We’re thinking more people will be able to attend because of its central location.  It’s also a pretty nice place and has a decent menu, so it offers more than just drinks.

First Aid Kit is the Swedish indie/folk band of the Söderberg sisters Johanna and Klara. These young ladies with their sensuous chords and dulcet tones started composing in 2007 with their first EP, Drunken Trees, being released in 2008 followed in January of this year by their full album The Big Black & the Blue. There’s a version of The Big Black & the Blue available on iTunes which includes the songs from Drunken Trees for $9.99 which I highly recommend picking up. Enjoy the pretty music.

Hard Believer lyrics:

So you ask for my opinion
Well what is there to say
To be honest and just foolish
Won’t make you want to stay
You’ve got to go on and get moving
And I can’t do that for you
Got so many plans and
So much you want to do

Love is tough, time is rough
On me

Well I see you’ve got your bible
Your delusion imagery
Well I don’t need your eternity
or your meaning to feel free
I just live because I love to
And that’s enough you see
So don’t come preach about morality
That’s just human sense to me

Love is tough, time is rough
On me

And it’s one life and it’s this life and it’s beautiful
(repeat)

Love is tough, time is rough
On me

Last Thursday’s outing went great.  It was hot, but there was a nice breeze and our seats were in the shade just right of home plate.  They were great seats.  And the $1 beer night was nice too.  The TinCaps managed to lose that game, but they are still 3 games behind the Great Lakes Loons (I love Minor League names), the division leader.  There’s like 17 games to go, so I’ve seen worse comebacks than that.

I have 4 people going so far.  It’s a pretty good time.  The ball club does a good job of involving the crowd and entertaining them.  I can see this becoming a regular event for the group.  Perhaps we can rent a suite there in a few years.  Their club seats and pavilion are pretty nice and relatively affordable.

There’s also a coffee klatch this Saturday at 1PM at the Firelfly Coffee House.  I’m unable to make that, but there’s usually at least a few members hanging out around there.  Leave a comment here if you are planning on attending the coffee klatch.  That way people will know for sure if someone will be there.

You can also leave a comment letting us know if you’re attending the ball game , if you haven’t already contacted me.  We didn’t have a problem getting seats last time and there were over 7,300 in attendance.  The Saturday game may be even more packed.  If I know 10 or more people will plan on attending, I will order tickets online.  They are $9 each.

**UPDATE**  Unfortunately, the weather is not cooperating with us today.  The forecast is for rain all day with a chance of a few thunderstorms tonight.  I have decided we will postpone meeting at this game tonight.  We will reschedule another ball game day at this week’s board meeting.**

We will be meeting out front at the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo at 11AM this Sunday.

It’s a family event, so feel free to bring your friends and family.

It’s expected to be hot tomorrow, so make sure to bring your sunblock.

Hope to see you there!

We will also talk briefly about rescheduling the board meeting for sometime next week.  I want to get the blog moving ahead again after the dog days of summer.

This month is busy.  We have two Tincaps games- one this Thursday night and the other on  Saturday the 21st.  We’ll meet outside the front gate at 6:30PM at both games to see how many tickets we will need.  Two people have told me they are going to Thursday night’s game so far.

The FFW Zoo Day is on Sunday the 15th.  We’ll meet out front at 11AM.

This month’s Skeptically Drinking fizzled out.  I wasn’t able to make it, but only a couple of us were able to make a brief appearance.  We’ll see if the group would like to change venues for next month.  It was at Side Pocket in Georgetown North.

Also, we will schedule another adopt-a-highway pickup at the next board meeting.  I enjoyed breakfast with Drew, Chris and Andy D., but we didn’t have enough people to pick up trash.  It didn’t matter anyways, because I wasn’t able to get a hold of the person I needed to in order to get the vests and flags in time.  I figured I would still be able to get the equipment that morning, but the DOT building was locked up.  I guess nobody else picks up trash on Sundays.

Even though the website has been slow lately, there has still been decent attendance at most of our meetings and several of our events.  The “What I Believe” meeting went well last month.  We’ll have the video from that whenever Andy D. can work editing it into his busy schedule.

We’ve also had a few new members over the last couple months, so hopefully we’ll get a new blogger or two.  If any members want to blog on our site or even would just like to write one post, let me or the other officers know.  I’m having Chris and Drew added to the list of FFW bloggers.  I’m also trying to get the blog switched over to a more magazine-style wordpress blog so that we won’t have to worry about only posting on certain days or worrying about your post getting buried by another post that same day.

Hope to see you at tomorrow’s meeting!

But, more importantly, I wanted to make sure everyone still had time to prepare something if they wanted to participate.  As of right now, I only have 4 people committed to giving a short presentation.  I need about 8 people to be sure we have enough material.  If you are interested, simply create a small presentation revolving around the theme “What I Believe”.  It can be anything, really.  I’m purposely leaving the parameters wide open for people to get as creative as they wish.  It can be a short written essay (very popular), poetry, a slide show, reading excerpts from your favorite book, or anything else you find interesting.

I chose this theme because of Bertrand Russell, one of my favorite writers:

“What I Believe was published as a little book in 1925.  In the New York court proceedings in 1940 What I Believe was one of the books presented as evidence that Russell was unfit to teach at City College.  Extracts from it were also widely quoted in the press, usually in such a way as to give quite a flase impression of Russell’s views.”  from Why I Am Not a Christian, pg. 48.

There are many gems such as this one:

“I have tried to say what I think of man’s place in the universe, and of his possibilities in the way of achieving the good life…In human affairs, we can see there are forces making for happiness and forces making for misery.  We do not know which will prevail, but to act wisely we must be aware of both.”

and

“To respect physical nature is foolish; physical nature should be studied with the view to making it serve human ends as far as possible, but it remains ethically neither good nor bad.”

I plan on giving a short biography/presentation of Russell, along with some of his best and most inspiring quotes.

I also want to take this opportunity to ask everyone for their input on what activities they would like to see our group continue or alter, and what new things they would like to see us try out.  I will put a suggestion box with index cards on the table at our next meeting for people to drop anonymous comments into it.  But I’m letting everyone know now so they can think about it before the meeting.

So, get to thinking about What You Believe.  It’s a simple statement, but it’s more difficult than it sounds, so put some thought into it.  You might surprise yourself about what you find.  I know I have.  Hope to see you all at the meeting this Tuesday!

It starts at noon, but it will probably run all day unless it is so hot we all burn up.  But come any time you can.

Nobody has said they can’t bring whatever they’ve signed up for, so as of right now, we should be good for food and supplies.  We can always use some bottled water and drinks if you would like to bring more.

The pavilion is close to the entrance off of Washington Blvd after you cross the bridge heading west.  Just follow it straight and you’ll run right into us.

Also don’t forget to bring any freethought books or materials you don’t mind parting with to be entered into our raffle.  We’ve already got godless money to give away, so you won’t want to miss that!

I hadn’t heard of the song before, probably because I don’t listen to country music, but it just caught me a little off guard- enough that I was interested in doing a quick post about it.

I must admit I find using God to make money to be loathsome.  Not that it is anything unusual to do just that in any form, because the concept of God isn’t good for much else other than comfort.  So when you hear a song like this, you can’t tell me piety or inspiration are the main motives.  Not that country music has any other motive than making money.  I don’t hold that against the musicians, but when you use religion to reach people at an emotional level and make money off of it, I can’t help but feel contempt about it.  I’m sure I could write a hit song pulling on the heart strings of the religious and make a bunch of money from it, but I, being the moral atheist that I am, could not sink that low.  How ironic it is usually perceived to be just the opposite.

Anyhow, I wanted to post the lyrics to it, just to show the supposedly obvious and overwhelming proof presented in the song about how we all just know There is a God:

Try and put your arms around
the 100 year old tree
Climb up on a horse
and let it run full speed
Take a look down at the world from 30,000 feet
on your next flight

Watch a flock of birds
against the morning sun
Close your eyes and listen
to the river run
Catch a firefly in your hand
or a raindrop on your tongue
That’s right

Chorus:
There is a God
There is a God
There is a God
How much proof do you need?

Plant a seed and see
what comes out of the ground
Find the heartbeat on your baby’s ultrasound
In a few years hear it laughing,
and don’t it sound like a song?

Stop and think about
what you don’t understand
Things like life and love
and how the world began
Hear the doctor say he can’t explain it,
but the cancer is gone

Chorus:
There is a God
There is a God
There is a God
How much proof do you need?

Bridge:
Science says it’s all just circumstance
Like this whole worlds just an accident
But if you want to shoot that theory down,
Look around

Just look around

There is a God
There is a God
There is a God,
How much proof do you need?

Oh there is a God
There is a God
There is a God
How much proof do you need?

I realize my forthcoming critique is both rude and sarcastic, but this droning turd of a song deserves no less.  I can already see detractors saying Why do you care?  What’s the harm?  Just don’t listen to it.  Well, what can I say?  This is America.  If you don’t like it, then get the Hell out and live in some third-world nation and see how that goes for ya.  Oh, wait.  That’s usually the religious tow-line.

No, I care enough to talk about this song because I do find it harmful on some levels.  A lie, no matter how well-dressed, is still a lie.  And, oh my Zeus, I don’t like to be mislead and I don’t like others duped for money.  I’m also allowed to give my opinion no matter how it is received.  That is the beauty of America.

Really though, it’s just because I found the song so damn insulting.  My scathing review of it pales in comparison:

So, what proof do we find in the song There is a God?  Please turn your sarcasm detectors on now:

Yeah, a 100 year old tree is impossible without God.

And a horse running at full speed is miraculous.

Be sure to look down on your next flight, as God allows you to fly in a box with wings.  Not that aviation and physics have anything to do with it, but I suppose God allowed us to discover that kind of stuff after thousands of years of wishing to fly while stuck on the back of a mule going a mile an hour.

Watching birds used to be a pastime of the religious.  It was called augury.  Maybe it’s coming back into fashion.  Why any god would choose to communicate in such a fashion is mind-boggling.  Of course, birds flying or simply existing does little for helping state the case for God’s existence.  And listening to a river does what exactly for the existence of God?  I am not missing the point here, as I’m sure many religious would point out that it is the fact that there are such awesome things as rivers and birds that couldn’t exist if there were not some awesome creator thinking these fascinating things up.

As far as catching fireflies in your hand goes, catching beetles in your hand would be much easier since God seems to have an affinity for them.  It is currently estimated there are over 350,000 species of beetle.  Only God knows why.  Well, maybe entomologists have a few theories as well…

I don’t know what catching raindrops on your tongue is supposed to prove.  The only religious meteorological theory I’m familiar with about rain is how when it rains, God is either crying or pissing on us.  Either way, I fail to see how a drop of water, on a planet covered in water, falling on your tongue is anything out of the ordinary.

So, exactly how much proof do I need?  Not much, really.  God could easily clinch the deal by doing away with all of the coded nonsense (which is why we need religious leaders as interpreters) and directly prove his/her/its existence once and for all directly.  There would be no atheists if they were given conclusive proof.  No, then it would only be a question of whether or not such a God is worthy of our praise.

Planting seeds and watching what grows is about as natural as it gets.  Nothing to see here folks, please move along…

Then there’s the miracle of conception.  A good topic with which to pull heart strings.  It almost seems miraculous until you wonder why God allows so many of those conceptions to go horribly wrong.  If God exists, no amount of sinning excuses Him for genetic defects, diseases and miscarriages.  He always gets credit for what goes right, never what goes wrong.

I wish people would actually listen to the next verse.  Stop and think about what you don’t understand- Things like life and love and how the world began.  When people do think more critically about these things, God has a habit of going to the wayside.

I would be more interested in hearing a preacher explain why you have cancer in the first place than hear a doctor not understand why your cancer is gone.  But a preacher giving you any satisfying answer about anything at all would be about as close to a miracle as you can get.

The last verse is probably the most annoying since it equates evolution with chance but manages to do so with calculated arrogance and venom.  How people can be so adamant and methodical about trying to disprove one of the most evidenced scientific theories ever, but think taking something with not a shred of evidence on blind faith is perfectly acceptable, is beyond me.  The theory of evolution probably  ranks second only to maybe the theory of gravity in the amount of times it has been attempted to be disproven and still found not only viable, but the only logical explanatory theory.

It is hard not to chastise someone for writing a song like this.  Imagine if an atheist put out a song entitled There is No God.  Imagine the outcry:

Try and wrap your mind around
the concept of infinity
Forget about the Gods of the Norse
and let their follies give you heed
Take a look down at the world from 30,000 feet
on your next flight and thank the Wright brothers for knowing what they were doing.

Watch a flock of believers
against anything fun
Open your eyes and listen
to the nonsense  spun
Catch a thief red in hand
or a child speak in tongues
That’s right

Chorus:
There is no God
There is no God
There is no God
Do you have any proof at all?

Have a need and see
who comes around
Lose the heartbeat on your baby’s ultrasound
In a few years hear God explaining,
and don’t it sound simply wrong?

Stop and think about
what you don’t understand
Things like life and love
and how the world began
Hear the preacher say he can’t explain it,
but cancer is why your loved one’s gone

Chorus:
There is no God
There is no God
There is no God
Do you have any proof at all?

Bridge:
Pastor says boys need circumcised
Like this saves the world from sin
But if you want to shoot that idiotic belief down,
Look around

God is nowhere to be found

There is no God
There is no God
There is no God,
Do you have any proof at all?

No there is no God
There is no God
There is no God
Is there any proof at all?

Nope.  It’s summer time!  We are instead having the first ever FFW Summer Picnic in the Park!

Saturday, June 19th, everyone is invited to bring their friends and family to the Japanese Pavilion in Swinney Park.  The picnic starts at noon, but I will be there at 11AM setting up.  I could always use help if anyone would like to get there early.  It will go on for as long as everyone wants.  We have the pavilion all day.

Check out our google calendar on our front page for directions.  The pavilion is open and is not air-conditioned, but it does have outlets.

If you can, bring a dish to share with everyone.  And don’t forget to bring your favorite board game or activity.

We will be raffling off a few door prizes such as “Godless” money, a few books, a FSM car decal, etc.  Any old  freethoughty books or atheist paraphernalia you may have lying around the house that you might be willing to part with would be appreciated as raffle prizes.  What’s old to you is new to others.

Here’s the current list of goodies we had decided on during our May meeting.  If you want to bring something different or can’t bring the dish you put down, just let me know in the comments or via e-mail:

• Me:  Potatoes and onions, a couple coolers, ice
• Chad:  Green bean casserole
• Joel:  Pop, chips, bratwurst, stereo/tunes
• Amanda:  Dessert
• Harry:  Cooler
• Andy D:  chips
• Susanne:  Pop, maybe food
• Luke:  Veggie and fruit tray
• Chris:  Pop, hotdogs/buns, mustard/ketchup
• Sandie:  Sloppy Joes and buns
• Steve:  snacks

We could still use some charcoal and lighter fluid (there is a grill pit there).

No one claimed cups, plates, silverware or napkins.  There are several picnic tables there, but we don’t have any tableclothes for them.

Would someone like to bring some hamburger patties and/or buns?

If someone has a food warmer or sorts, we could probably use that to keep the burgers and hotdogs safe and warm.

I’m not sure if there is a drinking fountain close by, but we could probably use some gallons of water/bottled water if someone wants to bring that.

That’s about all I could think of for it, but it already sounds like we are going to have a lot of food and fun!

They will be held on the first Friday of every month at Side Pocket @ 7PM.  That’s in the Georgetown North area.  See our google calendar for the map and address.

That means the first one takes place this coming Friday, June 4th.  Side Pocket has pool, darts and shuffleboard.  Oh, and lots of booze.

So, if you’re available and want to wet your whistle and think while you drink, stop on by and say hi!

Just for the record, we had, however, thought of different names for the drinking group that, for one reason or another, didn’t quite make the cut:

• AA:   Alcoholic Atheists.   Or even AAA:  Alcoholic Atheists And Agnostics (or is that 4 A’s?)  The alcoholics objected noting they already had enough social problems without attaching the dreaded ATHEIST label.
• The Fort Wayne FreeDrinkers.  We liked the play on words, but we didn’t want to give anybody the idea that we met to give out free drinks.  A penny for your thoughts maybe, but 10 bucks a pitcher, no.
• Doubting Drinkers.  This is another one that lends itself to confusion, even if it is amusing confusion.  Although “Double D” would have been a good nickname.
• Wine & Whiners.  Funny, but mean.  Besides, I speak whine more than I drink wine.