Search results for: ethics

By Elizabeth Dorssom

Foundation Beyond Belief’s Beyond Belief Network is a network of secular humanist groups interested in volunteering (Volunteers Beyond Belief) and raising money for FBB and our beneficiaries (Foundation Partners Program).

November is upon us, and our Beyond Belief Network teams are already busy expressing their thanks this season by volunteering in their communities!

Flagstaff Freethinkers, Beyond Belief Network’s October Team of the Month, hosted a Family Dance Party fundraiser in collaboration with the Flagstaff Latin Dance Collective to benefit One New Education. One New Education is a group that provides educational opportunities for women in developing countries. Flagstaff Freethinkers raised $960 and brought a lot of the greater Flagstaff community together around a great cause, with the freethinkers at the heart of it.

Ethics in Action organized the library at the St. Louis LGBT Center. The LGBT Center of St Louis is run entirely by volunteers. This important service to the local community wouldn’t be able to open its doors without volunteers like Ethics in Action. One of the resources provided by the center is its library, an impressive collection of books on LGBT history, law, theory, self-improvement, and fiction. Ethics in Action members sorted all the books in the fiction section into an orderly alphabetical arrangement on the shelves—sounds simple, but it was quite a task! Next up: Nonfiction. The volunteers are pictured in their brand-new Humanism at Work shirts that they received for reaching Level One of Beyond Belief Network!

North Florida Atheists recently volunteered with Dignity U Wear. Dignity U Wear distributes dignity in the form of brand new clothing. Their goal is to distribute clothing in a way that maximizes the impact that clothing has on lives. They collaborate with other great social service agencies on projects and programs so that the clothing is given to people at the right time—the first day of school, in coordination with medical care, or before a job interview, for example.

Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry has been collecting money for a different local charity every quarter since 2007. Their first Charity of the Quarter for 2012 was “Begin with Books,” which distributes new free books to kids in need every month. SHL raised $1,092 and were honored as the sponsor of the month in August 2013, which means that their group name was on the book plate placed into each book distributed. They challenged their members to donate blood at two local Red Cross donor centers during the week of October 14-19 in their group’s name. SHL also picked up litter along two miles of road in Charleston, SC, through the South Carolina Department of Transportation Adopt a Highway program and have a road sign indicating they have adopted that highway portion.

Siouxland Freethinkers volunteered at the Kirby Science Center’s “Spooky Science” event. Spooky Science is a non-scary Halloween event. There are stations set up throughout the science center where kids can perform science experiments, learn about science, and make crafts. Siouxland Freethinkers members ran different experiment stations, such as one that taught kids about Newton’s laws of motion, one that experimented with static electricity, one that taught about buoyancy, and one where the kids learned about holograms. Siouxland Freethinkers also recently hosted a blood drive and participated in “Tree the Town,” during which volunteers planted trees at the homes of the elderly and the disabled in order to help replace trees that were lost during an ice storm earlier this year.

Southern Maryland Secular Humanists also got in the Halloween spirit by running a booth at the 14th-annual Halloween event for the Annmarie Sculpture Garden & Arts Center. Nearly 6,000 kids and parents enjoyed the gorgeous weather. Eighty company booths handed out candy along with SMSH. This perfectly spook-tacular event raised money for the Holiday Food Basket Program, Annmarie Scholarship Fund, and a St. Mary’s County Charity to be named by the Ann’s Circle Board of Directors.

Central Ohio United Non-Theists (COUNT) worked as housewarmers at the Columbus, Ohio, Ronald McDonald House (RMH). RMH provides housing and meals to families with children being treated at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and other area hospitals. Housewarmers work with RMH guests to provide a home-like environment by greeting, assisting with family needs, answering phones, giving tours, assisting with checking in and out, preparing guest rooms after checkout, cleaning the facility, laundry, restocking supplies, and staffing the front desk.

In November, Beyond Belief Network will observe Hunger Awareness Month by encouraging BBN teams to help local food banks and soup kitchens. If you are a member of a secular humanist or atheist group and would like to participate in community service projects under the national umbrella of Foundation Beyond Belief, join Beyond Belief Network. We welcome all atheist groups interested in service, from groups with extensive volunteer experience to newly formed groups new to secular service. By aggregating our efforts, we show the world that all we really need is charity and goodness to make the world a better place.

Foundation Beyond Belief’s Beyond Belief Network is a network of secular humanist groups interested in volunteering (Volunteers Beyond Belief) and raising money for FBB and our beneficiaries (Foundation Partners Program).

October is here, and that means it’s time for hayrides, pumpkin spice lattes, and the September Beyond Belief Network Event Roundup!

The Humanist Community of Ventura County (HCVC) helped the Ventura Hillside Conservancy with one of their bimonthly park clean-ups. HCVC volunteered at the Conejo Valley Days Poker Tournament Fundraiser. The tournament is a private fundraiser for local charity Many Mansions, which provides housing with on-site, life-enriching services for low-income residents of Conejo Valley and Ventura County. Humanist Community members assisted with set-up and manager check-in. HCVC also volunteered at a Habitat for Humanity build site in Oxnard, California. The house was occupied by an elderly woman who could no longer afford to finance renovations or external maintenance. Volunteers spent more than four hours painting, laying lawn carpeting, mulching, and removing trash.

HCVC is also our very first Beyond Belief Network Team of the Month for September, primarily because of the breadth and depth of their volunteering activities recently.

The Flagstaff Freethinkers also had a busy September. They volunteered at the Flagstaff Family Food Center, a secular food pantry. They helped with food preparation, serving, and clean-up. Julian Wallace, daughter of a Flagstaff Freethinkers member, recently devoted her birthday to fighting homelessness and hunger in her hometown. Julian loves to knit and crochet and invited the entire Flagstaff community to knit or crochet with her on her birthday. For each hour spent knitting or crocheting, money was donated to the Flagstaff Family Food Center. The Flagstaff Freethinkers collected more than $800 as well as three bags of food for the Flagstaff Family Food Center. Flagstaff Freethinkers also collected about 85 pounds of hygiene/toiletry products, as well as 30 winter coats and sweaters, 12 hats (four of which were made that day), and eight scarves (of which five were made that day). These items were collected for Flagstaff Shelter Services.

The Humanist Community at Harvard collaborated with the Cambridge Department of Public Works to clean up the Cambridge City Park. Volunteers picked up trash, pulled weeds, and cleaned tree wells. This event kicked off HCH’s 2013 Values in Action (VIA) programming. The VIA program is HCH’s community service and interfaith initiative with a three-fold goal: to better the conditions of life for others through service to humanity, to build alliances between religious and nonreligious individuals and communities, and to combat the misconception that the nonreligious do not contribute to society. Values in Action is being sponsored in part by Foundation Beyond Belief as a pilot program. We’ll be covering VIA in more detail in the coming months.

Montgomery Area Freethought Association (MAFA) held a food drive to benefit the Montgomery Area Food Bank. They didn’t do a small drive at a meeting; they set up at a local supermarket and were able to collect donations and interact with their community. In addition to showing their community that Freethinkers are compassionate and charitable, MAFA collected nearly 3,000 pounds of food for the poor and homeless.

Ethics in Action recently volunteered for Lydia’s House. Lydia’s House provides transitional housing for women who need a place to stay after leaving an abuse shelter, and it also helps them gain the skills and confidence they need to get back on their feet. Volunteers washed dishes, mopped floors, scrubbed child seats, and even dusted cobwebs off the ceiling!

Humanists of Houston packed food at the Houston Food Bank. They packed a total of 469 boxes with a balanced selection of food for CFSP. CFSP provides income-eligible seniors with a 25 lb. box of food every month. That’s an estimated 11,725 meals!

The University of North Georgia Humanist Student Union collected trash along the shores of their local lake as part of the annual shore sweep.

In October, Beyond Belief Network is observing Domestic Violence Awareness Month by encouraging BBN teams to help local shelters. If you are a member of a secular humanist or atheist group and would like to participate, join Beyond Belief Network. We welcome all atheist groups interested in service, from groups with extensive volunteer experience to newly formed groups with no experience.

By Elizabeth Dorssom

Foundation Beyond Belief’s Beyond Belief Network is a network of secular humanist groups interested in volunteering in their communities (Volunteers Beyond Belief) and raising money for FBB and its beneficiaries (FBB Partners Program). September has arrived, so it’s time to take a look back at the amazing service projects our BBN teams carried out during August.

The St. Louis-based group Ethics in Action repacked and sorted food at the St. Louis Food Bank (pictured below). Over the three hours they spent volunteering, Ethics in Action was able to pack 816 boxes, 26,928 pounds of food, and provide 21,982 meals for St. Louis residents. Children of Ethics in Action members were also able to be involved in this event by collapsing used cardboard materials.

Pennsylvania Nonbelievers spent their summer staffing the snack bar at York Revolution Minor League home baseball games. Instead of accepting payment for their work, the Pennsylvania Nonbelievers decided to instead donate the proceeds to the Margaret Moul Home for cerebral palsy patients. Along with other volunteers, they donated more than $3,000. Next Friday, they’ll finish up the season with their eighth home game.

Flagstaff Freethinkers participated in the American Cancer Society’s Climb to Conquer Cancer. Seventeen freethinkers hiked through beautiful mountain scenery, and their hike ended in a festival to celebrate cancer survivors. The Flagstaff Freethinkers team raised $2,200.

The Humanist Community of Ventura County was extremely busy this summer. They cleaned up a classroom for Nature and Nurture, a secular preschool program (pictured below). After two hours, the windows were cleaned, spiders evicted, main door fixed, books organized, and furniture cleaned. In early August, The Humanist Community of Ventura also hosted their fifth blood drive to fill the inventory of their local blood bank, United Blood Services. They also picked up litter and cleared trails near the Ventura River. The Ventura Hillside Conservancy recently purchased the land, and HCVC is assisting the Conservancy to create trails and a wildlife restoration project.

North Florida Atheists (pictured below) sorted and folded clothes for Dignity U Wear. Dignity U Wear distributes dignity in the form of brand-new clothing. In order to maximize impact, the clothing is given in preparation for important events such as the first day of school or a job interview.

Humanists of Houston packed a total of 455 boxes for the Houston Food Bank. Despite working in a room with only partial air conditioning, the Humanists of Houston were able to provide 11, 375 meals as a result of this volunteer opportunity.

Are you a member of a secular humanist group and want to help your community, raise awareness of nonbelievers doing good deeds, and connect with other service-oriented groups? Ask your team to join Beyond Belief Network! BBN staff can help you achieve your service goals and, as you submit event reports, your team will qualify for free t-shirts and the opportunity to apply for grants.

By Daniel Hay

Foundation Beyond Belief’s Beyond Belief Network is a network of secular humanist groups interested in volunteering (Volunteers Beyond Belief) and raising money for FBB and our beneficiaries (FBB Partners Program). July has come and gone, and with it we saw a wonderful showcase of what humanist groups can do for the community.

The Central Savannah River Area Non-Theist Group (CSRA) assisted in the cleaning of litter around Augusta Riverwalk, where a fireworks display had been presented days earlier. Cleaning up the Riverwalk benefits the entire community because it is a beautiful attraction for their city.

The organizers of FreeOK have been continuing to help with tornado relief, assisting with the tent city that has sprouted up since May. The team organized overflow donations, which could not be held in the limited warehouse space, to be distributed to local women’s and children’s shelters, as well as to the local Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The Humanists of Rhode Island have been again showing the benefits of regularly scheduled volunteer work by volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. They mixed cement, built stairs and laid down flooring on a hot summer day.

Ethics in Action volunteered with the LGBT Center of St. Louis, particularly working with their library containing many books on LGBT history, law, theory, self-improvement, and fiction. Ethics in Action volunteers spent the morning labeling books with their call numbers on the spine, as well as looking up hard-to-find books in the Library of Congress catalog. Some members even baked cookies in the kitchen, which the children who attended enjoyed very much!

The Pennsylvania Nonbelievers have been a great help to The United Way, assembling 500+ pledge packets of literature to be given to the top donors of the United Way of the Capital Region (Harrisburg, PA).

The Humanists of Houston worked as part of a team of about 50 community volunteers to sort and box food donations. These food boxes are ultimately distributed through the emergency pantry (one of multiple distribution modes at the Houston Food Bank).

Finally, the North Florida Atheists helped their community by volunteering with Dignity U Wear. Dignity U Wear is a local charity created to help those in need of new clothes for children and adults, including new school clothes and interview clothes. The NFA came in and helped sort by size, folded the clothes, and organized them to be easily accessible to those in need.

Member of a secular humanist group? Want to help your community, raise awareness of nonbelievers doing good, and connect with other service-oriented groups? Ask your team to join Beyond Belief Network! BBN staff can help you achieve your service goals and, as you submit event reports, your team will qualify for free t-shirts and the opportunity to apply for grants!

We are excited to announce several new and changing roles among Foundation Beyond Belief’s staff. As FBB grows, we strive to do a lot with a little—our part-time staff members work with a laser focus on their assigned areas, using their specific expertise to support our projects, spread the word about compassionate humanism, and keep our community involved and informed.

Ed Brayton joins FBB as our new media relations coordinator. Ed will handle all aspects of our media outreach, including print, broadcast, and online media. Ed is well known among freethought circles as a popular blogger at Dispatches from the Culture Wars and has an extensive background in journalism.

Bridget Gaudette will take over as our director of marketing and development. As development director, Bridget is tasked with securing the financial well-being of the Foundation itself. As marketing director, she is responsible for promoting the name and mission of the Foundation to the general public and to our potential members and supporters. Bridget is a former FBB intern and co-founded Secular Woman.

Cathleen O’Grady, who served as a fall intern for FBB, is staying on as our new director of special projects. In this role, Cathleen will be responsible for keeping all of our various initiatives on track, including membership development and program expansions in this exciting transitional year. Cathleen currently works as a consumer ethics journalist in her hometown of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Brittany Shoots-Reinhard is our new Beyond Belief Network coordinator. Previously, Brittany had served as FBB’s director of special projects. As Beyond Belief Network coordinator, Brittany will be managing the soon-to-be-launched Beyond Belief Network, which will provide a common platform for the Volunteers Beyond Belief, Partner, and LLS programs.

Kelly Wright, who has been the Foundation’s blog editor since 2009, steps into a new role as our communications coordinator. Kelly will now be overseeing our blog, social media, email, and print communications, keeping members and the community informed about the work of FBB and our beneficiaries. She brings years of experience as a professional writer and editor to the position.

Please join us in welcoming our newest staff member and supporting our existing staff as they transition into their new roles.

Prison University Project (PUP), our current Education beneficiary, is an organization that faces substantial resistance: It seems natural to ask why people who are in prison should have a chance at free education when so many are struggling with the ever-increasing cost of higher education.

Jody Lewen, the executive director of PUP, thinks this question should be turned on its head: Rather than being an argument against the education of prisoners, she suggests that it should be an argument in favor of universally available education. It is in prison, where many inmates have slipped through the cracks and had limited chances at education, that she feels an important difference can be made. In 2009, it was found that 70% of prisoners released on parole in California were functionally illiterate. Clearly, this is a segment of society where education has immense power to change lives. 

PUP endeavors to move beyond the dehumanization of incarcerated people. In doing so, they have changed the lives of many inmates, as well as the communities surrounding the men involved in the project. Toby, a 44-year-old student excelling in ethics, sees the project as a chance to give back to the community he took from, and has learned that people who have committed horrific crimes aren’t necessarily horrific people. Ricky, 29, has gained a sense of peace from his studies, and is learning about values and the life skills he feels he was not equipped with before being “thrown out into the world.”

Jahmal, who is serving a life sentence, has developed a profound understanding of the weaknesses in society that result in a high level of incarceration. He argues that some people are not taught to handle conflict in a society in which deadly weapons are readily available, and that “most people are only as dangerous as their society is, and this society’s pretty dangerous.”

The project has vocational aims, and the benefits of preparing inmates to face the world after release are clear. However, the values and critical thinking skills gained by the students are probably equally as important, allowing inmates to enrich their understanding of their societies and individual choices. With the recidivism rate for individuals with degrees being estimated at as low as 10%, it is clear that the Prison University Project is a powerful tool for change, for individuals as well as their communities.

In between checking your email and browsing the latest updates on your Facebook wall, can you spare a few clicks? Foundation Beyond Belief, Secular Student Alliance, and Camp Quest need your votes to earn up to $450,000 combined in the Chase Community Giving contest! They’re all 501(c)(3) nonprofits, so a little money never hurt—and you know it’s not going to pay for increasing the size of their yacht fleets.

The Chase Community Giving program awards funding to charities based on votes from Facebook users and Chase customers, and there are lots of grants available. The first place winner gets $250K, the following 10 get $100K, then the next 35 get $50K, and the next 50 get $20K. SSA was ranked 30th as of September 11, which would net them a $50K grant. FBB was ranked 56th for a $20K grant, and CQ was 166th and in place a $10K grant. That’s $80K for secular charities, but we need at least 100 votes every day to maintain these positions, and 200 to 300 votes every day to move up in the ranks.

As of September 11 (Day 6 of the contest), SSA has almost 1,100 votes, FBB has about 730, and Camp Quest has about 325. Yesterday many people worked very hard to spread the word, and we banked more than 200 votes and raised each organization’s rank in the contest significantly. We need to do this every day to stay competitive, and we need everyone’s help to get the largest grants possible for these secular organizations. We can increase the grant total for the three organizations combined by more than $300K!

Let’s make this an even better deal—we estimate that 2,000 votes per organization is about the number of votes needed to put groups safely in the $50,000 range for the duration of the contest. Groups probably don’t need that much, but it’s hard to say at this point.

 Now let’s do the math: $50,000/2,000 = $25

 per vote. Each person gets two votes. You can help secure $50 for these awesome organizations just by voting.

On Facebook, you can get two votes automatically that have to be used on different charities, and you can earn a third vote that can be doubled up or used on a third charity if you share a link on your wall and someone clicks on it. Here’s the Facebook event with all the voting links that you can use to RSVP and let your friends online know about the contest.

To go directly to the Chase giving pages and vote, click these links:

• Vote for Foundation Beyond Belief: Foundation Beyond Belief provides a venue for humanists to put their values into actions by supporting efforts to improve this world and this life, and to focus, encourage and demonstrate humanist values such as generosity, compassion, mutual care, and responsibility.
• Vote for Secular Student Alliance: The Secular Student Alliance organizes, unites, educates, and serves students and student communities that promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics.
• Vote for Camp Quest: Camp Quest provides an educational adventure for kids 8 to 17 years old that is shaped by fun, friends, and freethought, featuring science, natural wonder, and humanist values.

Chase customers get two additional votes in addition to the Facebook votes. That means one person can have up to five votes to spend on three or more charities.

Voting ends Wednesday, September 19. Please vote today, and help spread the word!

For more stories about this drive and these organizations, visit the Foundation Beyond Belief blog, the Secular Student Alliance blog, and the Camp Quest blog. You can also follow these groups on Twitter: @foundbb, @volunteersbb, @secularstudents, and @campquest.

In a region where most schools are religiously affiliated and many families struggle economically, the Kasese Humanist Primary School, our current Education beneficiary, has emerged as a unique experiment in freethought and community service.

The KHPS instills humanist values and ethics in the children of a small western Ugandan town. Its namesake Kasese district is mainly agricultural, but it suffers from high unemployment rates and low salaries for teachers who do find jobs. Further, many of the children in the community are tremendously malnourished. Local schools mainly offer only corn meal, beans, and potatoes because of budgetary shortcomings.

To work toward mending this symptom of the community’s poverty, the Kasese Humanist Primary School is building a chicken coop in order to be able to feed children chicken eggs and offset the limited nutritional options offered by the school.

Currently, they have fundraised to build the entire coop, which completes Phase 1 of the project. Phase 2, which entails distributing the poultry and feeding the children, will begin after Labor Day. Pharyngula and Godless Poutine have already pledged to help raise funds for Phase 2.

You can find more information on the chicken coop construction and how to support them directly at the KHPS website.

Our 1,157 contributing humanist members have concluded another strong quarter of support for five outstanding non-profits. We will announce the grant totals in the coming week. Now let’s meet the five new beneficiaries for third quarter 2012:

Education  | Kasese Humanist Primary School

Kasese Humanist Primary School is a secular school offering Nursery and Primary education to young people ages 4-13 in the communities around Kasese Municipality in Uganda. The school is the first primary school in Uganda grounded in humanist values and ethics. In all subjects taught at school, the emphasis is on application of scientific and humanist principles in an effort to realize a child’s full potential.

At the end of the term in 2011, Kasese school had enrolled 191 students and had 12 teachers. Just $44 covers one teacher’s monthly salary, and $90 sponsors one student for a full year.

The school is grounded in humanism but importantly does not indoctrinate, instead encouraging free inquiry. From the website: “No form of indoctrination is undertaken at the school – there is a strong emphasis on critical thinking so that pupils can rationally assess evidence and differing points of view on any topic.” They also include a comprehensive Religious Education curriculum.

Challenge the Gap  | Hindu American Seva Charities

Hindu American Seva Charities (HASC) is a progressive American organization advancing seva (community service), interfaith collaboration, pluralism, social justice, and sustainable civic engagement to ignite grassroots social change and build healthy communities. The organization was formed in response to President Obama’s Call to Serve with the support of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and is a service partner with the Corporation for National and Community Service.

In the short time since its 2009 launch, HASC has become one of the premier Hindu service organizations. Like FBB, it was founded in part to increase the engagement of those in their own worldview with humanitarian charitable efforts.

HASC seeks to mobilize communities through service and community-building at local and national levels to affect development. Its website notes that HASC seeks to “bridge the gap between US government and Hindu and Dharmic people, and between places of worship and secular organizations,” a perfect fit for Challenge the Gap.

Though not a deciding factor, this represents the fifth of the five major world religions to be featured in CTG.

(See additional information from the Huffington Post and the White House.)

The Natural World  | Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF)

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) fights to protect the lives and advance the interests of animals through the legal system. Founded in 1979 by attorneys active in shaping the emerging field of animal law, ALDF has blazed the trail for stronger enforcement of anti-cruelty laws and more humane treatment of animals in every corner of American life. Today, ALDF’s groundbreaking efforts to push the U.S. legal system to end the suffering of abused animals are supported by hundreds of dedicated attorneys and more than 100,000 members.

ALDF files groundbreaking lawsuits to stop animal abuse; provides free legal assistance to prosecutors handling cruelty cases; works to strengthen anti-cruelty statutes; encourages federal enforcement of existing animal protection laws; nurtures the future of animal law; and provides public education.

Human Rights  | Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) 

The Equal Justice Initiative is a private nonprofit organization that provides legal representation to indigent defendants and prisoners who have been denied fair and just treatment in the legal system. They litigate on behalf of condemned prisoners, juvenile offenders, people wrongly convicted or charged with violent crimes, poor people denied effective representation, and others whose trials are marked by racial bias or prosecutorial misconduct.

EJI focuses its work on communities that have been systematically marginalized by poverty and discouraged by unequal treatment.

(Learn more in an outstanding TED talk by EJI executive director Bryan Stevenson)

Poverty and Health  | Nourishing USA

Nourishing USA is an innovative organization that goes beyond feeding the hungry to improve nutrition and encourage healthy eating in communities across the U.S. NUSA began providing meals to the hungry in New York City free of charge several years ago and has now expanded to several U.S.-national programs. They encourage bodegas to include fresh produce and facilitate the creation of “green carts” (public produce stands), and their blog includes tips for including more healthy foods, healthy recipes, and urban gardening advice. NUSA also runs a junior chefs program, which is open to underprivileged kids aged 5-10 and includes kitchen and garden skills.

We look forward to bringing you the stories of these great organizations and those who benefit from their work in the coming months.



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This post, written by Bridget Gaudette, our spring intern for Members and Partners programs, originally appeared at emilyhasbooks.com.

I was inspired by a recent article by George Dvorsky, the Chair of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. The article was titled “Why Humanists Need to Make the Shift to Post-Atheism.” First, let’s examine what he could mean by “post-atheism.” I posit two possibilities: 1. describes humanity when all religious belief has disappeared. In this case, we’d all be post-atheists because atheism would be too irrelevant to have any value in our identity; 2. suggests that there is a more evolved and thus more desirable state than atheism. That is, it reflects a more clear-headed and less heated stance that some atheists will eventually reach as they mature beyond atheism. I believe #2 is the perspective that the author is drawing from.

The central theme of the article was to encourage us to move away from bashing religion while building up the humanist movement. The part of the article that got me thinking was in the first paragraph. Dvorsky said, “I’m getting annoyed by all the anti-religious propaganda that litters my Facebook newsfeed […]. What are you hoping to achieve by posting such facile and inflammatory material?”

I am guilty of posting the occasional anti-religious picture meme or quote myself, but I do not see the point in the extremes. I don’t want to see a Jesus or Mohammed engaged in sexual acts with each other. I don’t believe it serves the greater good. The same is true with publicity stunts that some in the secular movement feel are necessary. I am coordinating a protest with some fellow freethinkers and the concept was simple: we get some signs and a group of people and we let the townsfolk know that we oppose religious encroachment on public property. I was criticized for not introducing more drama. When I asked what I should have done, the criticizer stated that she would have brought a bunch of fake rocks and done a faux-stoning. In the fashion of WWJD, I thought about a person who found success when fighting for equal rights: MLK Jr. What would he have done? Dress up in whiteface and drag around a chained-up black man for dramatic effect to demonstrate the societal shackles that black Americans were still encumbered by? No. I don’t think so. This would have gotten him more press, which is the point of such stunts, yes, but does it help legitimize the movement? Do we get taken more seriously? I think we have to look at best practices. What actions have brought about the most change? Stunts or lawsuits? Dramatics or persistence? Costumes or reason?

All this being said, I, like Voltaire, might not agree with what you say or how you say it, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. We all need to vent, and this is good for our mental health. Some folks do this by displaying anti-religious pictures or by lashing out at theists. That’s fine as long as the goal of bettering humanity is always in the forefront. Add some substance.