Rationalists of East Tennessee Newsletter July 2013 Edited by Carl Ledendecker RET First Sunday Meeting July 7, 2013 1 of 6 No Meeting As is traditional, there will be no First Sunday Meeting in July so that members can take advantage the long 4th of July weekend for recreational activities or to attend the FFRF Lake Hypatia meeting. The RET Skeptic Book Club July 14, 2013 4:00 6:00 p.m. Barnes and Noble Booksellers, 8029 Kingston Pike. Bailout- How Washington Abandoned Main Street While Rescuing Wall Street by Neil Barofsky In this bracing, page-turning account of his stranger-than-fiction baptism into the corrupted ways of Washington, Neil Barofsky offers an irrefutable insider indictment of the mishandling of the $700 billion TARP bailout fund. During the height of the financial crisis in 2008, Barofsky gave up his job in the esteemed U.S. Attorney s Office in New York City to become the special inspector general overseeing the spending of the bailout money. But from day one his efforts to protect against fraud and to hold the big banks accountable were met with outright hostility from Treasury officials. Bailout is a riveting account of Barofsky s plunge into the political meat grinder of Washington, and a vital revelation of just how captured by Wall Street our political system is and why the banks have only become bigger and more dangerous in the wake of the crisis. Please send replies to this message to Joan Omarzu at cjomarzu@gmail.com. April 2013 RET Newsletter 1 of 1
RET Third Sunday Meeting July 21, 2013 2 of 6 10:30 a.m. 12:30 p.m. Pellissippi State Community College, Goins Building, Cafeteria Annex Forks over Knives" a video discussing health, diet, and diseases. The discussion will be led by Joan Ormazu. "Forks Over Knives" a 2011 documentary film, which won the Documentary/Special Interest Title of the Year in 2012, advocates a low-fat, whole foods, plant-based diet in order to improve health. One of the stars, Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., has been a heart surgeon with the Cleveland Clinic for many years. After successful surgery, some patients returned with additional heart disease, which led Dr. Esselstyn to undertake years of nutritional research on arresting and reversing coronary artery disease in severely ill patients. Another star is T. Colin Campbell, who has a 1961 Ph D. in biochemistry, nutrition, and microbiology from Cornell University. He is the author of The China Study, which contains his conclusions from a life time of research, including information from a huge cancer study in China that was begun by Premier Chou EnLai, after he was diagnosed with cancer. Dr. Neal Barnard, a physician who has done research on diet and disease, also appears in the film. Patients tell how they have reversed health problems by changing their diets. There will be plenty of time for discussion after the film. RET Reflections Meeting July 28, 2013 2:00 pm 5.00 pm Potluck Lunch At the home of Carol and Stephen Tokay, 8905 Garrison Drive, Knoxville, TN 37931. Call 865-691-6816 for directions. We ll begin this meeting with our traditional pot-luck lunch starting at 2:00 pm (Note the time). Bring a bag, box, or dish and join us for a late lunch followed by discussion beginning around 2:30pm. RET member Phil King will lead a discussion on the subject Do Fundamentalists Really Believe in God. The discussion is based an article in the New York Times opinion pages, by an op-ed guest columnist, T. M. Luhrmann, entitled, "Belief is the Least Part of Faith". We will consider such questions as why do people believe in God, how can some people be so confident of their belief in God, what evidence is there for God, how do fundamentalist and evangelical Christians view their belief and faith, and how do liberal, ecumenical Christians view the beliefs and faith of fundamental Christians? April 2013 RET Newsletter 2 of 2
RET/ASK Freethought Forum Tuesdays 5:00 6:00 pm In Knoxville: Comcast Channel 12 Charter Channel 6 Surrounding areas: free streaming on ctvknox.org. 3 of 6 Show topics are subject to change. July 9 Homeopathy - Pseudoscience Hosts: Larry and Tom Krobatsch July 16 July 23 July 30 Ben TBA TBA TBA Right after the show a co-host of the program holds The Atheist Society of Knoxville meet up at Barley s in Knoxville s Old Town. Volunteer hosts and suggestions for topics would be welcome for all of these programs. Contact Larry Rhodes at larryr@usit.net. Dues Dues are $35 for most individuals but students &low-income persons may join at a reduced rate of $15. Dues and donations can be sent to RET, P.O. Box 51634, Knoxville, TN 37950, or via Pay Pal through the link at www.rationalists.org. Direct payment can also be made to RET treasurer, Eliot Specht RET Forum (A Benefit for Paid Members) Don t forget the new RET Forum discussion and more site: http://rationalists.org/forum/index.php There are many uses for this new forum including continued discussions about recent meetings. Reimbursement Remember that you can ask for reimbursement for food, supplies, etc. that you provide for RET. Submissions Anyone who has something to submit for publication in the RET Newsletter please e-mail it to ledendecker@earthlink.net. The decision to include the submission is at the discretion of the current editor (me). April 2013 RET Newsletter 3 of 3
Freethought News Briefs 4 of 6 Ed verses the Bibles Ed Buckner of Atlanta Freethought, past President of American Atheists, past Director of the Council for Secular Humanism and many times speaker at RET has taken on Bibles in Georgia State Parks. During a vacation at Amicalola Falls State Park with his son and wife they discovered the following in their cabin: 9 Bibles (seven full Gideon s Bibles (KJV) and two Gideon s New Testaments plus Psalms and Proverbs). After bringing the excessive situation to the management, Ed got a call form the Deputy Commissioner of the Georgia State Parks. He said that the Bibles were being temporarily pulled from the parks pending a review by the State attorney general. The governor quickly ordered that they be returned reasoning that the state didn t buy them so it wasn t endorsing religion. He added that atheist literature could be also placed in the cabins but he couldn t guarantee its safety. As a result, American Atheists, Georgia State University s Secular Panthers and Atlanta Freethought Society have decided to provide books for the night stands. In addition a media storm followed even being picked up by Reuters. (Source June issue Atlanta Freethought News) Pat Robertson gets honest http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/04/01/robertson-god-gives-less-miracles-to-tooeducated-americans-who-learn-science/ Televangelist Pat Robertson on Monday explained to his viewers that sophisticated Americans received less [sic] miracles because they had learned things that says [sic]god isn t real like evolution. On Monday s episode of CBN s The 700 Club, Robertson responded to a viewer who wanted to know why amazing miracles (people raised from the dead, blind eyes open, lame people walking) happen with great frequency in places like Africa, and not here in the USA? People overseas didn t go to Ivy League schools, the TV preacher laughed. We re so sophisticated, we think we ve got everything figured out. We know about evolution, we know about Darwin, we know about all these things that says God isn t real. We have been inundated with skepticism and secularism, he continued. And overseas, they re simple, humble. You tell em God loves em and they say, Okay, he loves me. You say God will do miracles and they say, Okay, we believe him. April 2013 RET Newsletter 4 of 4
And that s what God s looking for. That s why they have miracles. 5 of 6 (Source Pique, Newsletter of Secular Humanists Society of New York) Iceland Takes a Step forward for Humanism Early in 2013 the Icelandic Parliament passed a law that amends the current law pertaining to registered religious organizations. The revised version allows secular-stance organizations to apply for equal legal status with religions. As a result newborn babies will not automatically be registered as having the religion of their mothers but rather only the religion of both parents only if they match. The not so good parts: It took ten years to get that change, the Evangelical Lutheran church still has privileged financial and legal status above all other life-stance organizations. (source June Atlanta Freethought News) The fate of Christians if LGBT people have the power [Y]ou have a lot of quote-unquote apostate Christians churches that have adopted homosexuality and they will do their best to burn Christians at the stake. Kevin Swanson, Jan 28 Generations Radio (Source Intelligence Report published by The Southern Poverty Law Center, Summer 2013 issue) You will listen The Mississippi Rankin County School District is being sued by the AmericanHumanist Association over a mandatory assembly. Not only were teachers told that all students had to attend, students who tried to leave were prevented from doing so by a school truancy officer, teachers and parents who were present. Parents and students were not notified of the assembly or its contents before the meeting. The students were shown a video about four young men with problems that were solved by converting to Christianity. General proselytizing, and prayers were also involved (surprise). The school district is now saying that it was all student sponsored, lead, and voluntary. AHA is not convinced since the evidence shows the opposite. (Summary of article Public School Proselytizing Sparks Miss Lawsuit in Americans United s Church & State June 2013) April 2013 RET Newsletter 5 of 5
6 of 6 FFRF speaking out with ads The Freedom from Religion Foundation has a large ad in the current issue of Scientific American. It addresses the issue of Gay rights and State/Church separation. They are also going to place full page ads in many large metropolitan newspapers to counter erroneous claims made each year by Hobby Lobby claiming that the United States was intended to be a Christian nation. Ron Paul picks a Christian Reconstuctionist Ron Paul announced an on-line curriculum for home schoolers. Gary North was chosen as the director of curriculum development. According to June 2013 issue of Church & State, North is not a professional educator but he is a leading theorist of Christian Reconstructionism,. which is a radical movement that denounces democracy, thinks some forms of slavery are OK, and wants to impose a draconian version of biblical law that prescribes the death penalty for gays, adulterers, blasphemers, witches, and incorrigible children, among others. Hostility to public schools and state /church separation unite the Reconstructionist (North) and the Southern Baptist (Paul). What strange bedfellows or is it these bedfellows are strange? April 2013 RET Newsletter 6 of 6