World Youth Week 2008 - A call to Arms for Australian Atheists.
Posted on: March 31, 2007 - 6:40pm
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World Youth Week 2008 - A call to Arms for Australian Atheists.
In 2008 World Youth Week is happening in a fair little town known as Sydney, Australia. This happens to be my town and whether I was a supporter of RRS or not I'd still want to do some form of activism during this event.
First of all I'd like to know how many (if any) other Australians or better yet Sydneyites we have here at RRS. Secondly, this kind of thing is relatively new to me so I'd like some suggestions for exactly what we can do. As long as it's legal it's a good suggestions (whether I have the balls to pull it off or not).
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
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I remember thinking I should set up a booth during the one in Toronto a couple years ago. But they planned the whole event poorly, and it was hot as hell, and I had to work.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I doubt I'd be able to do something like that. You cannot even use their logo unless you abide by their "code of ethics" which includes
My usage of the logo would violate the first of those terms, and those same rules would probably rule me out of doing anything official in the WYD events. It'd all have to be unofficial.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
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I didn't mean doing anything official. The way they'd planned the event in Toronto, there was going to be columns of people heading from different areas to the central spot where the last pope showed up. Set up a flashy booth with big flashy bold letters denying the existance of a god right in the middle of one of their walks. And make it portable, so if they switched streets to avoid you, you could follow them. Or position it in a spot where they had no choice but to pass by. Theres so many millions of kids and teens involved in these things that you're guaranteed to get at least a few curious people stop.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
C'mon, I know there's at least 4 of us Australians on these boards, so why is everyone so quiet? I hate myspace so I've started up something pretty pathetic (for now anyway) over at blogspot to try and get us together and something happening.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
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Hey thingy,
I have just joined RRS (will become a member in a sec), and am in Sydney, Australia. I don’t know if I would be keen to "Crash" their party, ending up on the news won’t help my career outside of my hobby of de-converting Christians
I would be interested if there is a few of us rational thinkers in Sydney to perhaps get together and "chew the fat" once a month. One thing I find so annoying is if you are a Christian you can go anyway and get an instant social circle of likeminded people, but it is so hard to find groups of rational thinkers/atheist/ex-Christians etc.
Anyone keen ?
Michael
The things I have in mind at the moment is counter posters for any and all posters of theirs I see, pamphlets tracts and stuff like that which may look religious at first but is atheistic in nature, printing up a number of posters for the god delusion and rational responders and trying to get those in place where they'll be meeting up beforehand, stuff like that. If I can buy a video camera and get some support (I'm a rather introverted person so I won't want to do this solo) maybe even do some video interviews of random people etc.
The meetup thing sounds good but would only be worth it if we can find more like minded people out there. Personally I'd be preferential to a pub (or maybe a cafe, but beer is better than espresso) one afternoon/evening a month to start with.
Most atheist and free thinking groups in Australia that I've found are based in canberra/melbourne, not much (if anything) for Sydney. Of the Australians I've discovered on RRS other than us there's one Queenslander, one from Perth, one from Melbourne and one unknown (hasn't said where in Australia he is as far as I'm aware).
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
AU: http://nocleanfeed.com/ | NZ: http://nzblackout.org/
Have you all thought about searching MySpace for like-minded folks in your area?
I don't like myspace, worse than geocities imho.
I've found the most promising groups that I've found so far for Australian atheists to meet up. http://atheists.meetup.com/
Just select Australia and then there's decent sized groups for the capital cities already. Just signed up myself, eager to see what they're like.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
AU: http://nocleanfeed.com/ | NZ: http://nzblackout.org/
Sounds good, well lets keep in touch.
I have signed up through meet ups but have yet to goto a meeting. I have been to Skeptics in the Pub (which is every month) which is done by Australia Skeptics www.skeptics.com.au - its casual and very good, except has more of a focus on debunking science myths vs religion as such.
I am also interested in setting up "debate a friendly atheist" for Christians ... not too sure how to go about this, was thinking of contacting some bible colleges once I have done a few debates...
Let me know your plans with World Youth day, I may be interested in helping.
Any other Aussies (esp in Sydney) please make yourself known !
Just a suggestion: I've seen it done and it was quite successful.
A theatrical screening of The God Who Wasn't There followed by a panel discussion of theists and Atheists.
If a Freethinker/Atheist/Humanist group sponsors it, Beyond Belief Media will allow you to show it without paying licensing rights and keep the gate as a fundraiser for their group.
Or is there a problem with encoding (or whatever it's called) on DVDs from the U.S.?
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
Michael - Was great to meet you last Thursday.
Apparently quite a few others from the Sydney Atheist Meetup group have said they've visited this site and quite like it, so I'm just giving this thread a bit of a bump and also a small pimp to the Australian RRS branch site I quickly did up back in April, it's looking like we might be able to get this going now.
Any other Australians who didn't come here from SAM, give them a visit - it's more of a social scene to be a catalyst for other things such as RRS branches and world youth day activism both things I and a few others are pushing for and starting to get organised. Even if you just want to be passive, at least come to the meetups and meet like-minded people.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
Censored and blacked out for internet access in ANZ!
AU: http://nocleanfeed.com/ | NZ: http://nzblackout.org/