Religious people often ask where morals could possibly come from if there were no gods (or more often if their god wasn’t real). This video is not a complete explanation, but it should be enough to make more open-minded believers take another look at the issue of what morality is and where it comes from.
| February 28, 2009 | ||
| 3:30 pm | to | 5:00 pm |
In addition to the table we will have at the Local to Global Teach-in at ASU this weekend, our friend Ezra Niesen will be conducting a workshop titled Planetary Biology and the Anti-Capitalist Revolution.
I’ll let him explain it to you:
Scientists have been hard at work studying global environmental unsustainability for 40 years, which includes the evolutionary origins of human psychology (www.clubofrome.org, www.clubofbudapest.org). The War on Terror, the war in Iraq, the greenhouse effect, the immigration crisis, and the energy crisis are all various effects of humanity’s over-exploitation of the environment. 15 years ago, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, a global revolution against America’s economic imperialism began, which no one ever talks about in the commercial media in America (chiapas.indymedia.org, www.indymedia.org). The scientists who discovered global unsustainability have been saying from the very beginning that if global environmental disaster in the 21st century is going to be prevented, radical social change is necessary. Now the War on Terror is being used to equate radical social change with terrorism. Now environmental activists are being accused of terrorism, including 8 organizers of the protests at the Republican National Convention last fall against the Republicans’ complete disregard for environmental science (rnc8.org). The biggest reason these problems aren’t getting solved is because so many powerful people are spreading so much disinformation about science to mislead the public. Even President Obama promised to violate the Laws of Thermodynamics in his inaugural address. This is a crash course on pivotal discoveries that have been made and how to reclaim the future by reclaiming the public education system. An accurate understanding of how the world works is the rightful property of everyone.
Oh, and did I mention that there will be punch and pie? Okay, maybe not punch and pie, but there will be some type of free food at the event, so come out and see us if you can. It will be fun, and most importantly educational!
| February 28, 2009 | ||
| 8:30 am | to | 6:00 pm |
| March 1, 2009 | ||
| 8:30 am | to | 6:00 pm |
Since 2001, Local to Global Justice has held annual community education events at ASU, and this year we will be participating.
By “community education” I mean that it is not a series of lectures all given by professors and professionals, it is an event where we can all learn from each other. There will be presentations by many people of different backgrounds, both the highly educated and laypeople, on many different subjects.
The theme for the teach-in this year is “Reclaim the Commons!” This includes everything from natural resources and spaces to “intellectual property” and creative expression.
Better Than Faith will have a table at the event, and we should be there all day Saturday and Sunday. We will be happy to talk to people about anything, so come out and see us!
| February 7, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 pm | ||
| February 14, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 pm | ||
| February 21, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 pm | ||
| February 28, 2009 | ||
| 8:00 pm |
Last month was a crazy one. We had a preacher here from New York with his teenage son, one from South Africa, an American preacher who lives in Scotland, and even the infamous Westboro Baptist Church from Kansas, all here to tell us how horrible and worthless we are and how we need their god to save us (which he may or may not decide to do, even if we want it).
Last Saturday though, it was back down to the local preachers again, and they went back to what they had been doing recently, which is apparently trying to bore us to death. At some point they did start preaching, but once we came down to where they were it was short lived. At least we managed to get some conversation out of them off the mic, which is rare with most of them, and that provided some interesting insights into their thinking.
We also ran into a Muslim who pretended to be a Catholic, but when he didn’t know about transubstantiation (the idea that the bread and wine actually turn into the body and blood of Jesus in your mouth), his cover was blown and he eventually admitted he was a Muslim. Fortunately he was talking to a SFTS member who used to be a Muslim and is well versed in their religion. We some other interesting conversations, and we are looking for ways to make sure that we have even more of them in the future.
I’m not sure yet exactly what this month will be like, but even if it is slow we’re doing something important, and I believe that we are still having an overall positive effect, so I hope we continue to get good turnouts on our side.