Discussion questions for future meetings

Possible discussion questions; please comment as to whether any of these sound remotely interesting and add your own! This is a total off-the-cuff brainstorm/train of thought on my part.

• Should we seek to "Convert" people or let believers do whatever they want. Is religion a social problem?
  
  
• The "holi"days - should secularists co-opt them? (xmas, valentines, easter...)
  
  
• Atheist strategies - Friendly vs. militant (Here's Dawkins speaking on why we should be militant: http://www.ted.com/in... )
  
  
• Animal cognition - I have pets, and I'm certain they "love" me!
  
  
• Is conscience a superstition?
  
  
• Are we atheists by default or are we predisposed to superstition
  
  
• Where does freedom of religion end? Or should it?
  http://religionvirus....
  
  
• Watching the birth of a religion: mormonism and scientology. What can we learn about the power of religion from seeing these two religions be created out of thin air, and then gathering thousands of followers?
  
  
  

Ooh, I also want to add artificial intelligence / robots.

Ooooh... all heavy topics that need good discussion.

I would throw in "how to debate a creationist (if you really, really have to)."

wow, great list. few more thoughts:

-- can anything be done to change atheists' dubious honor of being the most reviled group in America? do we care?

-- Year of Science -- I can think of 2 fun sub-topics around this:
(1) what is being done around the country to celebrate Year of Darwin/Year of Science - if someone felt like giving the rest of us a briefing about what's being planned and how big this is going to be (big, I sense), I for one would love to know; and
(2) is there any way we could tie into it? take a group field trip to some pro-Darwin event? host our own event, invite bigwigs to grace us w/ their presence?
(I know Amanda was already thinking along these lines, so maybe it's a done deal)

This would be my first meeting. I like the topics you have suggested above. Looking forward to meeting all and having some interesting discussions.

Anand

The widely understood definition of a Skeptic in most related circles is, essentially, an advocate of the use of the scientific method in everyday life. Now, most Skeptics believe when this is applied to religion, one can only arrive at atheism (or agnosticism, for those who quibble about semantics or just seek a softer label). But this does not make them synonymous. This view is strongly held by the national Skeptics Society and many other Skeptics groups around the country. (I met many Skeptics organizers last September at a James Randi Education Foundation Alaska cruise). Atheism speaks only to a lack of belief in one area; skepticism is a positive belief in science and reason as applied to all areas of knowledge.

All this notwithstanding, this group is certainly free to define itself however it wishes.

Along these lines, here are some classic Skeptic links:

Skeptics Society & Skeptic Magazine
The Skeptics Dictionary
James Randi Educational Foundation
Quack Watch
Richard Dawkins -- an oasis of clear thinking

A topic for Charlottesville's own Skeptics in the Pub:

Why does there HAVE to even be a "meaning" of life? Why is it required (by some)?

I'll try to make it to one of the meetups. I do a bit of outreach astronomy with Girl Scouts, school groups and the like, so my allotment of free time is usually used up with that pursuit. I'm the President of CAS, the Charlottesville Astronomical Society, so it comes with the territory I guess.

For me astronomy and skepticism go hand-in-hand. I always start off my astronomy talks with a fun attack on astrology.
Richard Drumm The Astronomy Bum

Great ideas, keep em coming! I am going to draw from this post as I schedule future discussion topics.

Any good "sciencey" ideas? I was thinking artificial intelligence might be fun. In an exciting & scary way.