Thanks to Catherine Deveny for the stickers :D
{ 2 comments }
atheism
The good people of the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre were challenged to feed four thousand hungry, sleep deprived, opinionated atheists over the three days of the Global Atheist Convention. And, despite a few grumblings from the vegans, I think they did really really well!
Welcome Reception
Kicking off the weekend, armed with a couple of glasses of wine, or a few beers, a smorgasboard of sushi rolls, oysters, rice paper rolls and mini sausages greeted us. Some struggled to find their vego options, but I just tucked into the sushi. Nom nom nom.
Live sushi making!
And so we merrily went in for an evening of comedy to kick things off!
Morning and Afternoon Teas
Morning and afternoon teas brought the usual dodgy coffee (and thus long queues for the coffee cart for proper soy lattes!), but there was a huge selection of teas on offer, and half-decent sachets of hot chocolate.
I loved the SerendipiTea chai (once they fetched more soy milk because they made the mistake of not labelling the mini soy jugs as soy and I believe many people had their first soy coffees that first morning!), and the peppermint was also as expected.
(The MCEC coffee cart was well priced and good to kick off my morning before the first talk. $4 for a large, no extra soy charge)
The gluten full home-made cookies were devoured by the masses.
Many more apples were consumed by me on the weekend than most months. No wonder I got a tummy ache!
The gluten free and vegan among the group were offered vast amounts of fruit pillows, but also melting moments, choc chip cookies (not vegan) and jam thingies. Pre-packaged, but appreciated!
There was an awesome gluten free caramel slice on the first afternoon! I didn’t eat the jam tarts. Anyone?
Lunches
The separate special needs table provided some delicious gluten free rolls, gluten free foccacia, sushi with gluten free soy sauce, and other gluten free options of awesome:
Ham was provided. You know, cos Atheists aren’t Jewish or Muslim.
Lunchtime entertainment was provided by the Christians on Saturday, and Muslims on Sunday.
If you were at the Convention, what was your foodie highlight? If not, what has been your best and worst conference food experience?
{ 31 comments }
- Slutwalk.
- The Rapture
- Cate Blanchett
- Muslims getting Billboards in Sydney.
- How I wish I was a mum and was running this blog as an atheist/raising freethinkers/evidence based practice mum blog just to enter it into the Top 25 Faith Bloggers thingy to irritate the Christian mums who were irritated at there being Pagan mums in a Faith Blog contest
How about you? What didn’t you blog about last week?
{ 3 comments }
Just because you’re an atheist who shouldn’t eat chocolate doesn’t mean suitable substitutes cannot be found for that eater thing they gave me five days off for….
Cool calico rabbits from the “in-laws” who aren’t in law, but are, kinda.
Hello kitty glass from the baby sister of awesome.
:)
{ 2 comments }
Happy Ask an Atheist Day! Got questions about my un-religious-ness, my views on a/theism, or jsut a random question for me as a person? Well, today’s the day to ask :)
I promise that all views are only from my viewpoint and I’ll try not to speak for anyone else. If you want other people’s view, try asking someone else or googling to see where else on the interwebs you can ask :)
Watch this video and have a think and giggle first ;)
Play nice, and I’ll not bite too hard :)
{ 19 comments }
Press release from the Atheist Foundation of Australia:
Atheists are astonished by the latest attempt from Cardinal George Pell, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, to demonise the growing number of Australians who live without religion.
Speaking at a Mass celebrating the appointment of General Peter Cosgrove as Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University, Pell preached that atheists “are frightened by the future.” He went on to say that “It’s almost as though they’ve … nothing but fear to distract themselves from the fact that without God the universe has no objective purpose or meaning. Nothing beyond the constructs they confect to cover the abyss.”Once again, Pell’s comments fly in the face of all evidence. In truth, atheists live their lives with an integrity and intellectual rigour that Pell and his Church can only dream of.
Far from seeking to cover the abyss, the atheist looks a hostile universe full in its face without recourse to the emotional security blanket of religion and the supernatural. Unlike Pell’s Church (which has become a byword for superstition and resistance to scientific thinking) the atheist sees the world on its own terms, without the rose-tinted glasses of the promise of an afterlife.
Not content with mischaracterising atheism as weak and fearful, Pell went on to make the extraordinary proposition that “Australian society will become increasingly coarse and uncaring … if Christian principles are excluded from public discussion.”
To state that without the supervision of the Church the Australian people would turn to delinquency is frankly insulting. Hundreds of thousands of atheists and agnostics around the world live their lives ethically and with integrity.
Perhaps what Pell finds so threatening is that they do so according to principles drawn from their own reason and experience, not from slavish obedience to the adulterated writings of ancient and ignorant tent-living goat herders.
Moreover, given the damage that “Christian principles” have inflicted (Northern Ireland and the former Yugoslavia to name two recent examples), surely they days of Catholics claiming moral superiority should be over.
Still can’t wait to put up my tree and its new decorations!! :)
{ 4 comments }
Don’t say you weren’t warned.
Some other fine atheist women linked up BlagHag.
T-shirt from the Mushycat store. xx
Happy Friday.
{ 11 comments }
Media Release – Atheist Foundation of Australia:
Atheist Foundation of Australia President David Nicholls today called for reason to prevail in the frenzy leading up to the canonisation of Mary MacKillop and asks that governments and individuals re-direct the money being spent on trips to Rome towards cancer research and financial support for cancer sufferers.
“The amount of money that is being spent by individuals and governments on a ceremony to acknowledge a person who had been dead for 50 years before she supposedly ‘cured’ someone of cancer, is staggering and completely inappropriate,” he said.
Pope Benedict XVI recently announced that Melbourne-born nun Mary MacKillop would be canonised on October 17 after the Vatican agreed that she had been the cause of two miracles—allegedly curing a woman of Leukaemia in 1961 and NSW grandmother Kathleen Evans of lung and brain cancer in 1993.
“It must be an embarrassment to many members of the Catholic Church that this kind of mumbo jumbo is accepted as reasonable in an age where people are cured of cancer every day, and many cancers go into remission for no discernable reason. This does not mean there is no reason, only that the reason is unknown. What will the RC Church say when science discovers the reason?” said David Nicholls.
“It is important to remember that the rules and processes for identifying a saint are not based in science. Science does not state that because we do not know, a god did it.”
“The fact that this is taken seriously by anyone is a big concern for modern society. It is not only holding up myth and fairytale over commonsense and science, but it is showing such a misguided prioritisation of taxpayer’s money and time.”
“One has to wonder at the selection process for curing very ill patients. Why are two people saved and thousands not. Do they have less valuable lives in the eyes of a heartless god?”
“Of course it is wonderful that these people experienced a reprieve from a terrible disease, but just because their recovery seemed unlikely, does not make it the work of a long dead nun and an omniscient being.”
“I call on everyone touched by these people’s stories to focus their attention on helping other victims of cancer and their families, not on witnessing an event that is based on a fairytale concocted by the Catholic Church,” he said.
{ 2 comments }
(Please excuse the use of the media release. I agree with it, but am too tired to think of the words right now)
Atheist Foundation of Australia president David Nicholls today expressed deep concern over Prime Minister Gillard’s announcement over the weekend to increase funding to school chaplains by $222 million.
In a submission to the public consultation process about the National School Chaplaincy Program, the Australian Psychological Society (APS) raised concerns about the credentials of many Chaplains providing counselling services as part of the Chaplaincy program in Australian schools.
In their submission they state that the ‘government is supporting a scheme which allows unregistered and unqualified school chaplains to work outside their boundaries as spiritual and religious personnel’[1] and point out that there is clear evidence that school chaplains are engaging in duties for which they are not qualified.
Although the government guidelines state that ‘school chaplains cannot provide services for which they are not qualified, for example counselling services or psychological assessment’[2] it also states that school chaplains are employed to support students for issues such as ‘grief, family breakdown and other crisis situations’[3].
‘Evidence shows that Chaplains with as little as 36 hours training[4] are counselling students and providing funding to support these chaplains is irresponsible and dangerous,’ said David Nicholls.
“There is a reason that Psychologists have a minimum of 6 years training before being able to provide psychological support services and to think that a two day course and belief in an imaginary being will help these children is ridiculous,’ he said.
One of the major providers of school chaplains the Scripture Union of Australia has as one of its aims to “make God’s Good News known to children, young people and families.”[5]
‘Providing funding to a scheme that supports this religious indoctrination in schools is a clear breach of the separation of church and state and atheists, freethinkers and secularists across Australia will be extremely disappointed in Prime Minister Gillard’s conservative and risky stance,’ said David Nicholls.
[1] Australian Psychological Society’s ‘Submission to the Consultation Process for the National School Chaplaincy Program’ July 2010.
[2] Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations NSCP ‘FAQ’ page outlining the school chaplain’s roles.
[3] Ibid page 2.
[4] ACCESS Ministry course brochure 2010.
[5] SUA website
See further: http://www.atheistfoundation.org.au/.
Funds should go towards appropriately trained teachers, psychologists, social workers or youth workers to provide services such as those outlined above.
{ 0 comments }
Out today (in Australia, anyway), just in time to prep yourself for the upcoming month or so of carols, trees, presents, food and so on.
I also really liked Riayn’s post on the subject. Holidays and celebrations are what you want them to be. I, for one, will be using my Xmas shutdown to visit friends and family in Newcastle, eat pudding and wear silly hats. Noice.
{ 0 comments }
Have had a wonderful easter weekend – sleeping in, cleaning the house, snuggling with Rish, reading up on to reasons atheism makes sense (finally started The God Delusion after having it sitting there for probably a couple of years since Rish first bought it – felt that easter time was a good as time as any!) :) As every long weekend should be, hey? Unfortunately, I spent some of the time with a headache that wouldn’t go away and a stomach that just wasn’t happy. Oh well. Going to Laksa for lunch today, then probably gym this afternoon and a relaxing evening before having tor remember that I do have to go to work in the morning.
I hope you had a good long weekend!
- Animal :: liberation
- Temporary :: insanity
- Moan :: with pleasure :)
- Rapid :: eye movement
- That’s for me to say :: and for you to think about
- City :: slickers
- Bumper :: harvest
- Eclipse :: of the heart
- Problematic :: trouble
- If? :: Else?
{ 0 comments }
