Global Atheist Convention 2012
This convention was in mid-April, but I was so distracted by the House final arc after I got home that I never got around to posting about it. Now I'm trying to clean off my desk in preparation for the end of the financial year and I want to put my notes away.
The organisation, by a volunteer committee for an event attracting 4,000 people, was virtually perfect. Every session started and ended exactly on time and the food was excellent and plentiful (there may be other aspects of good organisation, but those are the ones that really matter to me).
The Friday night comedians included Ben Elton (who said he has no problem with faith, but "Don't try to tell me what [insert god of choice] thinks because you cannot possibly have any fucking idea") and Stella Young, a 2 1/2 foot tall disability advocate, who told an hysterical story that had nothing to do with atheism about not being allowed to take a piece of her wheelchair on a plane ("To hijack the plane, I'd first have to crawl up the aisle. I'd arrive dehydrated and exhausted - and I couldn't do it at all on a Melbourne-Sydney flight, since I'd need longer than that - then have to ask someone to lift me up so I could use this piece of mobility equipment to concuss the captain.")
Notes from some of the serious speakers:
Peter Singer talked about the civilising effect of reason. About 15% of prehistoric humans met a violent death at the hands of another person. The Aztecs had the most violent state, in which 5% met a violent death. Even the most lauded "peaceful, nomadic tribes" have murder rates comparable to those of Detroit. This century is the most peaceful ever.
Racism is innate: 3 month old babies are more likely to smile at people of the race they're used to seeing.
Leslie Cannold talked about Vashti McCollum, the US woman who took the Board of Education to court in 1945 to get religion out of US public schools, leading to the 1948 Supreme Court decision in her favour.
The Australian High Court ruled in the Defence of Government Schools case in 1981 that the Australian constitution cannot be interpreted to mean that there is a separation of church and state. Cannold calls Australia a "soft theocracy", quoting public funding of events like the Catholic World Youth Day and canonisation of Mary McKillop, tax breaks for churches, public funding of religious schools, and scripture classes and chaplains in public schools.
Dan Barker, a former minister, talked about The Clergy Project for clergy members who have decided they no longer believe in God. It's not an easy job to leave, since you tend to lose most of your friends and family, become ostracised in your community and likely have no other marketable skills.
He said "The good news is that there's no purpose in life, since if there was, we would be subservient to it" and quoted Nietzsche: "Faith is not wanting to know what is true."
Marion Maddox (a churchgoer) said that some private schools get 87% of their funding from government, and some government schools get only 83%! Some of these private schools have the stated aim of creating "Soldiers of the Lord".
Dick Gross pointed out that the Australian Christian Lobby is extremely good at advocacy but doesn't represent mainstream Christian views. Something like 50% of Christians are not against homosexuality (this seems low?), and 80% are not against abortion or euthanasia (seems high?).
He would like to see reform of the census question on religion, which currently asks "What is your religion?", with the box for "None" at the bottom of the list. A better question would be "Do you have a religion?", yes or no, then pick one if yes.
Daniel Dennett Did you know that polar bears do not run wild in Florida? That jet fuel is unpalatable? Nobody ever told you those things, you simply know enough to know that they are true. Gentle exposure to facts arms children against propaganda.
He would like to see the "God myth" become like Santa Claus and talked about the importance of humour in making that happen.
AC Grayling said that religion has an over-amplified voice in public debate and needs to be brought back into proper perspective. He noted that only 10% of UK residents are regular churchgoers of any religion.
Children are gullible for excellent evolutionary reasons and shouldn't be indoctrinated.
Lawrence Krauss, a cosmologist who wrote "The Physics of Star Trek", talked about how the universe could have arisen from nothing and why it will go back to nothing. His 2009 YouTube lecture on the topic, with 1.4 million views
"You are insignificant and the future is miserable, so celebrate now."
Geoffrey Robertson QC criticised the very young age of confirmation for Catholics of 7 (with a current campaign to lower it to 5) vs 12-14 for Jews and Anglicans.
Talked about the difficulty of getting tax exemption for Human Rights Watch, when tax exemptions are a given for religions.
Under Sharia Law, atheism is punishable by death for men and life imprisonment for women. In Saudia Arabia, you have three days to repent or be executed.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali criticised secular liberals in the West for not helping Muslim women, due to "romantic primitivism", white guilt and unwillingness to tackle Islam.
Richard Dawkins said that religion has hijacked morality for centuries and talked about the moral zeitgeist: you get your morals overwhelmingly from time in which you live, not your religion. People at the vanguard in the 19th century would be considered reactionary and racist today.
Eugenie Scott, director of the US National Center for Science Education, gave a really interesting talk about Creationist science. Apparently there is such a thing, with actual research being performed, but it ignores much of the evidence (such as research showing the Grand Canyon was created in the one-year Genesis flood, which makes some sense if you look only at the reptiles but not if you also look at the hoofprints and scorpions). Creationist science is better science than intelligent design, which is no science at all.
Teachers have a tendency to skip evolution since they meet resistance from some students and don't understand it well enough to be confident.
Sam Harris spoke on "Death and the Present Moment". I loved the first half of this talk and really didn't like the second half.
The denial of death is central to religion. "Most people, most of the time, are desperate to believe ridiculous and divisive ideas for patently emotional reasons. And while rarely explicit, what they're really worried about is death." Atheism offers no consolation in the face of death.
He made me feel better about living in a world where religion is still so prevalent by pointing out that we have "barely emerged from centuries of barbarism".
Faith can be an excuse for people not to connect with others' suffering and grief ("gone to a better place", etc) and to explain inequities.
Science, art and philosophy fill the void left by religion; atheism clears a space for those better conversations.
He then went on to talk about mindfulness meditation and took the audience through some meditation exercises, which I thought was a very effective way to get himself out of giving a full-length talk.
PZ Myers Not a fan of moderately religious people: "I will concede that you are doing much less direct harm, and I will thank you for your support of shared causes, and I will also happily work alongside you in those causes, but I also think you are still doing indirect harm to foundational principles of a rational society."
The final session was a panel with Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hirsi Ali. Hirsi Ali said she couldn't understand Western women who converted to Islam; Harris said that he could understand it, since it offers simplicity and shelter from issues like appearance and careers. Dawkins said it was hard to imagine terrorism without indoctrination as children; Harris said most terrorists come from only moderately religious families and convert to more fanatical versions as teenagers. Dennett mentioned the benefits of exporting to Islamic countries seemingly innocuous Western ideas like the Nancy Drew novels that had positively affected Hirsi Ali.
Obviously they all said a great deal more than this - I just jotted down things that particularly resonated with me. Some of the talks are on YouTube.
My 2010 convention report
The organisation, by a volunteer committee for an event attracting 4,000 people, was virtually perfect. Every session started and ended exactly on time and the food was excellent and plentiful (there may be other aspects of good organisation, but those are the ones that really matter to me).
The Friday night comedians included Ben Elton (who said he has no problem with faith, but "Don't try to tell me what [insert god of choice] thinks because you cannot possibly have any fucking idea") and Stella Young, a 2 1/2 foot tall disability advocate, who told an hysterical story that had nothing to do with atheism about not being allowed to take a piece of her wheelchair on a plane ("To hijack the plane, I'd first have to crawl up the aisle. I'd arrive dehydrated and exhausted - and I couldn't do it at all on a Melbourne-Sydney flight, since I'd need longer than that - then have to ask someone to lift me up so I could use this piece of mobility equipment to concuss the captain.")
Notes from some of the serious speakers:
Peter Singer talked about the civilising effect of reason. About 15% of prehistoric humans met a violent death at the hands of another person. The Aztecs had the most violent state, in which 5% met a violent death. Even the most lauded "peaceful, nomadic tribes" have murder rates comparable to those of Detroit. This century is the most peaceful ever.
Racism is innate: 3 month old babies are more likely to smile at people of the race they're used to seeing.
Leslie Cannold talked about Vashti McCollum, the US woman who took the Board of Education to court in 1945 to get religion out of US public schools, leading to the 1948 Supreme Court decision in her favour.
The Australian High Court ruled in the Defence of Government Schools case in 1981 that the Australian constitution cannot be interpreted to mean that there is a separation of church and state. Cannold calls Australia a "soft theocracy", quoting public funding of events like the Catholic World Youth Day and canonisation of Mary McKillop, tax breaks for churches, public funding of religious schools, and scripture classes and chaplains in public schools.
Dan Barker, a former minister, talked about The Clergy Project for clergy members who have decided they no longer believe in God. It's not an easy job to leave, since you tend to lose most of your friends and family, become ostracised in your community and likely have no other marketable skills.
He said "The good news is that there's no purpose in life, since if there was, we would be subservient to it" and quoted Nietzsche: "Faith is not wanting to know what is true."
Marion Maddox (a churchgoer) said that some private schools get 87% of their funding from government, and some government schools get only 83%! Some of these private schools have the stated aim of creating "Soldiers of the Lord".
Dick Gross pointed out that the Australian Christian Lobby is extremely good at advocacy but doesn't represent mainstream Christian views. Something like 50% of Christians are not against homosexuality (this seems low?), and 80% are not against abortion or euthanasia (seems high?).
He would like to see reform of the census question on religion, which currently asks "What is your religion?", with the box for "None" at the bottom of the list. A better question would be "Do you have a religion?", yes or no, then pick one if yes.
Daniel Dennett Did you know that polar bears do not run wild in Florida? That jet fuel is unpalatable? Nobody ever told you those things, you simply know enough to know that they are true. Gentle exposure to facts arms children against propaganda.
He would like to see the "God myth" become like Santa Claus and talked about the importance of humour in making that happen.
AC Grayling said that religion has an over-amplified voice in public debate and needs to be brought back into proper perspective. He noted that only 10% of UK residents are regular churchgoers of any religion.
Children are gullible for excellent evolutionary reasons and shouldn't be indoctrinated.
Lawrence Krauss, a cosmologist who wrote "The Physics of Star Trek", talked about how the universe could have arisen from nothing and why it will go back to nothing. His 2009 YouTube lecture on the topic, with 1.4 million views
"You are insignificant and the future is miserable, so celebrate now."
Geoffrey Robertson QC criticised the very young age of confirmation for Catholics of 7 (with a current campaign to lower it to 5) vs 12-14 for Jews and Anglicans.
Talked about the difficulty of getting tax exemption for Human Rights Watch, when tax exemptions are a given for religions.
Under Sharia Law, atheism is punishable by death for men and life imprisonment for women. In Saudia Arabia, you have three days to repent or be executed.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali criticised secular liberals in the West for not helping Muslim women, due to "romantic primitivism", white guilt and unwillingness to tackle Islam.
Richard Dawkins said that religion has hijacked morality for centuries and talked about the moral zeitgeist: you get your morals overwhelmingly from time in which you live, not your religion. People at the vanguard in the 19th century would be considered reactionary and racist today.
Eugenie Scott, director of the US National Center for Science Education, gave a really interesting talk about Creationist science. Apparently there is such a thing, with actual research being performed, but it ignores much of the evidence (such as research showing the Grand Canyon was created in the one-year Genesis flood, which makes some sense if you look only at the reptiles but not if you also look at the hoofprints and scorpions). Creationist science is better science than intelligent design, which is no science at all.
Teachers have a tendency to skip evolution since they meet resistance from some students and don't understand it well enough to be confident.
Sam Harris spoke on "Death and the Present Moment". I loved the first half of this talk and really didn't like the second half.
The denial of death is central to religion. "Most people, most of the time, are desperate to believe ridiculous and divisive ideas for patently emotional reasons. And while rarely explicit, what they're really worried about is death." Atheism offers no consolation in the face of death.
He made me feel better about living in a world where religion is still so prevalent by pointing out that we have "barely emerged from centuries of barbarism".
Faith can be an excuse for people not to connect with others' suffering and grief ("gone to a better place", etc) and to explain inequities.
Science, art and philosophy fill the void left by religion; atheism clears a space for those better conversations.
He then went on to talk about mindfulness meditation and took the audience through some meditation exercises, which I thought was a very effective way to get himself out of giving a full-length talk.
PZ Myers Not a fan of moderately religious people: "I will concede that you are doing much less direct harm, and I will thank you for your support of shared causes, and I will also happily work alongside you in those causes, but I also think you are still doing indirect harm to foundational principles of a rational society."
The final session was a panel with Dawkins, Dennett, Harris and Hirsi Ali. Hirsi Ali said she couldn't understand Western women who converted to Islam; Harris said that he could understand it, since it offers simplicity and shelter from issues like appearance and careers. Dawkins said it was hard to imagine terrorism without indoctrination as children; Harris said most terrorists come from only moderately religious families and convert to more fanatical versions as teenagers. Dennett mentioned the benefits of exporting to Islamic countries seemingly innocuous Western ideas like the Nancy Drew novels that had positively affected Hirsi Ali.
Obviously they all said a great deal more than this - I just jotted down things that particularly resonated with me. Some of the talks are on YouTube.
My 2010 convention report