@sundayassemblyrochester / sundayassemblyrochester.tumblr.com
Sunday Assembly Rochester getting up to all sorts of good! Yesterday, we cleaned up the “duck pond” region of Highland Park, and managed to fill over a dozen trash bags, as well as recovering a few tires that will (hopefully) be recycled. We only have one planet - it’s our duty to take care of it, yes?
April Assembly is taking place on April 19th! Mark your calendars - we’re going to have a fascinating lecture on bringing solar power to Rochester by Dr. Susan Spencer of ROCSPOT, wonderful live music, reflections on fighting for a wind farm out near Nantucket, and of course - coffee, snacks, and socializing! This is not to be missed! Please RSVP on our Facebook page - or just show up!
Seclusion room with religious graffiti, Athens State Hospital, 2008. One of the most common delusions found in literature left in abandoned buildings is that the person is either an agent of God or an enemy of God. This seclusion room at Athens State Hospital was one of two extreme seclusion rooms, with a window that was boarded up, allowing light in only through pinholes. Yet somehow, a patient - presumably naked and lacking any tools - was able to use his fingernails to create this pattern on the wall. This would likely have taken weeks, but in the 1950s and 1960s it was not uncommon for a patient to be placed in seclusion for weeks, not even given metal cutlery to eat their meals with. It is upsetting to me that, after deinstitutionalization, most of the people who were so disturbed that they entered rooms like these were medicated and tossed out on the streets - leading to the fact that over 40% of the prison population is mentally ill. The prisons have become the new asylums, although there is nothing “asylum”-y about them; they do not protect the patients, and most don’t even receive psychiatric treatment.
It’s interesting that, if one person has delusions about a deity they’re insane - but if thousands of people do, then it’s a religion.
We'll be "Bringing the Paine" at this Sunday's Assembly, focused around the wall of separation between church and state. You DON'T want to miss this! Make sure you RSVP here: Facebook Invite
Don't forget to RSVP for the March Assembly! We're all very excited and have some great presentations ready for you!
The international Sunday Assembly conference for this year has been planned, and it's taking place in Atlanta, GA from May 29-31! Anybody involved with (or interested in) Sunday Assembly is welcome to attend, and there's a great lineup of speakers and events! So see if you can make it out, and tell your friends!
I (your moderator ianference ) feel like a lot of people have the misconception that secular folk are a bunch of grumps, who loathe the holiday season. Let me dispel that misconception. In 2010 my parents' house was about the only undecorated, un-lit-up house on the cul-de-sac where we lived. Meanwhile, my father has a fairly elaborate wood shop in the basement. So I inquired about him if he'd teach me woodworking - by helping me craft a giant, 4'x4' plywood "Out Campaign A", with 100 energy-efficient red LED bulbs in it. He was more than happy to!
So over the next 2 days - it was about a 15 hour project - I learned about smoothing out knots, operating a band saw and drill press, and how to precisely calculate the spacing for our LED array. I learned about single-rectified circuits versus doubt-rectified circuits. It was a great bonding experience with my father, and we were both proud of our festive design - which hopefully proved to my neighbors that secular people can enjoy the holidays too - we just use different signs, and focus on turkey instead of ritual (although the way my mother obsesses over turkey, it almost is a ritual!) And meanwhile, we made a positive statement!
Up now on eBay is a UNIQUE EDITION print - a limited edition of 1. This is the only opportunity you will ever have to own an image of the Nurses’ Station at Norristown State Hospital signed and numbered (1/1), printed at a whopping 24x36”. All proceeds will go towards creating a digital media budget for sundayassemblyrochester, a secular community organization that aims to do good in the greater Rochester area - in the past few months, we’ve collected carloads of childrens’ clothing for a local shelter; canned food for a food bank; coats for those that need new coats for the winter. And we aim to do much more! Since we’re not yet a 501(c)3 nonprofit, this auction is not tax deductible, but you’ll be helping us get on with our good work while getting an absolutely unique print that will never be offered again! Click here to see the auction.
Thomas Paine
The entire series of Richard Dawkins' 1991 Christmas Lectures, entitled "Growing Up in the Universe", is now available free of charge streaming online! While these science lectures - primarily about evolutionary biology, but also encompassing physics, cosmology, etc - are aimed at a young audience, there is plenty here for an older crowd too. A great opportunity to enjoy some science in layman's terms - for you or your children. And watch for a special guest appearance from Douglas Adams!
Percy Bysshe Shelley (via ianference)
Think that snakes are less than 100 million years old? Think that snakes are defined by their lack of legs? There might be cause to think again! Check out this article from Science Daily to find out about a possible fossil gap publicized in the last few days that suggests that the first snakes - snakes with legs, no less - came about at least 140 million years ago! Some fascinating evolutionary concepts to be explored here.
Good news for secular parents (and their kids): "The results of such secular child-rearing are encouraging. Studies have found that secular teenagers are far less likely to care what the “cool kids” think, or express a need to fit in with them, than their religious peers. When these teens mature into “godless” adults, they exhibit less racism than their religious counterparts, according to a 2010 Duke University study. Many psychological studies show that secular grownups tend to be less vengeful, less nationalistic, less militaristic, less authoritarian and more tolerant, on average, than religious adults."
Bertrand Russell (via ianference)
Pippa Evans, co-founder of Sunday Assembly:
"I come from a church background and I really loved going to church. Then, when I stopped believing in God, when I was about 17, I felt like I couldn’t go to church anymore because it felt a bit hypocritical. But the thing I really missed was church, not God. And so I always wondered – is it possible to have all the wonderful things that church does, like create community and help others and encourage thinking about the world, yourself and improvement, but without the God bit."
Any other Doctor Who fans in the crowd? Your humble administrator ianference - that's me! - has been watching the show for decades now, and it's packed with great moral lessons - as well as a complete lack of "magic". While this article primarily focuses on the "new" series (restarted in 2005), the original series (1963-1989) was perhaps even better at imparting both moral lessons and explaining away magic.
The Doctor encounters many "mythical" creatures in his travels through time and space, and they are invariably revealed to have a scientific rather than a supernatural explanation. He runs across devils ("The Daemons"), minotaurs ("The Horns of Nimon"), yetis ("The Abominable Snowmen"), and even deities ("The Time Monster"). All of them are proved to be aliens, cyborgs, hallucinations, or other things that can be readily explained with science.
And as this article does a great job of pointing out, the Doctor - despite, or perhaps because of, his scientific worldview - has an impeccable moral compass. Where most might be afraid of "the other", when the Doctor encounters an ancient race of lizard people or a colony of mutated humanoids ("Doctor Who and the Silurians", "The Mutants"), his first response is diplomacy and understanding, not fear and violence.
One thing that's great about this show is that it was conceived as a childrens' program; I began watching at age 9. Some parental discretion might be in order for some of the older episodes, which can get quite dark (and occasionally racist - see "The Talons of Weng Chiang"), but it was one of the first internationally syndicated shows to feature prominent black, female, and gay characters in positions of power, and was in general very progressive. Doctor Who: the ultimate secular humanist! Do check it out if you've never seen it.
