I am still extremely tired.  I think that I had on average about three hours sleep per day, which resulted in my wanting to sleep in the less vibrant lectures.   Oh and I never seemed to have a hand empty of beer( thank you to fans and well wishers who kept me buzzed all day).

One of the major highlights for me was meeting Atheists that I had known online, some stretching back 2 years or more.  In some cases it was like talking to old friends.  Sure I got to meet Russell Blackford, that PZ chap, Ms Kylie Burgess and that crazy Tanya Levin but I find myself with slight pangs of sorrow with the sudden loss of personal connection with likeminded and definitely cool people.

When you’ve been hugged by Dave the Happy Singer (of Dave the Happy Singer dot com) it’s like a drug, you just want more.  Seriously I can’t wait for the next meetup.

But you want to know about the content.

The Content

Now I am not going to cover it all in on post.  I will try and do a series on the more interesting speakers in the coming week, perhaps examine some of the religious reporting of the event.  Sufficed to say, I think overall it was a really good selection of speakers.  There was only one speaker who I felt was a bit below par.

The only real improvement for next time would be to have had more female speakers, or to have given the speakers present given a little more time.   I was rather peeved that the panel of women speakers had their question time cut in the interest of keeping to the schedule.

The convention has been criticised or perhaps painted as a giant piss take of the religious.  I am sure that when someone makes fun of a group that you identify with that you’re inclined to take offense and perhaps miss the more salient points the speakers were trying to get across( but then journalists are supposed to have a degree of detachment no ?).

My pick of the most accurate/unbiased journalists is Renai LeMay and compare that to anything written by Barney Zwartz.

If I were to pick a favourite talk

I would have to say Talsima Nasrin on an emotional level.   The woman has 5 outstanding fatwas against her and lives in exile in the west, the hardship she endures, at once both shows how lucky western atheists have it and how off the mark religious commentary on the convention was (in that it was a giant ad hominum attack against the innocent religious).  Interesting that religious commentators fail to note how secular governments like that in India, have bowed to religious pressure and left Nasrin out in the cold.  I guess, though that they would have us do the same, i.e. not offend the religious.  At least here though we can politely tell them to back of without fear of it resulting in bloodshed.

PZ Myers was a pleasant surprise, in so much that he was not the mild mannered, boring biology professor you’d expected.   He was funny, he was disrespectful towards the religious (but not without justification) and was well paced.  His critique on Ken Miller was especially enlightening.

Dan Barker was also a delight.  An interesting perspective and some advice on how to dialogue with the deeply religious.  I am now tracking down the audio debate he had with George Pell in which he apparently slaughtered his eminence.

Quirky moments

A person I shall call Scientology Guy( no idea if he was a scientologist or not) got to ask two questions of speakers and it didn’t seem to matter who he asked.  but he was deeply concerned about Psychiatry and tried to get into a debate about the greek meaning of the term with AC Grayling.

The next occurred with little miss I wear my Christianity on my sleeve in the Dawkins lecture where she publically identified herself as a Christian, not just “I am a Christian” but “ I will be thanking god tonight for my life and I am a Christian” followed by “Can you please explain DNA to me (with the inference that If he couldn’t it would bring about the downfall of Atheism).

Dawkins handled it well with a 5 minute mini lecture on DNA and RNA which may well have  been better than the rest of his speech.  The question did piss off the audience though and I think we were justified.  Here was what amounted to a forum troll getting air time with the man many atheists had come to see.  Her question did not relate to the talk and it was not asked in good faith, if you’ll excuse the phrase.  I had muttered “read a fucking book” while a more vocal atheist sitting next to me jokingly said ” where is she, I am going to lynch her”.

Hopes

I hope that as a result of the convention their might be some accelerated movement towards bolstering secular democracy in Australia and a move to challenging tax concessions given to the religious.

Related posts:

1. Global Atheist Convention Tickets Selling out Fast
2. Global Atheist Convention – Over half the tickets are sold
3. Global Atheist Convention – Sold Out

Its hard to believe its almost a year since Atheist Nexus began.  A social networking initiative for Atheists and Agnostics it was not without a rocky start.  But a year on its bigger than many of its detractors thought possible.  Atheist Nexus membership stands at 9,178 and the folks at Atheist Nexus would like to make that a nice round figure by the time it hits its 1st birthday.

What do they offer? 

Atheist Nexus includes:

• numerous forums,
• blogs,
• a chat room

Primarily, Nexus aims to provide social support for atheists and agnostics. It is not in competition with other atheist organizations. In fact, one of its aims is to support them.

There are currently 485 groups on Nexus covering subjects as wide-ranging as:

• parenting to Shakespeare
• evolution to photography
• There are groups for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex atheists.

Prominent atheists who are members of AN include:

• PZ Myers (Pharyngula),
• Tanya Levin (author of People in Glass Houses: An Insider’s Story of a Life In and Out of Hillsong), and
• Russell Blackford (Metamagician and the Hellfire Club blog; author of 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists to be published later this year).

 
AN has also attracted many academics:

• Oxford educated Dr Terence Meaden runs a highly successful group called "Origins: Universe, Life, Humankind and Darwin".
• Professor Tom Arcaro drew on AN members for his recent sociological study of over 8,000 atheists. A
• Atheist Nexus Member, Emeritus Professor Robert A M Gregson of the Australian National University provided invaluable support and advice in drafting the recent Atheist Nexus submission to the Australian Human Rights Commission on "Freedom of Religion and Belief".

In order for atheists to have a ‘voice’ we need to unite.  Encouraging your friends, contacts and readers to boost our membership to the 10,000 and beyond mark is a positive step in that direction.

What does it cost?

Nadda, zip, nothing

Want to join?

Click here

Related posts:

1. Atheist Showdown? – Think Atheist vs Atheist Nexus
2. New Atheist Social Networking Platform
3. Atheist Organisers too efficient … Global Atheist Convention will not be funded by Victorian government