“The Humanity of Atheism”; Minneapolis, MN
| March 21, 2010 | ||
| 6:30 pm | to | 8:30 pm |
Minnesota Atheists president August Berkshire will speak on “The Humanity of Atheism” at the First Unitarian Society, 900 Mount Curve Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55403. Sponsored by The Humanist Center. Free and open to the public.
“The Humanity of Atheism”: Which is better: friendly atheism that seeks conversation and respect or ridiculing atheism that seeks to jar people out of their complacency and into activism? Shouldn’t we treat religious people the way we wish to be treated? What can be done to incorporate more humanism into the atheist movement?
Program format:
6:30 – 7:00 p.m. – Gathering time and conversation
7:00 – 8:00 p.m. – Presentation
8:00 – 8:30 p.m. – Q & A
8:30 p.m. – Adjourn
Review of my debate with Joe Boot at St. Cloud State University
August Berkshire (third from left) enjoys a post-debate meal at Perkins with students from SSA at SCSU on Feb. 24, 2010.
Benjamin Seghers has a nice review of my recent debate with Christian apologist Joe Boot at St. Cloud State University at his SCSU Intellectuals blog. The topic of the debate was the existence of God. Apparently I did pretty good:
Who had the stronger arguments? Me being a member of SSA, I’m naturally inclined to say Mr. Berkshire did, just as I’m sure most of the Christians in the crowd would say Mr. Boot did. Did anyone in the crowd change their mind? I don’t know, maybe a few (as I said, there was no polling to objectively gauge this). For those coming in unsure, I hope either debater helped clarify the positions so that informed and educated decisions could made. I very much enjoyed the debate. It was great to hear from Mr. Boot a new perspective that I had not heard before. Mr. Berkshire also brought interesting arguments that I also had not heard before, which helped me solidify my beliefs. I do have to admit though, one my favorite quotes from the whole thing was from Mr. Berkshire: “According to Christian theology, God sacrificed himself to himself to save us from himself.”
According to Benjamin, there were close to 1,000 people attending. Wow! Who knew so many people were interested in examining this question? Well, us atheists of course, but I think many more people have doubts about God than we’re given to believe by what we see in the media. Read Benjamin’s full review here.