CFI Forums

Atheism+ San Francisco, a CFI Network partner

2012-10-09T17:11:45-05:00

Hi, I am Thothifex, an Atheist. I am busily putting together a new organization to collaborate with CFI San Francisco. I would like to join the existing CFI SF group at activities like SkeptiCal, SF Atheist Film Festival, RAM whenever they run their next event/prank/protest etc.

I want to move the site of the A+ meetings from Bay city to city to build the foundation Bay Area wide for CFI (and American Atheists to a lesser extent.)

Beyond my philosophical leanings, I like meet and greets at much as the next guy, and hang in Berkeley too much for a person who lives in SSF.

Please contact me if any of this strikes your fancy.

Our first ‘meeting’ if you want to use that word, will be at an Atheism and Sexuality event in SF on November 17th. More details will be posted, I’ll be speaking there with Greta Christina and others much more notable than my mumblings. Regards!

West Coast Rapture RAM (Regional Atheist Meeting) ..the world is ending May 21st..celebrate with us!

2011-04-02T21:22:03-05:00

What: West Coast Rapture RAM (Regional Atheist Meeting)
When: Saturday, May 21, 2011 9:00 AM

Where: OAKLAND MASONIC CENTER
3903 BROADWAY 3RD FLOOR BALL ROOM
Oakland, CA 94611

Why: Nobody wants to be left behind!

Q: What’s an atheist to do on Rapture Day?

a. Celebrate with other heathens and skeptics
b. Plan a secular future with like-minded people
c. View the $27,000 billboard at the foot of the Bay Bridge mocking two millennia of false predictions that the world was about to end
d. Be inspired by and meet some of the country’s top atheist speakers, entertainers and thinkers at the most exciting atheist conference ever held in this region
e. All of the above

Don’t get left behind:
Register Now! Details can be found at the American Atheists website: https://atheists.org/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=37

(May 21, 2011, is the date for the latest Rapture, or Judgment Day prophesy by Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping, who predicts the world will then end on October 21. Camping is the President of an Oakland-based religious broadcasting network with over 150 outlets nationally.)

This is an event for the entire West Coast secular community, especially for those in California. Two days of community building, activism, networking and fun! Our speakers will include Brian Dalton (Mr. Deity) , Matt Dillahunty, Greta Christina, David Eller, Rebecca Watson and Jen McCreight. We’ll be there organized and ready to pick up the clutter left behind when the Christian Rapture begins that Saturday, as promised by “God” Himself at http://www.wecanknow.com. Since “God” has chosen to reveal this vital fact to his prophet in Oakland, we thought Oakland would provide the best venue for an intimate view of the event.

Where: Oakland Masonic Center at 3903 Broadway (wheelchair accessible)
When: Conference starts at 9:00 each day. Party Saturday night. Conference ends at 1:00 Sunday.
Tickets: $49 for the entire weekend, $39 for American Atheists members, and $20 for students (for advance purchases). Register Now! All tickets $59 at the door.
WEST COAST RAPTURE RAM
May 21-22, 2011

Q: What’s an atheist to do on Rapture Day?

a. Celebrate with other heathens and skeptics

b. Plan a secular future with like-minded people

c. View the $27,000 billboard at the foot of the Bay Bridge mocking two millennia of false predictions that the world was about to end

d. Be inspired by and meet some of the country’s top atheist speakers, entertainers and thinkers at the most exciting atheist conference ever held in this region

e. All of the above

Don’t get left behind:

May 21, 2011, is the date for the latest Rapture, or Judgment Day prophesy by Christian radio broadcaster Harold Camping, who predicts the world will then end on October 21. Camping is the President of an Oakland-based religious broadcasting network with over 150 outlets nationally.

This is an event for the entire West Coast secular community, especially for those in California. Two days of community building, activism, networking and fun!

Our speakers will include Brian Dalton (Mr. Deity) , Matt Dillahunty, Greta Christina, David Eller, Rebecca Watson and Jen McCreight.

We’ll be there organized and ready to pick up the clutter left behind when the Christian Rapture begins that Saturday, as promised by “God” Himself at http://www.wecanknow.com. Since “God” has chosen to reveal this vital fact to his prophet in Oakland, we thought Oakland would provide the best venue for an intimate view of the event.

Where: Oakland Masonic Center at 3903 Broadway (wheelchair accessible)

When: Conference starts at 9:00 each day. Party Saturday night. Conference ends at 1:00 Sunday.

Tickets: $49 for the entire weekend, $39 for American Atheists members, and $20 for students (for advance purchases). Register Now. All tickets $59 at the door.

Food: A catered lunch and dinner are optional, but highly recommended as local restaurants will not be able to accommodate all participants and most are not in close proximity. Details to follow.

Public Transit: BART to MacArthur Station. Get a bus transfer ticket inside BART for the very short bus ride. Take the 57 bus on 40th Street outside the station. Exit the bus at 38th & Broadway, one block from the venue. From downtown Oakland it is a short bus ride on Broadway on the 51A line directly to the Masonic Center. The same line runs from Berkeley to the venue.

Parking: Just down the street is a large public parking garage that charges a maximum of $18 for the day. (Don’t worry, it is not just for Kaiser visitors.) There is limited street parking in nearby residential neighborhoods.

Hotel: We will have a special rate with a hotel for those coming from out of town.

Join counterdemo against SF archdiocese’s antichoice “Walk for Life,” Sat. 1/22

2011-01-20T09:32:34-05:00

I’ve been writing several SF freethought groups (plus Humanistic Jewish and Unitarian congregations) urging them to come together for a protest against the annual, religious-right antichoice march coming up on Saturday. It turns out that at least one group has been doing that already, also annually:

Join Counter March to Catholic West Coast Walk for Life

http://www.meetup.com/atheists-561/calendar/16013190/

Saturday, January 22, 2011, 11 a.m.
Location: Harry Bridges Plaza, Embarcadeo at Market, San Francisco, CA 94607

How to find us: “Look for the people who are supporting women’s rights.”

Led by the Catholics, the Right-to-Life movement has staged an annual West Coast Walk for Life in San Francisco for several years. Each January they bus in thousands of well-meaning theists who can only understand reproductive rights issues in terms of the woman’s duty to give birth to the human soul divinely created at the moment of conception. Five years ago organizers of the counter demonstration in favor of women’s rights reached out to us for support. Both East Bay and San Francisco Atheists participated in the last five counter demonstrations.

East Bay and San Francisco Atheists will again participate in the counter demonstration to the Walk for Life on Saturday, January 22, in San Francisco. Please help us take advantage of this excellent opportunity to enhance the understanding of the need for the separation of religion and government, and to develop respect among our natural allies.

We will meet at 11:00 AM at Harry Bridges Plaza, the median strip plaza in front of the Ferry Building, at the intersection of Market and Embarcadero Streets in San Francisco. This is very close to the Embarcadero BART station. There will be several informal speeches, and we will start marching at noon.

This has always been a peaceful counter march. Please join us.

2nd Annual SF Atheist film festival

2010-08-14T22:27:11-05:00

Just came back from the film festival, It was very well attended, the theater was full.
It was an all day affair with the following films shown:
10am The Four Horsemen
12:30 Marjoe If you’ve never seen this one, look for it—very illuminating
2:15-4:15 Short program
4:30p Creator of Gods (followed by Q&A with the producer) If you ever get the chance, you should see this one, it was produced by a Flint, Michigan neurosurgeon—very thought provoking.
6p The Rapture
8p Oh my God?
9:45 Monty Python’s meaning of life

Unfortunately, Randi and DJ Grothe came to town and announced a Skeptics in the Pub at 9pm—which was an unfortunate conflict with the film festival.

SkeptiCal 2010

2010-04-14T16:22:36-05:00

Is anyone here going to SkeptiCal in Berkeley, CA on April 24th besides me???

SCAM? crappy & more costly bio utensils not compostable?

2010-03-06T00:43:03-05:00

Below is the last email in this exchane. The discussion should continue here.

Allen,

Depends on how many you are feeding. When I took my kid camping, we would regularly
attract 10-20 kids/parents at Lake Sonoma (because I had the ski boat). We brought
Corelle dishes and everyone washed his plate with a tiny bit of detergent and a
rinse in lake water. I did that for many years and have never broken a single
dish. We stood them up to dry in the space between the planks of the picnic
tables. Those damned Corelle plates are made with magic. Other parents would bring
paper plates or plastic and we just looked at them with exasperation. You can only
do your share, very little more.

Tom
From: Allen
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 6:09 PM
To: skeptics-147 at meetup dot com
Subject: RE: [skeptics-147] SCAM? crappy & more costly bio utensils not compostable?

Help me out…I’m not an expert in this. If one has to use disposable cups, plates,
and utensils (which I have to this Sunday), which are currently thought to be the
least environmentally hostile? What’s the current science/full lifecycle analysis?

Thanks,
Allen

——-Original Message——-
From: skeptics-147 at meetup dot com [mailto:skeptics-147@meetup.com] On Behalf Of Don
Steiny
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 6:00 PM
To: skeptics-147 at meetup dot com
Subject: Re: [skeptics-147] SCAM? crappy & more costly bio utensils not compostable?

When I was at HP in the late 80’s they created a task force to figure out that
the most environmentally friendly type of disposable cups would be and to everyone’s
horror, they choose Styrofoam. They researched it and that is what they found based
on evidence. I believed them.

-Don
I understand what you are saying and I agree that horizontal corporations such as
Starbucks are merely “going with the flow,” so to speak, but I think you grant the
paper industry too much innocence. Just look at where the anti styrofoam movement
started. It all began in Eastern Oregon. It is no accident that the paper mill
industry is centered there. They constructed the “bad press” about styrofoam’s
non-biodegradeability, recognizing that the consuming public would have little if
any sympathy for oil companies. They didn’t bother to mention that so called “paper
cups” are no more bio-degradable and a Hell of a lot less friendly to the
environment. The real problem is that the consuming public is guilty of sloppy
thinking if and when they think at all. . . . . . . . TL
From: Jerry Schwarz
Sent: Friday, March 05, 2010 4:53 PM
To: skeptics-147 at meetup dot com
Subject: Re: [skeptics-147] SCAM? crappy & more costly bio utensils not compostable?

I pretty much agree with Tom except for one point. The commercial interests didn’t
“hijack” the “environmental movement”. They gave in to popular pressure created by
the “environmental movement”. The problem was the typical one that people don’t
apply independent reasoning to this kind of thing, but follow propaganda promulgated
by people they trust.

In a related vein, I recently read an interesting book “Whole Earth Discipline” by
Stewart Brand (who has impeccable environmentalist credentials) who bemoans the
generally anti-science attitude of many environmentalist organizations. He doesn’t
discuss this particular issue, but I think it is a typical example.

On Mar 5, 2010, at 2:05 PM, Tom Lippman wrote:

> Thanks for drawing attention to this popular misconception. It is so very much
like the rhetoric behind the paper cups displacing market share of styrofoam which
actually uses less petroleum to manufacture than the paper cups do. It is just
another illustration of how commercial interests seek to “hijack” the environmental
movement in order to accrue greater profits for themselves. The paper mills were
remarkably successful despite their reputation as the greatest polluters of our
rivers and streams. Apparently, oil companies just arouse even less sympathy than
the paper mills do.
>
> This “biodegradable” label has achieved a politically correct, sanguine
image/status that almost defies reason. The sand on the beach is not one tiny bit
more biodegradable than styrofoam but no one seems concerned about it. At the
pressure and temperatures that sand and styrofoam spend their lives, both are
equally chemically inert. Most plastics are photodegradable and will
disintegrate/decompose over time exposed to sunlight, generally about 100 yrs. while
so called “biodegradable” things like paper cups are showing no signs of
disintegration when dug up from our landfills after at least 60 yrs in the ground.
>
> I agree that using reusable cups, plates and utensils, which require a little bit
of labor to maintain is the most sensible answer. Believe it or not, the primary
reason for the popularity of disposable plates, cups and utensils, is their far
greater likelihood of remaining relatively free from microbial contamination. Food
served on a washed plate is far more likely to be contaminated because the plate
might not have been dried or handled properly.
>
> Tom Lippman

Acupuncture

2010-02-24T17:23:07-05:00

Use this thread for discussing how to determine the effectiveness of acupuncture.

Ideas for CFI/SF

2009-03-19T21:02:28-05:00

CFI/SF organizing committee is looking for ideas of members (and potential members) for future activities and events. Possibilities might be

social events
specific speakers you would like to see
letter writing campaigns
community service events

Speakers for NorCal

2008-11-23T22:41:26-05:00

My college has a Secular Student Alliance who is interested in having a guest speaker in the skeptic/atheist field who would be willing to come to a Northern California school. Does anyone have any suggestions on where to go or whom to contact? Thanks in advance.

Book Club: Snake Oil Science

2008-06-15T22:44:40-05:00

The CFI/SF steering committee has talked a bit about creating book clubs and have decided that instead of a traditional book club we would try an online version. If you’ve already read this book I invite you to comment and if you haven’t I encourage you to do so.

As the first book we’ve chosen Snake Oil Science by R. Barker Bausall. This is a comprehensive survey of the current state of scientific research into “complementary and alternative medicine”. It contains a list and comments on all “High Quality CAM Trials published in in High Quality Medical Journals, January 2000 - February 2007. It’s a short list, containing only 22 papers and only one positive study. Because this list was short, the author went on to look at “High Quality Systematic Reviews”. There were of these. Bausall found 99 of them and provides details. A modest number of these are positive, but the on closer examination Bausall concludes “there is no compelling, credible scientific evidence to suggest that any CAM therapy benefits and medical condition or reduces any medical symptom (poin or otherwise) better than a placebo.

But more important than the specific conclusions he reaches is the discussion of the placebo effect including an entertaining presentation of how an honest but not scientifically trained (fictional) physician could be drawn into believing that acupuncture is effective. He makes a compelling case that placebo effects explain the apparent success of alternative medicine.

Bausall is well qualified to write this book. By training he is a “research methodologist” and was for several years the director of research at the University of Mayland’s NIH-funded “Complementary Medicine Program”.