May 312013
 

This month we will hear from SEA attendee Jean Bodie about The Stephen Lewis Foundation (SLF), which works with community-level organizations which are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa by providing care and support to women, orphaned children, grandmothers and people living with HIV and AIDS. Since 2003, the foundation has funded over 700 initiatives, partnering with 300 community-based organizations in the 15 African countries hardest hit by the pandemic. Find out what Stephen Lewis’s Foundation (he’s an atheist) is doing about this, what a Canadian group called “The Grandmother to Grandmother Campaign” is doing, and what we can do to help!

http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS_in_Africa

http://www.dosomething.org/


Tuesday June 4th, 7pm start

Stanley A Milner Library, 7 Sir Winston Churchill Square, Edmonton, Alberta

This event will be in room five on the sixth floor

 Posted by at 2:12 PM
May 282013
 

Join us this Thursday for some interesting fun, it’s Jamaoke night at Kelly’s Pub downtown.

So, what on earth is Jamaoke?   You’ve heard of Karaoke before right?  You get up and sing your favourite songs while backing music plays…well Jamaoke removes the karaoke machine and puts a live band behind you!

Not into singing? No problem!

The SEA’s own Vice President loves singing and has a song lined up for you already.

Join us for some drinks and some fun

Kelly’s Pub Downtown
10156 – 104 Street, Edmonton

Thursday May 30th  –  8:00pm

 Posted by at 10:54 AM
May 202013
 

Just a reminder of our new Toonie and a Tin program.  At round table events we’re asking you to bring a tin for the Food bank and/or donate a Toonie towards the Society’s running costs.    These donations are optional.

Currently the food bank is in need of the following non-perishable items (you can find the list, which is kept up to date, on their website)

Most Needed Items

◆ Beans with or without pork
◆ Canned fish or meat ◆ Baby formula
◆ Peanut butter ◆ Soup ◆ Canned fruit or
vegetables ◆ Pasta & pasta sauce ◆ Juice
boxes ◆ School Snacks

Thanks for your support with these efforts! 

May 142013
 


Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

~ John Lennon ~

A group of SEA members are heading over to Kamloops this weekend to attend the 3rd annual conference hosted by the Kamloops Center for Rational Thought.  Speakers include Daniel Dennett, Richard Carrier, Internet sensation Mr. Deity, and many others.

Past conferences have seen sessions on critical thinking, the existence of Jesus, as well as morality without god(s) and the sciences behind why people believe in gods. This years line up sets the stage for a great weekend of learning, discussion and debate.

If you are interested in joining us there are a few tickets left, simply go to their site to register.  The car pool leaves Friday morning and arrives back in Edmonton on Monday night.  Please contact us if you would like to inquire about a space.

 Posted by at 12:54 PM
May 102013
 

”Geologic”, as it’s known, touched down in Edmonton on May 1st,  hosted by the Society of Edmonton Atheists.   Plenty of laughter resounded while George entertained us with songs like ‘‘When I was Your Age”  and ‘‘Everything Will Die Someday”, and skits about alien visits and crop circles.   The event, which was held at Expressionz Cafe, was an wonderfully intimate affair, allowing attendees the chance to mingle with George Hrab and have their cd’s signed.    A small house after party allowed even more discussion and antics.         What fun!

If you missed the show, you can still get a cd or upload directly to your Itunes via the CDbaby site.   And don’t forget to check out George’s podcast which happens every Thursday.

Thanks so much for making the night entertaining George, it was an amazing show, we hope to enjoy your company in the near future!

*photo credit to Rodrigo

May 092013
 

The Society of Edmonton Atheists (SEA) Book Club is entering its fourth month. To date we have dispatched: Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, Carl Sagan’s The Demon-haunted World and Christopher Hitchens’ God is not Great. We are currently raking over Daniel Dennett’s Breaking the Spell.

 

As we hit upon a strategy of covering the classics of New Atheism’s four horsemen – Sam Harris’s The End of Faith is next up.

(An awareness of the New Atheist literary phenom as a socio-historic product is emerging. Exactly where this trail leads no one knows.)

Harris’s opus will be followed by: Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali and A Universe from Nothing by the fifth horsemen, Lawrence Krauss.

(Books are chosen by an ad hoc consensus process.)

The format to date has been to divide the books into halves. The SEA Book Club then meets every second Sunday to discuss each half of the text. Deploying this method we conquer one tome per month.

Working through a book collectively and publically is far superior to skimming a book in private. SEA Book Club members benefit from each other’s perspectives and knowledge. The discussion involves a chapter by chapter review which is a valuable aid to memory. Differences of opinion emerge during the discussions and the friction generates as much light as heat.

A longer term perspective is useful. If the SEA Book Club holds to its present course then within a year of so we will have imbibed all the “must reads” of contemporary atheism.

The goal is not to become au courant atheist snobs (although this is a likely by-product). The goal is to keep abreast the latest, most effective atheist thinking. The goal is to complete the mandatory reading list which constitutes the price of admission into the arenas where atheists grapple for leadership. An unavoidable and well-grounded rule in such venues has always been: “those who do not study, neither shall they speak.”

A person’s joining of the Society of Edmonton Atheists is a physical declaration that they are no longer willing to be an isolate. Becoming a public atheist implies a commitment to an activist cause. While this activism may take many forms, discussion with, and persuasion of, members and non-members will be an omnipresent component. Joining the SEA Book Club manifests a further commitment to “fill one’s boots” so that when engaging in the debates of the modern atheist melee one occupies the vantage point of the well-informed.

The next two SEA Book Club meetings are Sunday May 12 and Sunday May 26 (7:00 to 9:00 PM) at the Second Cup 9236, Oliver Square 11640 – 104th Ave. The topic will be Dennett’s Breaking the Spell.

The mother-ship is leaving. Don’t be left behind.

–written by S.E.A. book club member–

 

May 082013
 

Since 1987, thousands of city residents have scoured Edmonton’s parks system as well as the shoreline of the North Saskatchewan River to pick up litter.

This year the River Valley Clean up project was on May 5th from Louise McKinney Park.  Four S.E.A. volunteers were out sporting fancy gloves and litter grabbers, spending two hours ”putting litter in it’s place” while enjoying a bit of sun at the same time.   The Edmonton River Valley area, and all of us that enjoy that part of the city, thank you!

 Posted by at 12:55 PM