Religion

rug

(82,333 posts) Sun Nov 11, 2012, 02:33 PM Nov 2012

Springfield Expo Center brings together two very different crowds

Volunteers package meals for needy, meanwhile atheist convention draws very diverse crowd

November 10, 2012|By Dustin Hodges, KY3 News | dhodges@ky3.com

SPRINGFIELD, Mo - The Springfield Expo Center was packed Saturday. Volunteers have been working since Friday packaging meals for victims of Hurricane Sandy. "We work with all different groups, different churches, non-denominational, cross denominations, just everybody," says Karen Wood with Friends Against Hunger.

And Wood says the meals a million packathon brought in just that. "We've had all different types of groups and they've done such a great job working together, we've seen kids from nine to 99 help package this meal and you can really see that you're making a difference," says Wood.

Just down the hall from where Meals a Million is packaging its meals, another just as diverse but very different crowd filled the Expo Center for the 5th annual Skepticon Convention. "Skepticon is well known everywhere as a place where you'll find lots of obnoxious and aggressive atheists and skeptics," says Biologist and professor from the University of Minnesota, Morris, P.Z. Myers.

"Atheists are such an under represented minority so to be able to openly discuss it is a beautiful thing," says Jack Boyer who drove to Springfield from Manhattan, Kansas to attend the convention.

http://articles.ky3.com/2012-11-10/diverse-crowd_35038912

http://fahunger.org/home.html

http://www.skepticon.org/

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Springfield Expo Center brings together two very different crowds (Original Post) rug Nov 2012 OP

Great opportunity for them to work together, imo. cbayer Nov 2012 #1

I dunno, here's the schedule. rug Nov 2012 #2

Some of that looks pretty good, but some of the time could be devoted cbayer Nov 2012 #3

cbayer

(146,218 posts)

1. Great opportunity for them to work together, imo.

Reply to rug (Original post)

Sun Nov 11, 2012, 02:43 PM

Nov 2012

rug

(82,333 posts)

2. I dunno, here's the schedule.

Reply to cbayer (Reply #1)

Sun Nov 11, 2012, 03:04 PM

Nov 2012

Saturday, November 10th

9:00 am
Registration & Check-In

10:00 am
Workshop
Ethical Rationality
Stephanie Zvan and James Croft

Workshop
How To: Activism
JT Eberhard

Workshop
Using Google Tools
Cindy Lane

11:00 am
Workshop
Better Living Through Godless Giving
Zachary Moore

Workshop
Lobbying Training
Secular Coalition for America

12:00 pm
Skepticon Team Q&A

12:30 pm
Lunch

2:00 pm
Workshop
Strategy & Leadership
Todd Stiefel

Workshop
Advanced Lobbying
Amanda Knief

Workshop
Leadership & Consensus Building
Darrel Ray

3:00 pm
Workshop
CFAR Rationality Course
Julia Galef

Workshop
Nutrition & Training
Mike Lane

Workshop
Recovery from Religion
Jerry DeWitt

4:00 pm
Workshop
Skeptical Investing
hil Ferguson

Workshop
How To Argue
PZ Myers, Matt Dillahunty

Workshop
Spotting Bad Science Journalism
Jen McCreight

5:00 pm
Workshop
Detecting Woo Science
Ben Blanchard

Workshop
TBA
Secular Coalition for America

5:30 pm
Dinner

7:00 pm
Greta Christina (tentative)

8:00 pm
JT Eberhard - Dear Christian 2

9:00 pm
George Hrab – Performance

Saturday, November 10th
9:00 am
Registration & Check-In

9:30 am
Phil Ferguson

10:30 am
Julia Galef

11:30 am
Panel Discussion - How should Rationalists approach Relationships and Marriage
-Moderater: Jesse Galef
-Panelists: Matt Dillahunty, Adam Lee, Chana Messinger, and Julia Galef

12:30 pm
Lunch

2:00 pm
Sean Carroll - The Higgs Boson and the Fundamental Nature of Reality

3:00 pm
Jessical Ahlquist

3:30 pm
Jennifer Oulette

4:30 pm
Hemant Mehta - The Rise of Young Atheists

5:30 pm
Dinner

7:00 pm
PZ Myers - Evolution, I Do The Kinky Stuff

8:00 pm
Rebecca Watson

9:00 pm
Keith Lowell Jensen

Sunday, November 11th

9:00 am
Registration & Check-In

9:30 am
James Croft - God is Dead. So What?

10:30 am
Matt Dillahunty

11:30 pm
Deborah Hyde - The Natural History of the European Werewolf

12:30 pm
Lunch

2:00 pm
Richard Carrier

3:00 pm
Darrel Ray - The Shame of it All, or Why Do We Act Like Christians

3:30 pm
Amanda Knief - Caution: Atheists at Work. How to Avoid Employment Discrimination

4:30 pm
Teresa MacBain - Shift Happens

5:30 pm
Tony Pinn - Racial Diversity and/in Our Fight Against Theism

Pretty well organized.

Personally, I'd rather spend the weekend packing peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

cbayer

(146,218 posts)

3. Some of that looks pretty good, but some of the time could be devoted

Reply to rug (Reply #2)

Sun Nov 11, 2012, 03:12 PM

Nov 2012

to real life coalition building and activism. Seems like they have an opportunity here.

I see they are going to discuss racial diversity, but I don't see anything about sexual diversity. OTOH, they have included quite a few female speakers on the agenda, which is a good thing.

If I were there, I would skip some of the less substantive stuff and go pack sandwiches at times.

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