Texas Freethought Convention: Atheists Invade Houston

[SecularMotion]

On Oct. 7-8, Houston was invaded by some 700 atheists, agnostics, humanists and other unclassified nonbelievers for the annual Texas Freethought Convention. This year the event was also co-sponsored by the Atheist Alliance of America. The program included talks by several of the most prominent atheists and skeptics and was highlighted by the presentation of the AAA Richard Dawkins Award to the noted literary figure Christopher Hitchens, who is gravely ill from esophageal cancer.

Besides speakers, the program arranged by TFC president Paul Mitchell and AAA president Nick Lee included supplemental activities such as breakout discussions, comedy shows, music, a film festival (including "The Ledge," with its director), art exhibits and every imaginable God-denying item for sale, from bumper stickers to T-shirts. A large book sale was also conducted, with signings by those authors present.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/victor-stenger/atheist-invade-houston_b_1006021.html

[Kerrytravelers]

1. This certainly caught my attention:

I asked what the problem was teaching about creationism, or even the Bible, as long as it is done honestly and factually. Several philosophers of science have said that despite court rulings, creation science and ID are science -- just incorrect science. Forrest disagreed because these introduce the supernatural. However, science is not forbidden from addressing the supernatural, as long as it involves the interpretation of empirical data. A number of people came up to me later saying they agreed with me and that allowing at least some mention of creationism would at least serve to deflate the academic freedom argument. Forbidding it really looks like censorship. Furthermore, the more one learns about religion, the less religious one becomes. Teach creationism and comparative religion. Just teach them properly.

I highly doubt people at this gathering really feel that not muddying up an actual science class with nonsense is censorship.