I have uploaded videos from the recent American Humanist Association conference at my YouTube channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/bea...­

So far, the most popular videos have been Dawkin’s presentation on religious child abuse with 4000 views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=...­, Purpose and the Universe by Sean Carroll with 2000 views: http://www.youtube.com/watch?an...­, and Matt Harding with 600 views: http://youtu.be/Ji0Uga8wg3E­

I was wrong when I said that 30% of American have no religious affiliation. A third of adults under 30 have no religious affiliation. It is 1/5 or 17.8% of American adults who have no religious affiliation according to Pew, people who answer “none” when asked to identify their religion. This group of 17.8% of Americans:
-comprises atheists and agnostics as well as those who ally themselves with "nothing in particular"
-includes many who say they are spiritual or religious in some way and pray every day
-overwhelmingly says they are NOT looking to find an organized religion that would be right for them
-is socially liberal, with three-quarters favoring same-sex marriage and legal abortion

See http://www.pewforum.org/Unaffil...­ and http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo...­

I'll be working that day.

I'm going to try to make it there Sunday. I just don't want to RSVP if I'm not totally sure. Thank you for organizing!

I would like to talk about the application of a functional philosophy without a set religious structure or traditional outline.

Regarding fear of eternal torture in hell, I think this is a good article about the mental trauma that religious beliefs can cause: http://journeyfree.org/rts/­

Regarding “good atheists vs. bad atheists”, I think this is relevant article on this idea: http://freethoughtblogs.com/gre...­ I think that both approaches have merit. Some atheists think that we should publicly ridicule people who hold silly beliefs. Others think we should ridicule silly beliefs, and never the people who hold them (who are good people who are the victim of bad beliefs). Others think we should not ridicule believers nor their beliefs. I think I agree most with the 2nd approach, and I’m undecided as to whether it is sometimes appropriate to ridicule the people who hold silly beliefs.

This came up in the meeting. Here is a link to an article about the study that found that people distrust atheists as much as rapists: http://www.scientificamerican.c...­ . A link to abstracts of the studies mentioned are in this article. The study was done by Will Gervais at the University of British Columbia.

Other articles have been written about the study. Just google “survey atheist distrust rapists”.

A gallop poll found that 54 percent of those asked said they would vote a "well- qualified" atheist into the Oval Office, a lower percentage than for gays, lesbians, and muslims. Google “president atheist muslim gay” to read about this gallop poll from June 2012, or follow this link: http://www.gallup.com/poll/2661...­ I think it is important for me to stress that number has been rising, so it appears that the distrust of atheists has been DECREASING over the years.