Rational Response Squad Alerts
The great big request for submissions WIN PRIZES!
Submitted by RationalRespons... on October 5, 2006 - 8:34pm.****UPDATE 7-22-07 CONTEST EXTENDED. GREYDON SQUARE CATEGORY ADDED. OTHER CHANGES AND PRIZES AWARDED. PLEASE REVIEW AGAIN AND SUBMIT SOMETHING!!!****
NOTE: DUE TO ERROR IN LINKS AND LOW SUBMISSIONS, THIS CONTEST HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO MARCH 15TH, 2008.
IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION READ EVERYTHING FIRST, CLICK LINKS! COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS SHOULD BE POSTED PUBLICLY IN THIS THREAD FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL PARTICIPANTS! PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THE INFORMATION OF THIS SUBMISSION DRIVE FREELY.
The Rational Response Squad is proud to announce a call to action for content submissisions. We have been blown away by the positive feedback we've received from the freethinking community. Thanks to everyone who has placed a banner, or our player on your website and helped spread the word in some manner. We've received many great written submissions of thoughts and views, but had no place to put them, so we've created a guideline to help you, help us. The categories in which we need submissions are listed below, send us your best material. Your writings will be added to our library of articles, essays, and debunkings. We're hoping to build one of the largest and diverse free libraries of rational thoughts on the internet. Please post everything publicly on our forum so it's there for all RRS members to access who are working on this project. In addition to hosting everything in a free web archive, we may also compile views into a free e-book or a book for sale to generate money for activist projects. Not that you need a reward to share your views with others, but as a thank you we'll be awarding prizes to as many of the top participants as we can. Prizes will be awarded based on effort put in and quality of writing.
We've put the categories in order of need and may alter the order later as submissions come in.
Prizes will be awarded MARCH 15TH, 2008, but you can continue to submit content well after MARCH 15TH, 2008.
The first section is a brief summary of items in need, the following section is a further explanation of the same topics and what we're looking for.
BRIEF SUMMARY SECTION
ARTICLE SUBMISSION REQUESTS IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE
- Flyer creation for the Rational Response Squad Perpetual Enlightenment. (a counter to Christian "tracts") Submissions go here.
- In the spirit of the Sam Harris book, "Letter to a Christian Nation" write an essay imploring theists to leave their irrational beliefs behind. Example here Submissions go here.
- Write an essay entitled "I am the Rational Response Squad" (please see details below) Submissions go here.
- Write a letter to a specific loved one or friend who embraces an irrational theistic worldview. Example here Submissions go here.
- A debunking of any creationist or theist site. Also debunkings of specific arguments of theists. Example here Submissions go here.
- Write an essay entitled "I am every atheist" (please see details below) Submissions go here.
- Write a book review for a freethought or atheist book! You can post the reviews in this thread.
VIDEO SUBMISSION REQUESTS SPECIAL CASH PRIZES AWARDED IN THIS CATEGORY!
- Create the best music video for Proclaims' song "Brainwashed" download the original, download the remix.
- Create the best music video for the title track to Proclaims' new album "Question Everything" download
- Create the best music video for any Greydon Square song!!! (NEW!!!) The Compton Effect
PRIZES FOR SUBMISSIONS TONS OF PRIZES AWARDED FOR THE MOST HELPFUL PARTICIPANTS AND THE BEST ENTRIES!
- 1 RRS wall clock signed by RRS show hosts
- 1 RRS mousepad signed by RRS show hosts
- 1 RRS T-shirt
- 1 Evolvefish "Darwin" Emblem Shirt courtesy of Evolve Fish
- 5 Evolvefish Emblems courtesy of Evolve Fish
- 5 lifetime subscriptions to the Rational Response Squad radio show
- 5 Brian Flemming signed copies of The God Who Wasn't There DVD
- 15 subscriptions to the first 25 RRS shows
- 1 copy of "The God Delusion" autographed by it's author, Richard Dawkins
- 2 copies of David Mills book Atheist Universe signed by the author and personalized to "member of RRS."
- 3 copies of Valerie Taricos book The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth.
- 1 copy of Nick Gisburnes book The Atheists Are Revolting.
- Fame, Recognition, Notoriety! Outstanding submissions may be read on air. Authors of pieces may be asked to appear on show. Your flyer or article may be the most read, talked about, or handed out piece of literature!
FURTHER EXPLANATION
ARTICLE SUBMISSION REQUESTS IN ORDER OF IMPORTANCE
- Flyer creation for the Rational Response Squad Perpetual Enlightenment. (a counter to Christian "tracts") The ideal flyer would be one that captures your attention, is not too confrontational and is filled with verifiable facts. Flyers can be pictorial or textual and up to two pages (one piece front and back). The perfect flyer encourages the reader to find out more about the flaws in theism after they've read it. Possibly the biggest prize of all is having a flyer you created handed out millions of times over the rest of your life in an attempt to help our fellow man abandon his mind crutch. There are so many ways to attack religion, we're reluctant to suggest how best to go about it. Pick a theme, come up with something that people will actually want to read, and people will actually want to hand out. If you're a cartoon artist or can sketch something out you may want to make a comic strip. If you would like to make your message very small and to the point, this may be a good method as well. Smaller messages save paper, you could print it two (or more) times per page and fill front and back! All flyers should link people to www.RationalResponders.com
Christopher Hitchens has died, but will live on...
Submitted by Sapient on December 16, 2011 - 1:54am.Christopher Hitchens passed away tonight. He will be missed. We will remember him for what he accomplished, he knew this going in to tonight. He knew that he would live on through his work, and that there doesn't need to be a heaven or hell to live on past death. We will be recommending his books for many many years to come, and remembering how much he taught us.
Please post any links to anything Hitch. Say whatever is on your mind, this is the official thread to remember Hitch on RRS.
Christopher Hitchens, the author, essayist and polemicist who waged verbal and occasional physical battle on behalf of causes left and right and wrote the provocative best-seller “God is Not Great,” died Thursday night after a long battle with cancer. He was 62.
Hitchens death was announced in a statement from Vanity Fair magazine. The statement says he died Thursday night at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston of pneumonia, a complication of his esophageal cancer.[1]
Give the gift of reason this season!
Submitted by Sapient on November 24, 2011 - 12:28am.The last two months of this year are extremely crucial for us to raise funds to support the purchase of a new server for our mix of atheist sites including the new site Atheism United. Please remember to do as much shopping as you possibly can through our links to Amazon. Black Friday specials on Amazon are some of the best on the internet, get something for yourself and it helps the world move closer to abandoning religion.
http://www.rationalresponders.com/buy_amazon_through_these_links_support_online_atheism
Additionally, atheist hip hop artist Syqnys has a new album out, you can listen to it online for free! Read his comments and check the album out here:
http://www.rationalresponders.com/hypatia_reign_syqnys
New rational activism projects from RRS
Submitted by Sapient on November 7, 2011 - 12:15pm.Activists from The Rational Response Squad have started working on a project that some might be surprised to see us working on. We have started putting together a new site at www.atheismunited.com with a few activists who started a facebook group called "Atheism United." The project aims to unite all atheists under one banner for the first time in internet history. A creative campaign is coming in 2012 to promote the actions of "Atheism United."The new site will link to every atheist site we can manage to list. The list is already about 5 times longer than any list of atheist sites we've found in our searches.
Over the last 5 years The Rational Response Squad has been accused of being too strident or aggresive with our tactics. In that time we've consistently stated that we support other atheists right to be passive or less aggressive than us. This message wasn't always accepted as a persuasive argument for acceptance of RRS methods by those who play passive. Because of this some of us thought it would be nice to lead by example.
Fundraiser before the fundraiser...
Submitted by Sapient on October 17, 2011 - 11:10pm.We will have a fundraiser sometime this winter to help raise costs associated with the purchase and set up of a new server along with a site upgrade. This will position us for where we need to be to have a speedy site for 5 or more years. We'll hope to raise about $2,000 to meet costs in that fundraiser. However for now I'd personally like to raise a little money to prepare including the purchase of learning materials and maybe even securing an expert that bills per hour to help us if needed. We also need to replace a hard drive in the current server, along with installation it'll cost near $200.
More info on the server change and specs is here: http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/30284
Raising $300 here would keep us on the right track for a server upgrade soon. If we can raise more than that we'll use it to speed up how quick we can get the new server. PLEASE DONATE VIA PAYPAL HERE
Do you own an atheist website?
Submitted by Sapient on October 13, 2011 - 12:03pm.I would like to purchase a new server for the RRS and it's subsidiary sites within the next 9 months. This will run somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000. I'm hoping to find a few situations where smaller atheist sites could see an advantage in being hosted on a server of other atheist material. A server when you know you won't be removed for offensive views. A server that has pooled resources to protect and maintain it, a chance to grow together, and help one another.
If you own an atheist website and would like to leave your current host and jump on the next new RRS server, I am looking for help covering the cost of the server. I would like to offer a 2 or 3 year contract for hosting with hopes of being able to get an upfront payment in return. The upfront payment would help me cover the cost of the server. After the 2 or 3 yr contract is up, you could continue on a month to month payment.
If you are a small site and pay $5-$30 per month, this could potentially benefit both of us.
There are several forum members who I am hoping speak up for this offer. Feel free to send me a private message or post here.
If you would simply like to make a donation for the new server please donate through this link. A new server will make the site run much faster.
- Brian Sapient
Emergency: $90 donation needed now!
Submitted by RationalRespons... on March 29, 2011 - 11:18pm.
Due to several business expenses registering at once, including our advertising fees and lower subscriber rate this month we desperately need $90 by Monday. We also need help raising money for a new server to last us 5 more years, we expect to pay about $3,600. A monthly contribution of any level helps us to pay our bills.
Black Friday-Cyber Monday purchases that support atheists!
Submitted by RationalRespons... on November 22, 2010 - 11:33am.Parent Claus is bringing the kids presents? Don't want to hear O Holy Night while you shop for those gifts? Want to help support the Rational Response Squad network of websites while buying Grandmom a necklace for the Winter Solstice? Consider doing any necessary holiday shopping through the Amazon links at this page to support atheist websites:
http://www.rationalresponders.com/2010shop
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Want to engage in debate? We currently have a few theists worth responding to:
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forums/religionandirrationalities/atheistvstheist
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We're always looking for help maintaining the largest and first list of Celebrity Atheists:
Smut for Smut Bibles for Porn!
Submitted by RationalRespons... on March 3, 2010 - 1:57am.Students in Texas offer porn in exchange for Bibles, the campaign is called smut for smut. I urge you to support this project with your voice. Follow the students on twitter @AtheistAgenda and respond to criticisms and whining from theists on news sites around the net.
Visit this thread for more details on smut for smut: http://www.rationalresponders.com/smut_for_smut_atheist_agenda
Due to the recent closing of a very popular atheist forum and a broken community the RRS is reaching out on atheist websites reminding folks that our forums are designed to unite activist atheists and foster a community that can work to get behind projects like the one created by our heroes of tomorrow at USTA. Please visit this thread to make a very small contribution that supports a whole slew of atheist websites and will help unite atheist activists on RRS where their content and opinions will remain safe and welcome.
Get details here: http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/19821
ChristMyAss day broadcast at Rational Response Squad LIVE!
Submitted by Sapient on December 19, 2009 - 1:43am.I'm excited to announce that I will continue the tradition of Christmas day broadcasts this year!
All of the details of the ChristMyAss show can be seen here:
http://www.rationalresponders.com/Christmyass_2009
The facebook event for the ChristMyAss broadcast is here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=257573686280
Check out the newest site from The Rational Response Squad:
http://www.thepurposeofchristmas.net/
In Rationality,
Brian Sapient
