www.metroplexatheists.org/Portals/1/Newsletters/2011-02.pdf

Speaking tour begins; putting a face on atheism

Issue 25/July 2007, page 8

http://www.metroplexatheists.org/Portals/1/Newsletters/2007-07.pdf

Atheist speaks to TCU religious student group

Issue 23/March 2007, page 10

http://www.metroplexatheists.org/Portals/1/Newsletters/2007-03.pdf

(Decency from page 5)

The Dallas/Fort Worth Coalition of Reason (DFWCoR.org) is a group of local organizations joined together to increase the growth, visibility and acceptance of nontheists throughout the Metroplex.

While all of these organizations share common ground, each has its own particular emphasis and at-mosphere. Some are focused on scientific inquiry and education; others are focused on ethics and community. Still others seek to create environments of rationality where people can socialize in cli-mates of tolerance and support. All organizations are committed to promoting wider acceptance of a

METROPLEX ATHEISTS

DALLAS-ATHEIST PLANO MEETUP

FREETHINKERS OF UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS—ARLINGTON

HUMANIST ASSOCIATION OF FORT WORTH

FELLOWSHIP OF FREETHOUGHT

FREETHINKERS OF FORT WORTH MEETUP GROUP

DALLAS BRIGHTS

NORTH TEXAS CHURCH OF FREETHOUGHT

CAMP QUEST

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS FREETHOUGHT ALLIANCE

ATHEISTS, SKEPTICS AND HUMANISTS AT UT DALLAS

NORTH TEXAS SKEPTICS

THE DENTON ATHEIST MEETUP GROUP

FREETHINKERS OF EAST TEXAS

SECULAR STUDENTS IN COLLIN COUNTY

11 Q3 2011

To the ‘Atheists in foxholes’

proudly serving the United States:

Thank you for your

unselfish sacrifice so

that we may all live in a

safer world.

w w w . a t h e i s t f o x h o l e s . o r g

Our Local Atheists in Foxholes:

WWII & Korea:

James Hardwick (Ret), Navy

Korea:

Chris Gregory, Air Force

Viet Nam:

Randall Gorman (Ret), Air National Guard

Iraq:

Brian McIntosh (Ret), Marines

Shawn Ruzek, Marines

Deanne Dice

Antoyne E. Davis, Army

―action.‖ Following the anticlimax of the Rapture nonevent, the media packed up to leave and several of the DFWCoR members adjourned to the campground to set up for a sleepover and bonfire. Tents were soon pitched around a communal campsite, and soon the adults were gathered around in a circle enjoying snacks and beverages, while the

kids amused themselves in and around the trees.

W i t h i n a f e w h o u r s , t h e bushcrafters had built an impres-sive fire, and the party moved to its location on the bank of the lake, illuminated from above by the neon glow of the Flying Spaghetti Mon-ster. Many logs, and hot dogs, and marshmallows passed through the flames before the last weary few crawled up to seek refuge (too late,

for most) from chiggers, mosquitos, and other annoying bugs.

Another year has come and gone, and the DFWCoR remains a strong social nexus for secular groups here in the Metroplex.

Zachary Moore, PhD

Coordinator

DFW Coalition of Reason

zach@dfwcor.org

(Picnic from page 2)

12 Q3 2011

WHY DO WE FIGHT?

‗Because we must. Because we have the call. Because it is nobler to fight

for rationality without winning than to give up in the face of continued

defeats. Because whatever true progress humanity makes is through the

rationality of the occasional individual and because any one individual

we may win for the cause may do more for humanity than a hundred

thousand who hug superstition to their breasts.‘ – Isaac Asimov, when asked why he fights religion with no hope for victory