Greta Christina's Blog: Writing news

The Switch to Freethought Blogs - Some Questions Answered

As regular readers already know, this blog is going to be migrating. I'm going to be part of the new Freethought Blogs network, started by Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture Wars and PZ Myers at Pharyngula. That transition is happening soon -- September 1, to be precise.

Many people have been asking questions about the transition. So I thought I'd answer the most commonly- asked ones now.

Is the old blog still going to be here?

Yes. There are way too many links to this blog out in the internet. I don't want all those links to be broken. I'll keep this blog around for archival purposes, and I'll probably do so for as close to forever as I can.

But I'll also be moving my archives over to my FTB blog. And I'd hugely appreciate it if y'all could link to the FTB archives as much as is humanly possible. I'll be getting paid by the hit count, and if all those links to (oh, say, just to give on example completely at random) "Atheists and Anger" were to get directed to my FTB blog instead of here, it would make a big, big difference. I'm just sayin', is all.

Will comments stay open on the old blog?

For the moment. I may close them eventually, though. I really want people to move to the new blog. And I don't want to have to do moderation/ spam control on two blogs forever.

Will my FeedBlitz notifications/ RSS feed still work?

I'll see if I can get FeedBlitz to update to the new blog. If not, we'll have to start again. RSS will definitely not work. You'll have to re-subscribe to the new blog.

What about your non-atheist blogging? What about your writing about sex/ politics/ feminism/ cat photos/ etc.? Where are you going to do that?

Don't worry! I'm going to do all of that blogging on Freethought Blogs! Freethought Blogs is exactly that -- free thought. The focus is on atheism and other forms of godlessness, obviously... but the other FTB bloggers are blogging about plenty of other topics, and I plan to do so as well.

I'm sure the blog will evolve with time, and I'm sure that this evolution will be affected by being in the network and by the kind of traffic I get from it. But I don't expect the basic vision to change very dramatically.

And yes, I've been assured that I can keep writing explicitly about sex. If anything, I'll probably wind up blogging about sex more than I have been lately. I currently don't have any regular paid gigs as a sex writer, and that has seriously limited how much time I can spend doing it. But Freethought Blogs is itself a paying gig. So that whole "I have to prioritize writing that actually brings in some income" equation I've been doing for so long is about to take a dramatic shift... in the direction of focusing more on the blog, and writing more original content for it, and blogging more about whatever the fuck happens to be on my mind. I really like doing sex writing, and I'm excited and happy that I'll now be able to bring in some money for doing it.

If you have any other questions about my transition to Freethought Blogs, ask them here. I'll see you at the new network in about a week!

August 25, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (29)

I Need a Banner For My Freethought Blog!

I'm going to be moving my blog to the Freethought Blogs network soon, and I need a banner! Any designers out there want to help? I'll send you copies of all four of my books if I use your design!

Specs:

The banner needs to be 728x120 pixels.

It needs to have the title of the blog, "Greta Christina's Blog," in pretty big letters.

It needs to have the tagline of the blog, "Atheism, sex, politics, dreams, and whatever. Thinking out loud since 2005." in smaller letters.

It doesn't have to incorporate my portrait pic, since that will be on the blog elsewhere. But it can incorporate it if you can make it work.

I'm not a designer, and don't know what else to say in terms of specs or vision or what I'm looking for generally. But if you ask me questions, I'll answer them as best I can. You can check out see what the other Freethought Blogs bloggers are using for banners, if that helps.

And my books are:

Best Erotic Comics 2008
Best Erotic Comics 2009
Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers For Their Clients (now out of print, except on Kindle)
Three Kinds of Asking For It: Erotic Novellas by Jill Soloway, Greta Christina, and Eric Albert

I'm very much looking forward to this transition -- and I think a good banner could definitely help draw and keep traffic. Holler if you want to help out!

August 22, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (18)

The Karaoke Pledge Has Been Completed!

And here it is, as promised -- video of me singing karaoke.

Jesus fictional Christ.

As some of you may remember, a few months ago a bunch of atheist bloggers did a fundraising competition for Camp Quest (the kids' camp for children of atheists, freethinkers, humanists, and other non-supernaturalists), pitting PZ Myers of Pharyngula against pretty much every other atheist blogger we could round up. The competition got... diverting, to say the least, with PZ offering to shave his beard into a hideous '80s moustache if he won, and several members of Team Awesome responding by offering to publicly embarrass ourselves in an assortment of amusing ways for the entertainment of the atheist community if we won. Adam Lee at Daylight Atheism offered to grow a beard (in an effort to offset PZ's beard-shaving proposal and keep facial hair homeostasis within the atheist blogosphere); Matt Dillahunty of The Atheist Experience offered to do an episode of the show in drag; C.L. Hanson at Letters from a Broad offered to organize a showtunes sing-along (which, as far as I know, she hasn't yet done -- how about it, C.L.?); Jen McCreight at Blag Hag offered to learn to ride a bike on video; JT Eberhard at WWJTD offered to wax his legs and shave his head.

And I offered to sing karaoke, and post video of it online.

As you may remember, Team Awesome won. We raised a total of $15,418.79: PZ Myers raised a paltry total of $14,656.01. So the two teams combined raised $30,074.80 for the wonderful, inspiring, eminently worthy cause of Camp Quest.

Which was great.

No, really. I'm very, very happy about this.

Sigh.

So. Okay. The last three of these pledges -- mine, Jen's, and JT's -- were carried out at the recent Secular Student Alliance conference. Video footage was taken, and has been compiled, and has now been posted to the Internet.

I'm only on for a few seconds in the video. Which is fine with me. But if you feel a compelling need to hear more of what my singing voice sounds like through a shitty microphone in a noisy bar at the tail end of a weekend-long conference when my voice is shot... take it up with videographer Ashley Paramore, aka healthyaddict, who put the montage together. My pledge has now been fulfilled, and honor has been upheld, and I can attempt to put this episode in the back of my mind.

Until next year's contest.

Hm. What should I pledge next time around?

(Video below the jump, since putting it above the jump mucks up my archives.)

Continue reading "The Karaoke Pledge Has Been Completed!" »

August 22, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (9)

Greta Interviewed on "Ask an Atheist" Podcast!

Are you a podcast fan? If so, check out my latest interview! I was recently interviewed for the "Ask an Atheist" radio show, and the program is now available in podcast form. The main topic of conversation is anti- atheist bigotry -- especially among progressive and moderate believers -- but the conversation wanders into many other interesting and fun godless topics. Enjoy!

August 18, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (2)

The Best Things About the Midwest Humanist and Freethought Conference

I feel like the scales have been lifted from my eyes. I was blind, but now I see. For most of the time I've been going to conferences, I've been avoiding conference reports as tedious drudgery... but now that I've discovered the secret -- don't worry about being thorough or even coherent, just post a series of disjointed observations about whatever happened to catch my fancy -- I'm all inspired, and want to do it every time. (And it makes for perfect "plane ride home" blogging!)

So here, in no particular order, are The Best Things About the Midwest Humanist and Freethought Conference.

1: Brother Sam Singleton. If you have not seen Brother Sam Singleton, Atheist Evangelist, you are missing one of the great joys of life. Hilarious and chilling, erudite and crass, quoting Voltaire with a vivid Ozarks accent, Brother Sam's performance kidnaps the style of a Pentecostal revival meeting and uses it to deliver a sharp, compelling, take-no- prisoners atheist rant that makes Christopher Hitchens look like a vanilla cupcake. Truly the best of both worlds: if you think embracing atheism means losing the wild, soaring, inspired artistry of religion, his show is a must-see. I was cranky and groggy about being up at 9am on a Sunday with very little sleep (isn't that supposed to be one of the benefits of atheism -- that we get to sleep in on Sundays?)... and Brother Sam woke me the fuck up. See him if you possibly can. Make it a priority.

2: The pillow fort. This is what awaited Jen McCreight when she arrived in Omaha. The impenetrable fortress of pillows! And a devastating ambush with the socks and T-shirts of victory! Photo (and video) by JT Eberhard: campus organizer, Skepticon co-founder, and renowned pillow fort architect. When the history of the atheist movement is written, let it be recorded that its thought leaders were five years old.

(And can I just say: This is one of the best pictures of me that has ever been taken. I am seriously tempted to make it my author pic for my next book. If I were a rock star, I would totally make it my next album cover. [Tangent within a tangent: Has any rock star or rock band ever done an album cover photo behind a pillow fort? And if not, why not?])

3: Jen McCreight's talk. Jen has this unique talent as a speaker. Her manner is casual and approachable, like she's simply chatting with you and it just happens to be at a lectern with a PowerPoint presentation. And then she sneaks these ideas out that punch you in the brain and shake everything up. Completely sensible ideas, ideas that seem so obvious you can't believe you didn't think of them before, ideas that seem even more reasonable given her relaxed and chatty approach... and that will totally fuck with your world. The key concept of her talk -- that women's relationships with God and religion are essentially abusive relationships, with all or most of the classic signs of abuse, and that the reasons women find it hard to leave religion are often the same reasons it's hard to leave an abusive relationship -- is one of those ideas. I am now rethinking a ton of stuff about how to persuade people (especially women) out of religion, and how to make atheism more welcoming to people (especially women) who are leaving it.

4: JT Eberhard's talk. JT's talk, on the other hand, was anything but casual. JT's talk -- on why reason is a moral obligation, and why atheists ought not to suffer unreason gladly -- said hard things about religious belief, and hard things about religious believers, and hard things about atheists who decline to push back against it all. It was one of the darker talks I've seen him give. It was also one of the most inspiring. Not in a rah-rah "Atheists are awesome!" way, but in a "This is serious shit, we all need to be stepping up our game" way. (I still don't agree with him about the primacy of reason in all areas of life -- I think there's a hugely important place in our lives for irrationality and intuition and impulse. Just not when it comes to evaluating truth claims about the non-subjective universe. But that's a conversation for another day.)

5: My angry atheist rant. I gave my "Why Are You Atheists So Angry?" talk. I love my "Why Are You Atheists So Angry?" talk. It's one of my two favorite talks to give (running neck and neck with "Atheism and Sexuality"). And judging by the response, other people seem rather fond of it as well. I'm not going to indulge in false modesty. It's a barn-burner. And I do so enjoy burning a barn.

6: The panel discussion about "The Ledge." This took me by surprise. There was a screening of Matthew Chapman's "The Ledge" on Sunday, and a panel discussion about it with the speakers... which the speakers hadn't actually known about until it was announced from the podium on Saturday. We were all like, "We're doing what now?" And, "You want us to be coherent on the last day of a conference, about a movie we just finished watching?" But it was actually a fascinating conversation: about the characters' motivations, and whether atheist characters in movies should be role models or flawed and complex human beings, and how far a film can stretch plausibility for the sake of good storytelling, and what the atheist community can do to fill the human needs that religion is filling, and whether the movie's main character was a good guy with some asshole tendencies or an asshole with some good tendencies, and more. And it was a conversation that soon spilled out from the speakers' panel and into the audience. For the last event of the conference, when everyone was drained and sleep-deprived and had Jello for brains, it was surprisingly lively. (And the movie itself is, IMO, excellent. I'd seen it before, back when I reviewed it, and it held up to the second viewing quite nicely.)

7: Hanging out at Caffeine Dreams after it was all over. Caffeine Dreams is a truly delightful space: sprawling and spacious but also intimate, arty but also friendly and welcoming, in an old brick building that used to be two bars that used to be an architect's home. (According to the barrista, anyway.) Plus plentiful sofas for exhausted speakers/ organizers/ die-hards to collapse into. And Mountain Goats on the sound system. Aaaaaaaaaah. I was fried and jangled when we got there -- happy and satisfied, don't get me wrong, but fried and jangled nonetheless -- and Caffeine Dreams was a balm to my non-existent soul. The food wasn't wildly magnificent or anything, but it was tasty and fresh, and the coffee was strong... and the space was so delightful, it could have made a day-old Quarter Pounder seem delicious. The next time I go to Omaha, I want to eat every possible meal there.

And the company there was exquisite. Languid, meandering, post- conference- Jello- brain conversations about travel, and chocolate, and relocating the Large Hadron Collider to Columbus (ideally next to Jeni's Ice Cream), and atheist politics, and life in the military, and whether kittens or puppies are cuter and why. I felt suspended in time, and entirely happy to be exactly where I was.

There was so much about this conference that was excellent. Hemant Mehta's talk. Fred Edwords' talk. Mr. Deity's talk. The drawing of a T-Rex on the bag of Italian food that Jen and JT and I had delivered to our hotel. (JT had promised a ten-dollar tip to the delivery guy if he drew us a dinosaur, and the delivery guy came through with flying colors.)

But I've been to a lot of conferences now... and these conversations among old friends and new are almost always the best thing. You never know when the good ones are going to happen: it could be at the merch table, or at the Steak 'n' Shake, or over grilled peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at the post-bar-hop sobering-up efforts at the late-night coffeeshop. But whenever and wherever they happen, they are worth it. This movement is becoming a real community; this community is becoming an extended family. It makes me happier than I can say.

August 15, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (12)

Two Large Pieces of Greta News - Reason Rally, and Freethought Blogs!

Hi, all! I have two pieces of kind of monumental news, I'm ridiculously excited about both of them, and I wanted to let y'all know.

Piece of News #1: Do you all know about the Reason Rally? The atheist/ secular March on Washington, set for March 24, 2012? It's kind of a big freaking deal: they're saying it's going to be the largest gathering of the secular movement in world history. There's going to be music, comedy, general fun and hanging out... and, of course, speakers.

And I'm going to be one of the speakers.

No shit. Check out the speakers list. I'm on it -- along with Richard Dawkins, PZ Myers, Jamila Bey, Hemant Mehta, James Randi, Taslima Nasrin, David Silverman, and a list that keeps on growing.

The Reason Rally is being put together by a kind of incredible coalition of secularist organizations, joining their efforts to make it as huge and inclusive as possible. As of this writing, the march is being sponsored by (take a deep breath): American Atheists, American Humanist Association, Atheist Alliance of America, Camp Quest, Center for Inquiry, Freethought Society, Military Atheists and Freethinkers, Secular Coalition for America, Secular Student Alliance, Society for Humanistic Judaism, Stiefel Freethought Foundation, The Brights, The James Randi Educational Foundation, The Richard Dawkins Foundation, and United COR. Who says you can't herd cats?

I am more excited and proud to be part of this than I can possibly say. This event should be entirely made of 100% Awesomnium, and if you possibly can make it, you should. Make your travel plans to DC now! And spread the word among your godless friends and colleagues -- the more people who know about this, the more awesome it's going to be!

Piece of News #2: Do you all know about the new Freethought Blogs network? The new network of atheist/ freethought/ godless bloggers, started by PZ Myers of Pharyngula and Ed Brayton of Dispatches from the Culture Wars?

I'm going to be one of the bloggers.

No shit. The network has been launched with an initial core of bloggers -- PZ and Ed as mentioned above, plus Comradde PhysioProffe, Digital Cuttlefish, This Week in Christian Nationalism, and Zingularity -- and they're currently working out the usual technical glitches associated with the launch of a big new Interweb project. They'll soon be expanding that initial core of bloggers... and I'm going to be one of them.

So be prepared. This blog will be moving. I don't yet know the exact date; I'll keep you all in the loop as soon as I know. I'll keep the Typepad blog up for archival purposes, to keep old links from getting broken, etc. ... but once I switch over to Freethought Blogs, this blog will essentially just be for storage, and Freethought Blogs will be my new home. So be prepared to switch your bookmarks/ blogrolls/ RSS feeds/ carrier pigeons/ Pony Express lines/ etc. to the new site.

I am tickled pink about this, and I keep jumping out of my seat to do a little happy dance whenever I think about it. Freethought Blogs is going to be a major nexus of atheist thought and conversation and community on the 'Net, and I am proud beyond words to have been invited to be part of it. And I am grateful beyond words to every reader of this blog who decided they liked my ideas enough to follow them and spread them. I love you guys. And I love being part of this movement. Seriously.

I'll keep you all posted about the move as soon as I know what's what. Woo-freaking-hoo!

August 09, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (15)

The Best Things About the Secular Student Alliance Conference

I typically haven't been good about the whole "conference report" thing. It always seemed like an overwhelming task -- trying to sum up the essence of an entire multi-day conference in a succinct and entertaining blog post, or even in a marginally readable. But I've figured out that I don't have to report on an entire freaking conference in order to write about it. I can just report on the stuff I especially liked about it. (And, if it seems relevant, the stuff that particularly got up my nose.)

Which is good. Because the Secular Student Alliance national conference was freaking awesome, and deserves to be reported on.

I go to a lot of conferences, and they're all different, and I find something to enjoy about all of them. But the SSA has a very special place in my heart. Skepticon rocks harder, TAM is more glam... but the SSA feels like home. I feel like I can just relax and hang out there, more than I can at any other conference. If you're an atheist student, you should absolutely make this conference a priority. If you're an atheist student who doesn't belong to a student organization, come anyway -- they'll help you get one started. And if you're not a student, you can still come, and you can still have an awesomely good time.

So here, in no particular order, is The Stuff I Liked Best About The Secular Student Alliance National Conference.

1: Jessica Ahlquist. Jessica, for those who aren't familiar, is the atheist high school student who's suing her public school for having a prayer banner in the school gym. After she spoke, I kept saying, "She's one of the best speakers of her age that our movement has." Then I realized: No. I have to stop saying that. She is one of the best speakers our movement has, period. She's clear, personable, expressive, friendly and approachable but completely capable of commanding a room, with a sweet manner folded into a foundation of hardcore tough. I can't tell you how many people at the conference told me that I was their second favorite speaker, second only to Jessica. I was not insulted in the least. I was totally honored.

2. Ed Clint's talk on "transfaith" -- the alternative he's proposing to "interfaith" -- and on whether an atheist organization can be confrontational and still work with religious organizations. His conclusion: Yes. It's not always easy, but it can definitely be done. The thing I liked best about Ed's talk was that he didn't just put his opinion out there as an opinion. He backed it up with solid evidence. His own group, the Illini Secular Student Alliance, has engaged in some very confrontational atheist activism -- as just one example, they were the initiators of the "Everybody Draw Muhammad Day" event that so many non-confrontationalist atheists were so vehemently opposed to. And yet they've been very successful in forging bridges with campus religious groups... including with the campus Muslim group, who the atheist group is now on excellent terms with. So this whole idea that confrontational activism is inevitably and irrevocably divisive needs to be put to rest. (I also like the idea of "transfaith": a lot of atheists, myself included, are entirely in favor of atheist groups building relationships with religious groups, but have a strong reaction against the word "interfaith," since it implies that atheism is a faith. The word "transfaith" seems like a workable compromise. We just need to get the interfaith alliances to go along with it.)

3. Jeni's Ice Cream. Probably the best ice cream I have ever eaten. Possibly some of the best food of any kind I have ever eaten. I was in Columbus for five days, and I ate Jeni's ice cream for three of them. For the bulk of my meals. (Seriously. I had ice cream for dinner on one night, and ice cream for lunch on two different days. Because I am five years old.) My favorite flavors: lime cardamom rhubarb, and sweet corn with black raspberries, and bourbon butter pecan made with Maker's Mark, and peanut curry, and cherry lambic, and brown butter almond, and Riesling poached pear, and goat cheese with cherries, and... and... and... I pretty much wanted to fill a bathtub with all the flavors and roll around in it. (And yes, I know about Humphrey Slocombe in San Francisco. I love Humphrey Slocombe. Humphrey Slocombe is awesome. Humphrey Slocombe is almost as good as Jeni's. But not quite.)

4. Jamila Bey. What can I say? Jamila rocks. She's smart, hilarious, passionate, riveting, inspiring, and just generally a first-rate speaker. She's also Exhibit A against the whole stupid argument that "going out of our way to get women and people of color as speakers will dilute the quality of out events." Jamila is quickly becoming one of the most popular speakers on the atheism circuit... and she's someone our movement might not have noticed if event organizers hadn't been going out of their way to make events more diverse. She's also a joy to hang out with, and is now pretty much everybody's BFF. You should get her to speak for your group. Period.

5. The Brothers Drake Meadery. I freaking love Columbus. I am entirely serious. Columbus, Ohio is one of the coolest cities I know of. If I had some terrible curse put on me and for some reason couldn't live in San Francisco, Columbus would be high on my list of places I'd like to live. And one of the things I like best about Columbus is the food/ booze culture. And one of the things I like best about the food/ booze culture in Columbus -- apart from Jeni's, obviously -- is the Brothers Drake Meadery. Apparently artisanal mead is the new booze craze, and apparently Brothers Drake is leading the charge. And I can see why. They take mead seriously, they treat it like any serious vintner would treat their wine, and it pays off. I had no idea mead could be like that. And no, it's not all sugary sweet. In fact, most of their mead isn't sugary sweet. They actually make dry mead. I had no idea there was any such a thing. And the proprietors are knowledgeable without being snotty. I had a delightful time chatting with them, and drank way too much mead as a result. (There was an aggressively bad band playing there the night we showed up, which was unfortunate; but Ashley assured me that it's not usually like that.) Alas, you can't get their mead shipped to you: they take the whole "local" thing very seriously, the only way to get it is to go to Columbus. Another reason to go to the SSA conference.

Some other quick mentions of awesome Columbus food experiences, so I don't spend this entire conference report telling you about Columbus food culture: The biscuits and jam at the Northstar Cafe; pretty much everything I ate at the Northstar Cafe; and the iced hot chocolate at le Chocaholique, which was like a chocolate Slurpee. The salted turtles at Chocaholique were also pretty darned lickable.

6. Debuting my new talk. I'm always a little nervous when I give a new talk. And I really wasn't sure about how this one would go over. I feared that the topic -- "Resistance Is Not Futile: Is Arguing About Religion Worth It?" -- might be either too esoteric or too divisive. It seems it was neither. I had a ball delivering it, and it got a great response. The only downside was that most of the students already agreed with one of my central points -- that arguing with believers about religion can be effective, and does sometimes work to persuade people out of religion. Which meant I spent a certain amount of time preaching to the choir. But the choir seemed to enjoy being preached to, and appreciated the revving-up. So it worked.

7. Hanging out with SSA folks in the coffee shop after the meadery trip, talking philosophy and politics and trying to sober up.

8. Jen McCreight. I'll just say this about Jen: I've seen a lot of talks about diversity in the atheist movement. Heck, I've given a lot of talks about diversity in the atheist movement. I've even seen Jen speak about it before. And she's still entertaining, engaging, thoughtful, funny, friendly, and able to say hard things without being hostile or alienating. I've seen her other talks as well, and this is not a fluke. She is one of the best voices we have in our movement. I will happily hear her speak any time she's on stage.

9: Karaoke. This was something of a mixed bag, actually. As some of you already know, I'd pledged to pop my karaoke cherry as part of an atheist bloggers' fundraising competition for Camp Quest, and the SSA conference was the place I'd agreed to do it. Turns out, I don't actually like singing karaoke. I especially don't like singing karaoke at the tail end of a conference, when I'm terminally exhausted and my voice is shot. But hanging out in the karaoke bar was a pretty darned good time (once the whole "Oh, fuck, I have to sing karaoke" thing was behind me, anyway). Dancing with a bunch of atheist wimmin to the karaoke rendition of "I Kissed a Girl" may have been one of the high points of the entire conference. Jen McCreight delivers one hell of a version of "Sin Wagon." And I was happy to have checked karaoke off my "gotta try that one of these days" list... especially for a good cause. (More on the karaoke experience in a later post.)

10: Hanging out and meeting folks. I had so many great conversations with so many amazing students, I can't even begin to remember them all. The students in this movement blow me away on a regular basis. I hope with all my heart that every one of them stays in the movement when they leave school. In whatever capacity. Blogging, making YouTube videos, leading national organizations, organizing social events in their local atheist groups, writing letters to the editor, simply joining organizations... whatever they can and want to do, I passionately hope they do it. If they do -- if even half of them do -- then in ten years, this movement is going to rock the world. More than it already is.

There's way more I could talk about here. Anthony Pinn. David Silverman. PZ Myers. Waxing off a strip of JT Eberhard's leg hair (no, really -- it was part of the whole Camp Quest pledge drive thing, and when I'm tempted I bitch about the karaoke I remind myself that JT got it way worse than me). Hemant Mehta. Amanda Knief. Dan Barker. The silly ice-breaker at the beginning of the conference. Etc. Etc. Etc.

But I don't want to let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and if I try to write about everything that was awesome about this conference, this post will never go up. So I'm going to leave it here. Those of you who were there -- it was awesome to see you. Those of you who missed it -- hope to see you next year!

August 08, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (9)

Greta Speaking in Seattle and Omaha!

Just a quick reminder: I have some nifty and exciting speaking gigs coming up in Seattle and Omaha, and I hope y'all can come by and say hi!

I'm going to be speaking at the Seattle Atheists on Saturday, August 6, about "What Can the Atheist Movement Learn From the LGBT Movement?" I'll be doing Q&A after the talk -- so come with questions! -- and I'll also be on a panel following the talk.

And I'm going to be speaking at the 2011 Midwest Humanist and Freethought Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, happening August 12-14... along with Mr. Deity, JT Eberhard, Jen McCreight, Hemant Mehta, Fred Edwords, and Brother Sam Singleton, Atheist Evangelist. The cost is super-cheap, too -- if you register by this Friday, August 5, it's just $35, and a mere $20 for students. (If you wait until after the 5th to register, the cost will be $50.)

Here's the skinny on both events. If you're attending either one, please come find me and say Hi!

*

EVENT: Seattle Atheists

DATE: Saturday, August 6

TIME: 1:30 - 4:30 pm, including my talk, Q&A, and panel discussion

LOCATION: 2100 Building, 2100 24th Ave. S., Seattle, WA

TOPIC: What Can the Atheist Movement Learn From the LGBT Movement?

SUMMARY: The atheist movement is already modeling itself on the LGBT movement in many ways -- most obviously with its focus on coming out of the closet. What else can the atheist movement learn from the LGBT movement... both from its successes and its failures?

COST: Free (donations accepted)

*

EVENT: Midwest Humanist and Freethought Conference

DATES: August 12-14

DATE AND TIME OF MY PRESENTATION: Sat., Aug. 13, 2:30pm - 3:20pm

LOCATION: University of Nebraska - Omaha
Milo Bail Student Center
North 62nd Street & Dodge Street
Omaha, NE 68182

TOPIC: Why Are You Atheists So Angry?

SUMMARY: The atheist movement is often accused of being driven by anger. What are so many atheists so angry about? Is this anger legitimate? And can anger be an effective force behind a movement for social change?

COST: $35; $20 for students, if you register before August 5. $50 if you register after the 5th.

LODGING: Special conference rates are available at the Comfort Inn & Suites, (402) 343-1000. (Hurry -- offer expires soon.)

Hope to see you there!

August 03, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (2)

Greta Speaking in Columbus, Seattle, and Omaha!

I have some nifty and exciting speaking gigs coming up, and I hope y'all can come by and say hi!

I'm speaking at the Secular Student Alliance Annual Conference this week -- along with PZ Myers, Jamila Bey, Jen McCreight, Dan Barker, Jessica Ahlquist, Dave Silverman, Anthony Pinn, Debbie Goddard, Hemant Mehta, Amanda Knief, and many other godless luminaries. The conference is this weekend, July 29-31, in beautiful and exciting Columbus, Ohio. (No, I'm not being snarky -- Columbus is a seriously awesome city, with excellent food and world-class ice cream.) Registration is still available! (Online registration is now closed, though -- you'll have to register at the conference.) And no, you don't have to be a student to attend -- although they do have excellent cheap student rates, as well as group rates so lots of folks from your group can attend. I'll be debuting my newest talk there, "Resistance Is Not Futile: Is Arguing About Religion Worth It?"

I'm also going to be speaking at the Seattle Atheists on Saturday, August 6, about "What Can the Atheist Movement Learn From the LGBT Movement?" I'll be doing Q&A after the talk -- so come with questions! -- and I'll also be on a panel following the talk.

And I'm going to be speaking at the 2011 Midwest Humanist and Freethought Conference in Omaha, Nebraska, happening August 12-14... along with Mr. Deity, JT Eberhard, Jen McCreight, Hemant Mehta, Fred Edwords, and Brother Sam Singleton, Atheist Evangelist. The cost is super-cheap, too -- just $35, and a mere $20 for students.

Here's the skinny on all of them. If you're attending any of these events, please come find me and say Hi!

*

EVENT: Secular Student Alliance Annual Conference
DATES: July 29-31, 2011
DATE AND TIME OF MY PRESENTATION: Saturday, July 30, 8:30 pm - 9:00 pm
LOCATION: Hitchcock Hall, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
TOPIC: Resistance Is Not Futile: Why Arguing About Religion Is Not A Waste of Time
SUMMARY: Many atheists think that trying to persuade people out of religion never works, and simply alienates people. But debating believers about their beliefs can be effective -- in changing people's minds about religion, as well as in achieving other goals of the atheist community. When does it makes sense to debate about religion? How should we go about it? And what should our expectations be for what these debates can accomplish?
COST: See conference website for details. But a lot cheaper than you'd think -- and they have group rates for groups of students coming from the same school. They really want students to come, and want to make it as easy as possible. So come!

EVENT: Seattle Atheists
DATE: Saturday, August 6
TIME: 1:30 - 4:30 pm, including my talk, Q&A, and panel discussion
LOCATION: 2100 Building, 2100 24th Ave. S., Seattle, WA
TOPIC: What Can the Atheist Movement Learn From the LGBT Movement?
SUMMARY: The atheist movement is already modeling itself on the LGBT movement in many ways -- most obviously with its focus on coming out of the closet. What else can the atheist movement learn from the LGBT movement... both from its successes and its failures?
COST: Free (donations accepted)

EVENT: Midwest Humanist and Freethought Conference
DATES: August 12-14
DATE AND TIME OF MY PRESENTATION: Sat., Aug. 13, 2:30pm - 3:20pm
LOCATION: University of Nebraska - Omaha
Milo Bail Student Center
North 62nd Street & Dodge Street
Omaha, NE 68182
TOPIC: Why Are You Atheists So Angry?
SUMMARY: The atheist movement is often accused of being driven by anger. What are so many atheists so angry about? Is this anger legitimate? And can anger be an effective force behind a movement for social change?
COST: $35; $20 for students
LODGING: Special conference rates are available at the Comfort Inn & Suites, (402) 343-1000. (Hurry -- offer expires soon.)

Hope to see you there!

July 25, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (6)

The Best Things About TAM -- And the Best Things About Las Vegas

Thanks for your patience during my blog break! I was at The Amazing Meeting last week: speaking on the diversity panel, ~~schmoozing~~ networking, talking deep-level strategy, drinking, giving interviews, meeting readers, getting my brain stuffed, and laughing my ass off. And because Ingrid and I haven't had a vacation alone together in approximately 865,673 years, we took a couple of extra days after TAM: to hang out in Las Vegas, stay at the kitten hotel, eat some serious food, drink some serious cocktails, see some ridiculous shows, and generally indulge ourselves.

Throughout both TAM and the post-TAM Vegas trip, I kept thinking, "Wow. This is the best thing about this trip." And then something else would happen, and I'd think, "No, this is the best thing." My head is spinning with images and ideas from all of it, and there is no way I'm going to string my thoughts about it together in any coherent fashion.

So here -- in no particular order, except the order they're coming into my exhausted, overloaded, Vegas-addled brain -- are some of the best things about TAM.

*

Best Thing About TAM #1: Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I thought I was prepared for how excellent Tyson would be. I was wrong. Brilliant, hilarious, compelling, insightful, inspiring. One of the best public speakers I've seen. And he was way harsher on religion than I'd expected.

Best Thing About TAM #2: Meeting and chatting with Richard Dawkins. Who said he likes my blog, said he liked its frankness and wisdom, and hugged me. Yeah. That didn't suck.

(Context for the hug, btw: I'd just told him that reading "The God Delusion" was why I became an atheist and an atheist activist. I'd said that I'd argued my way through the entire book, and called him many very rude names during the course of it... but that before I read it, I was calling myself an agnostic and was occasionally writing about skepticism, and after I finished I was calling myself an atheist and had decided to make atheism the core of my writing career. That's when he asked if he could hug me. I think he was genuinely touched. He also hugged Ingrid, btw. I think it was because she said she was the one who'd made me read "The God Delusion." :-) )

And for the record: No, I don't think Dawkins covered himself in glory over Elevatorgate. I was still tickled to meet him. In fact, one of the things I like best about the atheist/ skeptical movement is that we don't treat our heroes as saints. We can call people out on it when they screw up... and still respect and admire the things they do that are admirable and worthy of respect.

Best Thing About TAM #3: Rebecca Watson's Game Show and Variety Hour. I was laughing so hard I was in actual pain.

Best Thing About TAM #4: Being on the diversity panel with Jamila Bey, Debbie Goddard, Hemant Mehta, and DJ Grothe, moderated by the excellent and ever-patient Desiree Schell. It got a lot more heated than any of us had expected -- the panelists kept joking beforehand about how we needed to manufacture a controversy to keep people's interest, and we wound up with a genuine, no-joke controversy on our hands. Namely: Should the skeptic movement apply skepticism to social issues such as the drug war and abstinence-only sex education -- issues that are of interest to a more diverse population that skepticism isn't reaching as well as we could be? Or are these issues beyond the scope of skepticism, and would focusing on them constitute mission drift? (I'll almost certainly write more about this in the near future; in the meantime, Jen McCreight did a good summary of the panel as a guest post on the Friendly Atheist TAM live-blog.) The panel was more feisty than I'd expected, and at times I found it frustrating... but I also think it moved the larger conversation in this movement forward. And I'm extremely glad that we're no longer debating whether we need to take steps to make our movement more diverse. We seem to have mostly moved on from that, and are now debating the best ways to go about it.

Best Thing About TAM #5: Waltzing with Ingrid to John Lennon's atheist waltz ("God"), played by Penn Jillette's band at Jillette's Rock & Roll, Doughnut and Bacon Party. Life really doesn't get much better than that.

(Also awesome: The moment at the Doughnut and Bacon Party, when they played Patti Smith's "Gloria," and the roomful of skeptics and atheists were bellowing along to "Jesus died for somebody's sins but not mine." I took this pic at the party, and it kind of sums up the vibe, apart from its lack of either doughnuts or bacon.)

Best Thing About TAM #6: The panel discussion on "Our Future In Space," in which the discussion about NASA funding priorities turned into a WWE-style cage match. Four scientists enter; one scientist leaves. My favorite bit was when Pamela Gay told Neil DeGrasse Tyson to shush. Several times.

Best Thing About TAM #7: Carol Tavris, co-author of "Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts," speaking about the science of cognitive dissonance and rationalization, and how we can apply it to argument and persuasion. I pretty much already knew most of the ideas in this talk... and I still had my brain re-arranged by it. I was re-writing my talk for the Secular Student Alliance in my head halfway through it.

Best Thing About TAM #8: Comedian Jamie Kilstein's stand-up routine at Paul Provenza's "Satiristas!" show. A rapid-fire rollercoaster of brilliance, bluntness, and shrieking hilarity, with a vibe somewhere between slam poetry and an eviscerating atheist blog rant. Meeting him was pretty awesome, too. It's always entertaining when atheists do the fanboy/ fangirl thing at each other at the same time.

Best Thing About TAM #9: The panel discussion on placebos. My mind is now seriously re-arranged. I have to re-think everything I thought about placebos... including how to talk about them.

Best Thing About TAM #10: The TAM Fashion Mafia. There was some seriously excellent fashion at TAM. Lots of it, in fact. Ingrid and I packed for Vegas glamour and then worried that we'd be overdressed -- and we so were not. Many lovely bonding moments were had with many skeptical fashionistas. (Plus I got some awesome steampunk jewelry at one of the tables. We had a running joke among the women I hung out with at TAM, about how we needed to have a TAM girls' night to talk about shopping, fashion, and cute boys.)

Best Thing About TAM #11: The impromptu fashion show in the women's bathroom at the Doughnut and Bacon Party. A sizable portion of the TAM Fashion Mafia happened to converge in the bathroom at the same time... and because it was the night of the Doughnut and Bacon Party, we were all dressed to the nines... and because it was the night of the Doughnut and Bacon Party, we were all tipsy enough to think that taking a group photo in the women's bathroom would be a really good idea.

Best Thing About TAM #12: Richard Wiseman. I don't even remember what he said now. I just remember that he was hilarious, and made us want to run out and buy all of his books.

Best Thing About TAM #13: The joke about triskaidekaphobia, and how ridiculous it is to be afraid of a number.

Best Thing About TAM #14: Richard Dawkins' talk. Elizabeth Loftus' talk. PZ Myers' talk. Bill Nye's talk. Pamela Gay's talk. Michael Shermer's talk. Eugenie Scott's talk. Steven Novella's talk. The panel on getting things done for science and skepticism. The panel on communicating skepticism. The workshop on recurring themes in medical mythology. The workshop on grassroots activism. Getting to meet Sastra -- eep! (Is it silly to be star-struck about a Pharyngula commenter? If so, I don't care.) Hanging out in the hotel hot tub at the Skeptics in the Tub party. The announcement that the Richard Dawkins Foundation would start sponsoring child care at atheist and skeptical conferences, to make them more accessible to women and lower-income folks. Meeting the woman who worked in the massage center in the spa at the hotel, who showed up in the conference hall thrilled and fascinated and gathering as many pamphlets as she could hold, who had had no idea until now that a community like this even existed. Getting to meet so many of my readers face to face. There really was a tremendous embarrassment of riches at TAM: any conference where I'm going, "Oh, yeah, Richard Dawkins and PZ Myers and Eugenie Scott and Michael Shermer were pretty great, too"... that's a good time.

But it was also kind of an overwhelming time. And Ingrid and I really needed to decompress. So since we were already in Las Vegas, and since we'd been saying we wanted to go to Las Vegas ever since we'd been going out, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

So here -- in no particular order, except the order they are coming into my exhausted, overloaded, Vegas-addled brain -- are some of the best things about hanging out in Las Vegas after TAM was over.

*

Best Thing About Las Vegas #1: The Cosmopolitan Hotel. No shit. Las Vegas in general leaves me cold -- it's pretty much everything I loathe about American culture, distilled into one manipulative, pre-fab, oddly tedious pleasure palace. But I freaking love the Cosmopolitan. It's an exquisite blend of elegant glamour, serious art/design, and sybaritic decadence. The decor and design is glamorous and Vegas-y, but done with real artistry and care, and with a sense of both playfulness and magnificence. (We especially loved the moving, changing, 3-D art installations in the lobby. Triple especially the ones inspired by 18th century botanical drawings, and the ones that looked like naked people trapped inside the columns.) And the food and cocktails were to die for. (Jaleo was particularly delightful, and not outrageously expensive. And I loved that the room service breakfast menu had the cocktail list right at the top... and that their cereal list included Captain Crunch.) We could have spent days in Las Vegas without leaving the hotel, and been perfectly happy. The next time we visit Vegas, we might do exactly that. No white kittens or human furniture like the ads promised... but we were not disappointed. We are so coming back.

Best Thing About Las Vegas #2: The Erotic Heritage Museum. I plan to write a whole lot more about this place in a later post. For now, I just want to say this: I absolutely loved how seamlessly and shamelessly the museum blends the sex education elements, the historical/ political elements, and the porny porny porn porn. There was no sense that the arousing elements of sex culture should be hidden, or excused, or treated any differently from the educational and political and supposedly loftier elements. And I got to meet Veronica Hart! Who works at the museum, and was greeting guests and running the cash register and generally running the place. (I would like to point out that when I met Richard Dawkins, I was able to keep my cool at least somewhat and say, "It's a pleasure to meet you"... but when I met Veronica Hart, I totally lost my shit and gushed, "Oh my god! You're Veronica Hart! It's such an honor!")

Best Thing About Las Vegas #3: The dirty Cirque du Soleil show. This was rather a mixed bag, truth to tell: the show was a mix of acrobatics and comedy/ clowning, and the comedy was obnoxiously, aggressively, cringingly bad, to the point of being nearly unbearable. But the acrobatics were freaking beautiful, and very hot indeed. Every time I've seen Cirque du Soleil, I've found it highly erotic, and I've always wanted them to take the obviously erotic elements of the show and just run with them. Their "Zumanity" show does exactly that -- and it runs to a very good place indeed. There was a certain cheese factor, but it was mostly kept to a minimum (except for the vile comedy), and the cheese was eclipsed by the blend of acrobatic proficiency, visual artistry, and polymorphous perversity. I mean, come on. Half-naked lesbian acrobatics in a giant fishbowl of water. What's not to like?

Best Thing About Las Vegas #4: Jabbawockeez. These are the hip-hop dance crew who won America's Best Dance Crew the first year. They have their own Vegas show now, and when Ingrid and I found that out, we immediately put it on our list of Vegas Shows We Absolutely Had To See, Even Though It Made Our Vegas Schedule Ridiculously Overbooked. Awesome. A bit higher on the cheese factor than I might have liked -- to be expected in Vegas, I suppose -- and not quite the apotheosis of the art form's potential that I'd hoped for. (I gas on a lot about how hip-hop dancing is the great new American art form, and I don't think the show at the Monte Carlo quite lives up to that gassing.) But it was still an awfully good time, with much that was clever and inventive, and many jaw-dropping feats of power and agility, and plenty of high points indeed.

Best Thing About Las Vegas #5: Coming home. I had a ball, both at TAM and in Vegas afterwards. But I am overloaded on shiny surfaces and bright lights, and I'm thrilled to be back home, in my matte- finish San Francisco neighborhood. (Ingrid is amused, btw, by my use of the word "matte" to mean "dirty and scruffy.")

So I'm home. Home! And this is my room. And you're all here. And I'm not going to leave here ever, ever again. Until a week from now, when I head to the Secular Student Alliance Annual Conference. Which I fully expect to rock every bit as hard as TAM, if not harder. Hope to see you there!

July 22, 2011 in Atheism, Philosophy/ Life, Skepticism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (29)

Save the Students!

"For just a dollar a day, you can help guarantee these students' spiritual emptiness for years to come."

Hi-larious -- excuse me, heartbreaking, poignant, deeply touching -- video from the Secular Student Alliance, riffing off the "You can save little Sheila, or you can turn the page" motif. Hear all about the desperately needy secular students, "many of them in reason- deprived areas of the world, like the United States." Watch them try to keep straight faces. And see me and PZ Myers jump joyfully in the air!

Video below the jump, since putting it above the jump mucks up my archives.

Continue reading "Save the Students!" »

June 29, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (5)

Upcomng Events: Atheists at SF Pride Parade, and Greta speaking at TAM and SSA Conference

Hi, all! I'm going to be at some upcoming events that I thought you might want to know about.

I'm marching with the atheist contingent in this Sunday's LGBT Pride Parade in San Francisco.

I'm going to be speaking at The Amazing Meeting -- along with Neil deGrasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Carol Tavris, Adam Savage, Eugenie Scott, Bill Nye, PZ Myers, Michael Shermer, Jennifer McCreight, Debbie Goddard, Jamila Bey, Hemant Mehta, James Randi (of course), and a bunch of other skeptical all-stars.

And I'm going to be speaking at the Secular Student Alliance annual conference -- along with PZ Myers, Dan Barker, Jessica Ahlquist, Jennifer McCreight, David Silverman, Jamila Bey, Hemant Mehta, Amanda Knief, Debbie Goddard, and more totally awesome atheist speakers. Plus there'll be a game room all day Friday... and this conference is where I will be popping my karaoke cherry, as promised when Team Awesome beat PZ Myers in the Camp Quest fundraising challenge.

Here are the details for all three events. Hope to see some of you there!

EVENT: Atheist Contingent at the San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade
DATE: Sunday, Jun 26, 2011
TIME: Meeting at 10:30 am
LOCATION: We're gathering at Assembly Area K on Beale between Mission & Howard in San Francisco. Look for the banners: Atheist Advocates of SF, SF Atheists and East Bay Atheists. Please allow time to deal with walking from the BART Embarcadero Station, etc. There will be no nearby parking.
NOTE: If you're planning to go, it'd be good if you could RSVP through the Meetup event, so the organizers have an idea of how many marchers to expect. It's not absolutely necessary, though -- you can just show up!
ANOTHER NOTE: Be sure to bring water and sunscreen. We'll be outside in the sun for a long time.
STILL ANOTHER NOTE: You don't have to be LGBT to be part of this contingent! Straight allies are welcomed and indeed encouraged. I, for one, would love for the queer community to see a bunch of atheists with signs saying things like, "Straight Atheists Support Gay Rights."
ONE MORE NOTE: If you're not in the Bay Area, there might be an atheist contingent in your local Pride Parade! Check with your local atheist group or Pride Parade organizers.

EVENT: The Amazing Meeting
DATES: July 14-17, 2011
DATE AND TIME OF MY PRESENTATION: Sunday, July 17, 2011, 2:15 – 3:15 pm
LOCATION: Southpoint Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, NV
TOPIC: Diversity in Skepticism -- panel discussion with Greta Christina , D. J. Grothe, Debbie Goddard, Jamila Bey and Hemant Mehta; moderated by Desiree Schell
COST: See convention website for details

EVENT: Secular Student Alliance annual conference
DATES: July 29-31, 2011
DATE AND TIME OF MY PRESENTATION: Saturday, July 30, 8:30 pm - 9:00 pm
LOCATION: Hitchcock Hall, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
TOPIC: Resistance Is Not Futile: Why Arguing About Religion Is Not A Waste of Time
SUMMARY: Many atheists think that trying to persuade people out of religion never works, and simply alienates people. But debating believers about their beliefs can be effective -- in changing people's minds about religion, as well as in achieving other goals of the atheist community. When does it makes sense to debate about religion? How should we go about it? And what should our expectations be for what these debates can accomplish?
COST: See convention website for details. But a lot cheaper than you'd think -- and they have travel grants available, group rates for groups of students coming from the same school, and cheap dorm housing. They really want students to come, and want to make it as east as possible. So come!

June 23, 2011 in Atheism, Queer/Bi, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (4)

TEAM AWESOME IS VICTORIOUS!

We are the champions, my friend
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end...

The scrappy underdogs have won it!

In the epic battle to raise more money for Camp Quest -- the kids' camp for children of atheists, freethinkers, humanists, and other non-supernaturalists -- Team Awesome/ Beat PZ -- made up of me, Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist, Jen McCreight of Blag Hag, JT Eberhard of WWJTD?, Digital Cuttlefish at The Digital Cuttlefish, Sikivu Hutchinson at Black Skeptics Group, Adam Lee at Daylight Atheism, The Chaplain at An Apostate's Chapel, C.L. Hanson at Letters From a Broad, and Matt Dillahunty at The Atheist Experience -- has raised $13,550.06. $1,868.73 of which was matched by the Stiefel Freethought Foundation. For a total of $15,418.79.

And PZ Myers at Pharyngula, Lone Squidly Overlord, has raised a paltry $13,016.01. $1,640.00 of which was matched by the Stiefel Freethought Foundation. For a total of $14,656.01.

Raising -- just so we don't lose sight of the actual point of all this -- a grand total between all of us of $30,074.80 for Camp Quest, the kids' camp for children of atheists, freethinkers, humanists, and other non-supernaturalists.

WE ARE VICTORIOUS!

Yes, yes, I know. PZ tried to play us. In a pathetic attempt to save face, with the prospect of humiliating defeat bearing down on him, PZ tried to throw the match -- asking his minions to support our team instead of his, and pretending that Team Awesome's noble offer to make fools of ourselves in public was his master plan all along. Yeah, right. Nice try. Kind of sad, really.

So yes. Ahem. Re that "making fools of ourselves in public" bit.

[looks around frantically for an exit]

Yes, I'm on it. At the Secular Student Alliance conference in July, I will take to the karaoke stage, and pop my karaoke cherry. I will post the video, on this blog and on Facebook. I will do a solo -- no, I don't yet know what song -- AND I encourage any and all members of Team Awesome who are at the conference to join me on stage for a stirring rendition of "We Are The Champions." PZ is speaking at the conference as well, and if he's ~~man~~ squid enough, he'll attend the Karaoke Victory Ritual as well, and suck up his defeat in person.

Altruism is so much fun. Many, many thanks to everyone who played. Thanks to everyone on Team Awesome. Thanks to the Stiefel Freethought Foundation. Thanks, even, to our worthy opponent PZ Myers, who made this an epic and hilarious battle. And most of all -- thanks to everyone who donated to Camp Quest. For either team. This is a truly worthy cause, and we've improved the lives of a whole bunch of freethought families. If godlessness really means that we have no moral compass and can just do whatever we want to do, then apparently what we want to do is help other people.

And because I can't finish this on a sappy note, I'm going to finish with a stirring round of rubbing it in.

We are the champions
We are the champions,
No time for losers
'Cause we are the champions
Of the WOOOOORLD!

June 01, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (4)

Camp Quest Fundraising Contest - Matching Offer for the Final Hours!

The Camp Quest Fundraising Contest is in its final hours -- it ends at 2pm Eastern time today -- and an amazingly awesome monkey wrench has just been thrown into the works.

The Stiefel Freethought Foundation has just pledged a 1 to 1 match of up to $5,000 per team for the last 3 hours of the contest!

The Stiefel Freethought Foundation is a a 501(c)3 non-profit private foundation that provides financial support and volunteer strategy consulting to the Freethought Movement. And if you donate to the Camp Quest Fundraising Contest -- to either side, either to Team Awesome/ Beat PZ or to Beat PZ -- your donation will be doubled by the foundation. Everything above $11,681.33 for Beat PZ and $11,376.01 for Team PZ will be matched, up to $5,000 per team.

But you have to do it NOW. You have only a few hours. So donate to Camp Quest now! Donate through Team Awesome if you like scrappy underdogs. Donate through Team PZ if you like conniving cephalopods. I don't even care. At this point, I've actually lost track of the complex, Machiavellian, "if we win, PZ wins, but if PZ loses, then we lose, unless we also win, in which case we really win" machinations. (Although I still want you to support Team Awesome/ Beat PZ. And I still say that if we win, then we win, and PZ's efforts to throw the fight were simply a sad attempt to save face in the view of almost certain defeat.)

In case you haven't been following the saga, here -- quickly copied and pasted from my last post about it, so I can get this up in time -- are the details. Donate NOW -- and get your donation doubled!

*

I am prepared to publicly humiliate myself for atheism.

And so are Matt Dillahunty, Adam Lee, JT Eberhard, and Jen McCreight.

One-time offer. Take it or leave it.

Here's the deal. There's the blogger contest I've been gassing on about, a competition to see who can raise more money for Camp Quest, the kids' camp for children of atheists, freethinkers, humanists, and other non-supernaturalists. The contest is between Team Awesome on one side -- a bunch of scrappy underdog atheist bloggers, with me, Hemant Mehta of Friendly Atheist, Jen McCreight of Blag Hag, JT Eberhard of WWJTD?, Digital Cuttlefish at The Digital Cuttlefish, Sikivu Hutchinson at Black Skeptics Group, Adam Lee at Daylight Atheism, The Chaplain at An Apostate's Chapel, C.L. Hanson at Letters From a Broad, and Matt Dillahunty at The Atheist Experience -- and on the opposing team, PZ Myers, evil cephalopod overlord at Pharyngula, all by his lonesome on the other side.

You may have noticed that there are more players on Team Awesome than had been originally announced. That's because we are amoral atheists.We took a page from the religious apologists' handbook, moved the goalposts, and frantically rounded up a bunch of other atheist bloggers to battle for our side.

And yet, as of this writing, PZ is... what's that word?... winning. Not by much -- we're closing in, and have narrowed the gap to less than $2,000 -- but we only have a few days to finish the job. If we don't raise more money for Camp Quest by June 1, PZ will officially pwn each and every one of us.

We can't let that happen. Well, okay, we can... but we really, really don't want to.

So a few of us have agreed to make fools of ourselves in public for the cause. If Team Awesome wins, the following bloggers will make the following absurd public gestures:

* Since PZ Myers has offered to shave his beard into a hideous '80s mustache if he wins -- and really, you should donate to our side for that reason alone -- Adam Lee at Daylight Atheism has agreed to grow a beard if Team Awesome wins. Thus preserving Atheist Blogger Beard Homeostasis, and preventing the world as we know it from collapsing into some sort of hideous beardly space-time nexus.

* Matt Dillahunty at The Atheist Experience TV program will do one episode of the show in drag.

* JT Eberhard of WWJTD? will shave his head... and wax his legs.

* Jen McCreight at Blag Hag will attempt to learn how to ride a bicycle, and, in her words, "videotape the whole inevitably hilarious experience."

* C.L. Hanson at Letters from a Broad will organize a showtunes sing-along.

And what will Greta Christina do? I hear you cry.

* Greta Christina -- she said, with a quiver of dread in her voice -- will do karaoke.

Let me be very clear about this: I have never done karaoke. I have never wanted to do karaoke. I am a karaoke virgin.

But if Team Awesome wins the Camp Quest fundraising challenge, I will pop my karaoke cherry.

And I will get it on video, and post the video to this blog and to my Facebook page.

You can't pass that up, can you?

You have until June 1. Here's the ChipIn widget. Make it so!

Oh, right. The actual cause we're raising money for. You probably want to know a little more about that, don't you?

If you're not familiar with them, Camp Quest is the first residential summer camp in the history of the United States aimed at the children of Atheists, Freethinkers, Humanists, Brights, or whatever other terms might be applied to those who hold to a naturalistic, not supernatural world view. The purpose of Camp Quest is to provide children of freethinking parents a residential summer camp dedicated to improving the human condition through rational inquiry, critical and creative thinking, scientific method, self-respect, ethics, competency, democracy, free speech, and the separation of religion and government.

The nontheist community offers many programs for adults, but very few for children. To provide a future for our values we need to provide freethinking families with a place for their kids to find community, develop critical thinking skills, and learn ethics and values. Fortunately, that is what Camp Quest is all about. Well, that, and all of the summer camp fun that you can pack into a week.

Camp Quest builds a community for children and teenagers from atheist, agnostic, humanist and other freethinking families. They provide campers a place to explore their developing worldviews, ask questions, and make friends in an environment supportive of critical thinking and skepticism. Camp Quest is open to campers from all backgrounds. They encourage campers to think for themselves, be comfortable with who they are, and engage respectfully with people who have different views.

And yes, Camp Quest is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, and donations are tax deductible.

You can help support this awesome cause, strengthen the future of the atheist community... and help stave off the crushing arms of PZ's cephalopod army! Just click on the handy Chipin widget. That number again:

How can you pass this up? Get that jolt of good altruism chemicals in your brain... and get the entertainment value of seeing your favorite atheist bloggers make public spectacles of themselves! It's win-win!

June 01, 2011 in Atheism, Writing news | Permalink | Comments (0)

Supporting Camp Quest and Crushing PZ Myers -- The Last Ditch

UPDATE: Jen McCreight at Blag Hag is throwing her hat into the "make a public spectacle of one's self for this cause" ring. If Team Awesome wins this contest, she will attempt to learn how to ride a bicycle, and, in her words, "videotape the whole inevitably hilarious experience." Come on, folks. There is no way you can pass this up.

*

I am prepared to publicly humiliate myself for atheism.

And so are Matt Dillahunty, Adam Lee, and JT Eberhard.