Atheists, Agnostics, and Rationalists at UCI

Hey Members,

The BBQ went great on Sunday. If you couldn’t make it, join us in Winter and Spring when we’ll be having the same thing.

As for the meeting this week (Wednesday, 5pm at SST 122) we’ll be talking about how people arrived at their (non)belief, whether you were either not raised with religion, or you were and the progress you made to come to terms with it, and reject it. Were there any individuals who persuaded you? Any significant events?

We will also talk about if and how we have told our friends and family about us being non-believers. We can also share tips on telling them, perhaps giving those who have yet to tell their family a way to do so.

As for any misc announcements, we’re in need of a new Secretary for our club. If you have a desire to be an officer for AAR, you’ll be in charge of maintaining the website,  and sending out e-mails to the club. So if you don’t like e-mails going out days late anymore, join us for a résumé strengthening position in a college club. More information will be given this week, and voting will probably be next week.

And of course, we’ll be at Jack in the Box after club from 6:00 until whenever. Join us there too. Hope to see you tomorrow!

Hey Atheists, Agnostics, and Rationalists members, new and old!

This is a reminder that our first meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday the 29th. We will be meeting in Social Science Tower (SST) room 122 at 5:00 PM.

We will be starting off this year with a little ice-breaker to get to know each other, so come and hear about what exactly we’ll be doing in the club this coming year. We think you’ll be pleased at what’s in store.

For example, our quarterly AAR Barbecue will be this Sunday, October 3rd. It’s a potluck, so bring a tasty dish, a bag of chips, or any food/drink you desire (no alcohol, though) and partake in a little get together. Time and place are 1:00 PM at Stanford Park. More information will be given at the first meeting.

Don’t forget to look us up on Facebook to keep in touch with events and members.

Lastly, if you can’t make it to our meetings this quarter, keep us in mind for Winter and Spring quarters. Likewise, after each meeting we all go over to Jack in the Box and hang out on the patio from 6:00 PM onward, so if you can make that, you’re always welcome.

We hope to see you all tomorrow at 5:00!

Hey members!

We had a good time at the Anteater Involvement Fair, but we have a little more to do to get as many members as we can. Thus, we are doing tabling. Here’s the schedule:

Friday the 24th: Humanities Ring 209 from 10am-4pm

Monday the 27th: Anteater Plaza (the Flagpoles) 68 from 11am-3pm

Tuesday the 28th: Anteater Plaza 68 from 11am-3pm

(The numbers correspond to spots on the edge of Ring Road)

A few of the officers will try to be at the table at any given time, but we’ll need the club’s help to populate the table. Even if you can only stop by for half an hour, it would be a great help.

As for the meetings, we’ll be located in Social Science Tower (SST) 122, and meetings will be from 5pm-6 every Wednesday starting the 29th. For the first meeting we’ll be doing a little ice-breaker, then splitting off into groups to discuss why you’re in the club, and what non-belief (or belief) name you typically go by and why (i.e. Atheist, Agnostic, Rationalist, Pastafarian, etc.).

This should be a great year for us, and I hope to see you all tabling and at the meeting next Wednesday!

Dan Barker will be speaking at UCI’s Bren Hall this week on May 12th at 7pm.

Here is a link that shows a map of the UC Irvine campus. Bren Hall is building number 314 and the closest parking structure is the Anteater parking structure which on the map is the structure with a star on it by an area marked as “Middle Earth Housing”. The price for parking is $4.00 per hour. The permit dispenser is found at the Anteater drive entrance to the parking structure and takes exact change, as well as Mastercard and Visa.

The event itself is free and open to the public!

Hope to see you there!

-Sarah D.
Internal President

Hello Fellow Atheists, Agnostics and Rationalists,

This past week we didn’t have our lovely Bake sale, due to an ‘act of God’ (bad weather). The Bake sale will definitely happen before the Bonfire of Souls, and has been rescheduled for next week. We need volunteers for both table time and donations of devilishly delicious and delectable cookies, cupcakes and other sweet and enticing foodstuffs, so take some time out of your schedule and help us collect some souls!

On May 7th, from 7 to 9pm, we have an invited speaker: Ted Cox. Ted is a straight atheist writer who has been brave enough to go undercover in gay-to-straight therapy programs. He’s got an hour-long presentation about his experiences that includes music, video, singing and a live demonstration of healing touch therapy. The Media has covered, his project, “Journey into Manhood”:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2PJ0Ij6e-k
http://www.cityweekly.net/utah/article-8896-writer-pretends-to-be-gay-at-seminar.html
http://www.alternet.org/sex/144390/going_undercover_in_the_crazy,_tragic_world_of_christian_gay-conversion_therapy
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/hotflash/blogs/post?oid=1339305

In our weekly meeting, we’ll be discussing issues of free speech, cartoonish depictions of religion, comedy, the horror of offending others for their beliefs. These issues have once again upwelled in the public consciousness, so we’ll devote some time considering the virtues of responding thoughtfully and respecting the viewpoints of others.

Hey, All!

I hope that you’ve all had a great Spring Break! AAR would like to welcome you all back to UCI with a meeting this week. We have some cool events this quarter: bonfires, bake sale, speakers, and a Freethought Convention in Costa Mesa on May 8th. If you can make it, be sure to show up this week as we organize ourselves for club elections (to be held 3rd week). We’ll also be discussing organizations like Camp Quest West that form an explicitly atheist youth camp as an alternative to religious youth camps.

Bruce Gleason (of Backyard Skeptics) is looking for volunteers for the Freethought Convention; If he gets enough support (2-3 people) then we could get a table to fundraise for the club (T-shirt sales, etc.).

See you all this Wednesday from 5–6pm in our new room SSL 145

Darwin Day Potluck!

In honor of Darwin’s Birthday this week we will be discussing various evolutionary topics. We’ll also pay homage to our more primitive ancestors by feasting on many potluck dishes. Please bring some delicious sustinence to fuel the discussions!

Come bearing food or drink for the potluck this Wed from 5–6pm in HH254. (Officers will provide cups and plates).

–
AAR
Atheists, Agnostics, and Rationalists
Facebook page
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Other Events

The Next Orange County Atheists meeting will take place Wednesday, February 10 at 7:30PM at the International House of Pancakes at 18542 MacArthur Blvd in Irvine, near John Wayne Airport.
Read more here…

Backyard Skeptics is going a showing of the movie Creation, exhibiting some of Darwin’s life at home, and struggles with the publication of the Theory of Evolution. The movie will be shown on Tue Feb 9th at Edwards Westpark 8, 3755 Alton Parkway, Irvine, CA 92614 (949) 622-8609 at 6:40pm. The movie starts at 7pm We’ll have a bite and discussion after the movie. Organizer Bruce Gleason will be wearing his black atheists hat.
Read more here…

Fri Feb 12 Freethought is having a Coffee and Conversation at 7:00pm.
Read more here…

Vagina Monologues is being performed in the Bren Events Center on Sun Feb 14th, as part of an effort to raise awareness and stop violence against women. The main event starts at 5pm, buy a ticket!
Read more here…

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Updating will happen a lot more regularly from now on, promise!
~Sarah

Last week discussions had to be revived with a defibrillator, so this time we’ll be doing something a bit more active. We’ll have some more activity with lively agreement/disagreement on various topics. The focus will be to discover the commonality and differences we have as a group.

Elections for new board members are also coming up, so if you are interested in running for a spot on council, please show up to nominate yourself.

Come join us this Wed from 5–6pm in HH254.

–
AAR
Atheists, Agnostics, and Rationalists
Facebook us!
–

Other Events

Backyard Skeptics is going a showing of the movie Creation, exhibiting some of Darwin’s life at home, and struggles with the publication of the Theory of Evolution. The movie will be shown on Tue Feb 9th at Edwards Westpark 8, 3755 Alton Parkway, Irvine, CA 92614 (949) 622-8609 at 6:40pm. The movie starts at 7pm We’ll have a bite and discussion after the movie. Organizer Bruce Gleason will be wearing his black atheists hat.
Read more here…

The Next Orange County Atheists meeting will take place Wednesday, February 10 at 7:30PM at the International House of Pancakes at 18542 MacArthur Blvd in Irvine, near John Wayne Airport.
Read more here…

Vagina Monologues is being performed in the Bren Events Center on Sun Feb 14th, as part of an effort to raise awareness and stop violence against women. The main event starts at 5pm, buy a ticket!
Read more here…

OC Skeptics in the Pub is having a meeting on Wed Feb 3rd from 7:00 pm to 11:00. They’ll be having a riotous time at Muldoon’s Irish Pub, 202 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach.
Facebook event

As we continue through midterm season, this week’s meeting will not require too much from your already taxed mental facilities. Instead, we’ll participate in an atheist bonding moment as we share our personal histories. If you have a fascinating (de)conversion story, or other tale about how you, or a friend, came to be a non-believer, please come to the meeting and weave for us a warm and fuzzy yarn. Be the end of the meeting, we will hopefully have enough to make a nice winter coat to warm our souls for the rest of the year.

Upcoming Events:

Next week Tuesday, Nov 3rd. The club will be having our famous Atheist Bake Sale! We will be selling delicious baked treats but unlike a normal bake sale you actually have two options for payment. For those of you who are a little less willing to part with your ethereal counterparts you can pay the traditional way by giving us 50 cents for a baked good. However, if you are feeling more adventurous you can sign one of our soul contracts and transfer ownership to AAR. In return you will get 1 very tasty cookie. Is it worth it? Come find us on ring road and find out.

Backyard Skeptics is having a meeting on Wednesday, at 7:00pm. Alex, our Treasurer, is able to provide a ride for 2, but he needs to know as quickly as possible so that he can RSVP the skeptics; so, please contact him as soon as you can: either at auzdavin@uci.edu or through Facebook. The skeptics meeting will cover the question: Can we be good without God?
http://www.meetup.com/Backyard-Skeptics/calendar/11676390/

Hope to see you all at the meeting this Wednesday from 5–6pm in SSTR 103.

Last week’s meeting went really well, and we learned how to jump to conclusions. This week we shall continue building our debate skills. We’ll be covering some of the typical issues seen in debates with our religious brethren. We’ll cover the questions quickly and focus more on the quality of our answers. Through this practice we should learn where the religious side is coming from, and how we can best explain our worldview.

After the meeting, our usual hangout at Jack-in-the-Box has been cancelled in favor attending OC Atheists. We will be providing carpooling to their 6:30 meeting at El Torito (by John Wayne Airport) for discussion, snacks and beverages. At 7:30 we’ll walk across the street to IHOP for the formal meeting. More information can be found at the OC Atheists website. http://www.ocatheists.com/archives/000090.shtml