all male panels - not just religions' problem

Last month, I saw an announcement for a panel on "Spirituality and Humanity: An Interfaith Conversation" in the greater Portland metro area, where I live in Oregon.  Of course, it was an all-male panel - I mean, how could WOMEN know anything about religion, enough so as to be speakers on behalf of such, right?

I made sure to submit the Facebook graphic I saw for the event, posted to Harris Zafar's Facebook page, to Congrats, you have an all-male panel!, so it would get the David Hasselhoff seal of approval:

I love to make fun of religious types - whether Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, whatever - and their consistently dismissive attitude regarding women, especially when it comes to leadership.

But I also have to acknowledge the reality that atheists aren't much better when it comes to recognizing female leaders. 

Here's a Facebook group that the Facebook algorithms recommended to me recently. Notice anything? 

There are female atheists who are amazing speakers and thinkers. Like comedian Julia Sweeney, formerly of Saturday Night Live and featured on Showtime with her show Letting Go of God. Or Rebecca Watson, founder and contributor of the hilarious, insightful blog Skepchick and co-host of the podcast The Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe. Or Lori Lipman Brown, the founding director of Secular Coalition for America, the only lobbying group for atheist, agnostic and humanist Americans. Or Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder and current co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, an organization devoted to upholding the separation of church and state. Or Amanda Metskas, now the executive director of Camp Quest, a summer camp for children of parents with naturalistic worldviews. Or Lyz Liddell, who for many years directed campus organizing for the Secular Student Alliance. Or Debbie Goddard, director of African Americans for Humanism and campus outreach coordinator at the Center for Inquiry. Or Kathleen Johnson, founder of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers.

But "Atheist Safehouse" doesn't seem to know any of this...

Sexism, whether among the religious or the non-believers, makes me angry. So I'll pass on "Atheist Safehouse" membership.

Also see:

Atheist tells women they should approve sexist photos

and

You don't need religion to be sexist

Science Pub!

Last night, I went to something called a "Science Pub" last night in Hillsboro, Oregon. I had seen the event on Facebook by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) and was intrigued by the name, as well as the cost - just $5. OMSI is a very expensive place in downtown Portland and quite a schlep from my house, so this seemed like something not to be missed - cheap and nearby. I rode the bus - the venue was just 25 minutes from my house - so I could have a beer while doing whatever it is one does at a "science pub." I really had no idea what it would be.

It turned out to be a slide presentation where the audience gets to drink beer and wine while listening. And it was PACKED - I didn't reserve seating and, therefore, had to be on a waiting list. I was one of the last people that got in.

The presentation was terrific: about the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOPHIA) project - an infrared telescope in that flies around in a Boeing 747 and helps us understand space. Dr. Ralph Shuping, an Oregonian and a Senior Research Scientist at the Space Science Institute, gave an introduction to infrared airborne astronomy that even I could understand and talked about the importance of SOPHIA, which is now in its seventh year of operations. SOPHIA is a partnership project between the USA and German space agencies.

Dr. Shuping is a fun presenter - I love a good lecture, with no bells and whistles, just a really compelling speaker with great information to share. And as I sat there listening to the amazing content, sipping my Pilsner, I started to get emotional: it was a Tuesday night, and here were about 150 people happily listening to a science lecture, making noises when they were awed by some cool information shared. The audience was intrigued and inspired - even excited - by what they were learning. And I was a part of it. It was yet another moment when I realized the universe is so much bigger, so much more complex and so much more wonderous than anything I ever learned in a church or Sunday school. 

I think I need more science pubs in my life...

Magic, Kindness and Hope

Sometimes, when people find out I'm an atheist and that I do not believe in the supernatural, they will smugly say,

Well, I wouldn't want to live in a world without magic!

Sometimes, I don't respond. But sometimes, I just can't help myself, and I ask, "What do you mean by magic?"

And here's how the conversation goes:

Them: A world without things that are wonderous!

Me: I still live in a world where are wonderous. 

Them: A world where not everything can be explained!

Me: I still live in a world where not everything can be explained.

Them: A world where I see something and I feel awe, where I feel reverence!

Me: I still live in a world where I feel awe and reverence. 

I live in a world where there is no magic, where there is nothing outside physical laws, but where plenty around me feels magical. Knowing what creates a rainbow, or the Grand Canyon, or a "shooting star" doesn't make it any less than magical and wonderous for me.

It's similar when someone finds out I'm an atheist and smugly says,

Well, I wouldn't want to live in a world without hope!

I don't live in a world without hope. It's when I was trying to believe in God in my younger days that I was so hopeless - because I was told that the crap I was experiencing was "God's will." Now, I live in a UNIVERSE that's so much bigger, with so many, many more possibilities, than the world as described to me via Christianity.

I love get my hope renewed when I see someone be kind to someone else, not because they have to, not because they fear that some magical invisible man is in the sky and he will punish them if they aren't kind, but rather because that person feels a desire to help his or her fellow human, a desire that is inherent in humanity as a whole, regardless of religion or lack thereof. The March for Women in January 2017, the March for Science later that year, the outpouring of support for immigrants when Donald Trump tried to launch his first Muslim travel ban, the response of people wanting to volunteer after a disaster, someone helping a stranger on the bus, at the grocery store, on the street - it all gives me hope.

Looking at the periodical table fills me with awe - and I can't explain chemistry. I sometimes cry watching Nature or Nova because the world, the universe, is amazing! And there is so much that is unexplained. You see God in the unexplained; I see possibilities for ENDLESS scientific discovery.

And without God, hope is boundless, it is endless. All things are possible.