All weekly meetings are Fridays from 5-7 in Kerckhoff 133.

RSVP if you want at: http://www.facebook.com/events/245073592239595/

Hello everyone,

Tomorrow, May 13th (Friday the 13th no less!), Rebecca Watson will be visiting our campus! Rebecca Watson is the founder of Skepchick.org and co-hosts The Skeptics Guide to the Universe. The title of her presentation is “The Religious Right vs. Every Woman on Earth”.

This special event has been made possible through the joint efforts of Bruin Atheists and the Bruin Alliance of Skeptics and Secularists.

Please RSVP on the facebook event page:  http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/event.php?eid=193868633988159

Thanks, looking forward to seeing you there!

The talk this Friday will be on the Virgin of Guadalupe, the alleged miraculous appearance of the Virgin Mary in Mexico City in 1531.

Snacks and beverages will be provided; all are welcome!

The talk will take place in Ackerman 3517 at 5:00PM on Friday, April 15, 2011.

Featuring Hemant Mehta, the “Friendly Atheist”
When: Friday, April 23rd, 6:00 PM
Where: UCLA, Royce Hall 156

RSVP on Facebook

In 2006, Hemant Mehta “sold his soul” on eBay by offering to go to the worship service of the highest bidder’s choice. He ended up touring many churches and wrote about his experiences. Come hear about faith seen through an atheist’s eyes.

Hemant Mehta is the author of “I Sold My Soul on eBay,” blogs as the “Friendly Atheist” at http://friendlyatheist.com/, and is the Chair of the Secular Student Alliance (SSA) Board of Directors.

Brian Dunning, podcaster and creator of the Skeptoid podcast,  will give his presentation Here Be Dragons to BASS.

The arcane world of ghost orbs, urban myths, organic foods, UFOs, and other paranormal and pseudoscientific phenomenon are discussed in this introductory talk. Come hear why they are fallacious and why it’s so important that they be debunked.

When: Wednesday, May 6
Time: 7:00-8:00pm
Where: Bunche Hall 3164, UCLA

Facebook RSVP Page
UCLA Map

About Brian Dunning:
Brian Dunning created the top-rated cience podcast Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena (www.Skeptoid.com) to take the underdog
side of science and rationality amid the overwhelming majority of noise in the media promoting pseudoscience, alternative anything, and unconditional acceptance of the paranormal.

Dan Barker is coming to give a presentation sponsored by BASS on Feb. 18th and so I decided to listen to a couple of his old debates. Well I totally forgot how awesome of a debater he was against all the sleazy-type debaters. People like Todd Friel, a host on Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron’s radio thingy or Dinesh D’Souza, who is sleazy beyond words in his debate style–these guys are able to one up people like Daniel Dennett or Christopher Hitchens but not Dan Barker. Barker knows exactly how to handle these type of guys who hit below the belt and well maybe I should link you all to some examples!

First, here’s the link to the Facebook event page:  http://tinyurl.com/DanBarkereventFacebook

Make us look good by at the very least saying you MIGHT attend. Haha.

Here are the debates:

Dinesh D’Souza vs. Dan

Dinesh D’Souza vs. Dan Round Two – I highly HIGHLY recommend this one.

Todd Friel vs. Dan (if you can stomach Friel)

Enjoy!

Have you ever changed your mind? Of course you have. But have you ever changed your core beliefs, your identity?

Whether you are a believer or non-believer, the thought of changing your mind about god and religion might seem alien and unlikely. Come and listen to the story of a former evangelical minister turned atheist Dan Barker. After years of preaching the good word, Dan went through a transforming experience that caused him to bravely change his mind in a meaningful way.

When: Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Time: 6:00pm – 7:15pm
Where: UCLA – Public Affairs 1222 (Map of UCLA)
RSVP on the Facebook event page

Come listen to Dan Barker, co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, talk about his journey from evangelical minister to atheist. He will also discuss the FFRF’s “Imagine No Religion” billboard campaign that’s had lots of news coverage over the past few months.Dan’s bio:

Dan became a teenage evangelist at age 15. He received a degree in Religion from Azusa Pacific University and was ordained in 1975. He served as associate pastor at a Friend’s (Quaker) Church, an Assembly of God, and an independent Charismatic church. Dan was a Protestant missionary in Mexico for a total of two years.

Dan maintained a touring musical ministry for 17 years, including eight years of full-time, cross-country evangelism.

Following five years of reading, Dan gradually outgrew his religious beliefs. “If I had limited myself to Christian authors, I’d still be a Christian today,” Dan says. “I just lost faith in faith.” He announced his atheism publicly in January, 1984.

He was elected co-president of the Freedom from Religion Foundation with Annie Laurie Gaylor in 2004. He is a contributing editor of Freethought Today and is involved with the Foundation’s state/church lawsuits. (Source: http://www.ffrf.org/about/bio_dan.php )

Sorry about this, but it will be bigger and better in the Fall.

We will be rescheduling this for the upcoming Fall 2008 quarter. See you then!

Today’s hard right seeks total dominion. It’s packing the courts and rigging the rules. The target is not the Democrats but democracy itself.

From Theocracy Watch

This presentation by Eddie Tabash is a sobering and chilling account of how a shift of just one vote on the U.S. Supreme Court could usher in a religious tyranny, and how the upcoming presidential election is pivotal to the future of the Court and to our most basic freedoms.

Eddie Tabash is a constitutional lawyer in private practice in the Los Angeles area. He graduated from UCLA, magna cum laude, with a B.A. in political science. He graduated from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles in 1976. He chairs the national legal committee of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and Chairs the First Amendment Task Force of the Center for Inquiry and Council for Secular Humanism. He also represents the atheistic viewpoint in debates against some of the world’s foremost religious philosophers on the question of the existence of god. He will be speaking on the “Threat of the Religious Right to Our Modern Freedoms.”

What: Talk by Eddie Tabash on the threat of the Religious Right
When: Tuesday, May 27
Time: 7:00-8:00pm
Where: Public Affairs 2250 (Map)
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