All meetings are from 7:00-8:00 pm in the Kansas Union unless otherwise noted
Keep track of the social events and weigh in on current events at: SOMA's Facebook Page
Sign up to volunteer here: SOMA Volunteer Sign Up Took group field trip to Springfield, MO 3 day student group run skeptic conference Skepticon (skepticon.org)
Took group field trip to Wichita, KS student group run event Rapture Day (raptureday.org)
Started recording guest speakers and created Youtube.com/OpenMindedAtheists to host them
Created a new facebook presence to replace old group format and provide information for Reasonfest
Held SOMA's most competitive election in recent history, creating the new position of Director of Member Recruitment and committees for Community Organization and Publicity/Web Design.
Hosted discussions on Humanism, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Coming "Out" Atheist, Diplomats vs Firebrands, Sexuality and more!
Reasonfest 2011 President's Report
With great enthusiasm the officers announced the first annual Reasonfest would take place May 5th & 6th 2011. That enthusiasm was shared by group members, shortly after that announcement an internal fundraiser raised more than $350. Officers created a list of fun and soul-destroyingly embarrassing tasks they were willing to do for the sake of the group. Members then bid at this "Soul Auction" to decide which things they would have to do. Through a combination of generosity and light-hearted schadenfreude every officer was bid to the maximum which resulted in two on stage hair cuts (long haired woodsmen were made horrifically respectable and respectable philosophers were made in to Gregorian monks!), the college human trick trifecta (milk, cinnamon, saltines), an April Fool's reconversion by prominent youtuber Evid3nc3 that received over 20,000 views (http://www.youtube.com/evid3nc3#p/u/2/pk8qkyguBXk ), and my personal favorite a death metal cover of Justin Beiber's "Baby" among others (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2nqYiOrGLs ) While we were in the process of speaker selection a decision we made the previous semester to contact all the religious groups on campus to offer to debate or work together paid off when the law school Catholic group St. Thomas More Society contacted us with hopes to sponsor a debate on God with local thelogeon and author Dr. John Mark Miravalle. We contacted the Freedom From Religion Foundation where Dan Barker agreed to represent the decidedly 'con' side of “Does God Exist?” for day one. Not only did we work fantastically together but thanks to our combined efforts we filled the entire auditorium. My goal for individual presentations was a mix of topics that were informative, balanced, and challenging. Thanks to the generous support and enthusiastic cooperation of multiple national organizations we were able to have each on of our speakers be nationally respected and influential leaders in their field. Before even having contacted Dan Barker to debate for us, I was looking forward to having the Freedom From Religion Foundation's co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor use her experience with the National Day of Prayer to present the keynote address, America Doesn't Have a Prayer, an overview of the recent legal battle on the National Day of Prayer and the facts which should persuade every American, religious or not, that the government has no right to be in the business of prayer. (Due to a death in the family Annie Laurie was unable to join us, nor able to give her workshop on women in the freethought tradition based on her book, No God's No Masters. We agreed and insisted that she should stay there with her family, and were lucky thad Dan Barker could step in at the last minute and present the keynote for us). The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry provided James Underdown, Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry Los Angeles, and an experienced debunker, talk about How Modern Paranormal Investigations Refute Biblical Miracles. Many people are happy to accept or reject biblical miracles as either dogma or patently ridiculous, but paranormal investigators look at such claims in the modern world all the time and can go even further to tell us what evidence and explanations apply to such miraculous claims. We were lucky enough to have star clinical psychologist and researcher Darrel Ray in our own back yard having just completed the nations largest secular sex survey with SOMA member and now Director of Member Recruitment, Amanda Brown. The largest ever survey of secular persons' sexual experiences in and out of religion (12,000+ people responded to 69 questions, which was indeed a coincidence) and reported the unsurprising result that your sex life gets better when you leave behind religion. Not because you can be a hedonistic pervert, but because religious and non-religious people both share the human sexual experience but many religions try to convince people to be ashamed of it. (http://www.atheismresource.com/2011/sex-and-secularism-a-fascinating-study-from-darrel-ray-and-amanda-brown ) Recent SSA board of director's chair and prominent Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta joined us to discuss what secular students across the country are doing right. His talk was an engaging and exciting looks at the amazing things secular groups are doing all around the country and why they are so important in a society that often demonizes secular citizens. Philosopher, and Center for Naturalism founder Tom Clark discussed and challenged the audience with the implications of worldview naturalism and a lack of contra-casual free will. Surprisingly to some, it means a more just and empathetic society with all the freedoms, joys, challenges, and surprises we hold so dear. We marketed aggressively, reaching out to fellow student groups, writing op-eds, placing ads on campus radio and newspapers, posting large color and b&w fliers on campus and off, tabling, canvasing, and chalking. We also worked with professors on campus to announce the event and offer credit for attending relevant discussions. Thanks to SSA's project grant we were even able to hang a huge banner on the front of one of the university’s most trafficked building for the entire week leading up to Resonfest, inviting people to discuss the idea of whether God exists. In addition to the academic content of event, we also wanted to highlight two things that our community finds so valuable: doing good and having fun. We combined both in events buffeting the festival on either side. The infamous Westboro Baptist Church found out that atheists were questioning the unquestionable in their own neighborhood and announced they would be protesting us in a press release denouncing such a blasphemous concept (they are not a fan of Catholics either). There have been many rumors about how they found out about the event, but most people it may have had something to do with the personal invitation Reasonfest coordinator Conrad Hudson gave to Shelly Phelps by handing her a flier. When I asked myself for a quote about it, he said, "I thought it would be a question she would appreciate an answer to." This rabbit grew up in the briar patch of the Phelps Clan, so I saw nothing but positive in this. Soon after we discovered their intention to protest the event one SOMA member made a comment that would become SOMA's official sound byte regarding their presence: "I'm glad they are here, it means they aren't somewhere else hurting a grieving family with their hatred." Another upside to the attention they provoke is the opportunity to use it to do some good. Last year a campus activist arranged a huge counter-protest that involved dozens and dozens of hilarious light hearted and irreverent signs, to show support for Queers and Allies Brown Bag Drag that raised hundreds of dollars for Planed Parenthood. We partnered with that activist to again bring out signs and supporters to raise money for a worthy charity. More than $600 was raised and the crowd enjoyed the heartfelt sermon we arranged to urge them to "choose the greater evil" and worship not the vengeful & capricious god of Calvinist theology but rather bow to a truly fearful and destructive deity, Cthululu. After a reading of the Necrinomicon, a sign was called for and those who felt his unholy spirit felt compelled to embrace same sex partners in public displays of affection. It was fun, it raised money for a good cause, and broke down prejudices of LGBTQ couples. Westboro sure does know how to do some good in the world! To wrap up Reasonfest we all met at a local club to socialize and reflect on the event and were pleased to partner with the venue to give a portion of each person's cover charge to the Douglas County AIDS Project to fight the impact of HIV/AIDS in the community. Again the combination of providing social bonding experiences for community with raising money for issues it faces proved very successful. The two day attendance was well over 700 people and those involved reported an incredible amount of value from it. Having a large event really energized our membership and volunteers who were absolutely indispensable. They chalked sidewalks, hung fliers, collected donations, directed traffic, wrote articles, collected surveys, designed publicity, and did it all wearing a smile and their Reasonfest 2011 shirts identifying them as "Reasonable Staff." Youtube videos of the debate and talks have already received thousands of views at youtube.com/openmindedatheists, with SOMA's banner proudly displayed in the background. One of the most exciting and unexpected benefits has been to connect with members of the community willing to financially support our efforts, to educate and unite the community with events like these, which are always free to both members and the public. We sold more than $1000 in merchandise and raised a similar amount in donations allowing us to cover the cost of the event, and providing seed money for Reasonfest 2012. In addition to the members and audience this event was for, I want to thank our sponsors: Secular Student Alliance Center for Inquiry on Campus Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Freedom from Religion Foundation Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science And all the support we received from our university for their commitment to free speech and student engagement. It was an outstanding year, and with more people than ever excited to be involved in the "best god-damned group on campus" I'm confident next year will be even better! - Conrad Hudson SOMA President
Keep track of the social events and weigh in on current events at: SOMA's Facebook Page
Sign up to volunteer here: SOMA Volunteer Sign Up
Social Schedule
- Monday's - A group of SOMA members regularly attends events put on by the Sexuality Education Committee
- Wednesday's - Stay Tuned!
- Thursday's - 8pm Meet at Java Break for unstructured discussion and relaxation with delicious coffee.
At 11pm break off to hit the downtown bars starting at Henry's
Remember, if you decide to drink, do so responsibly. Know your limits, respect those around you, and always have a designated driver. - Sunday's - SOMA Secular Sub-Group Super Sunday!
Start your own sub-group or join an existing one. Examples in the past have included D&D, Food & Drink, Writers, and Sports Teams.
A great example is the Darwin's Bulldogs Triva Team which meets at 8pm at the Bottleneck
Watch the SOMA facebook page for postings, and post your own events to network even more!- Aug 30th, 7pm-8pm - Informational Meeting Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk
- Sept 6th, 7pm-8:30pm - The God Virus: A Sexually Transmitted Disease? (Darrel Ray) Location: Kansas Union - Parlor
- Sept 7th, Ask An Atheist Table - 10:30am - 2:00pm Location: Wescoe Beach
- Sept 13th, 7pm-8pm - WTC Cross Discussion (Conrad Hudson) Location: Kansas Union - Alderson
- Sept 20th, 7pm-8pm - Atheism 101 (Joey Ralph & Adam Brown) Location: Centenial
- Sept 27th, 7pm - 8pm - No Gods, No Masters - Women in Atheism (Amanda Brown) Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk
- Oct 4th, Coming Out of the Closet As Non Religious Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk
- Oct 18th, Skepticon Organization: Katie Hartman Location: Kansas Union - Parlor
- Oct 25th, No Gods No Masters - Sex Discussion Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk
- Nov 1st, 7pm, Speaker: Historical Criticism of the New Testament Location: Kansas Union - Centennial
- Nov 8th, 7pm, Current Events Discussion Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk
- Nov 15th, 7pm, Astronomy & Physics Presentation Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk
- Nov 19th & 20th Skepticon! Field Trip Location: Springfield, MO
- Nov 29th, 7pm, Abortion in a Secular Society - Debate Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk
Meeting & Event Schedule:
-
Additional Dates:
- Oct 4th, Coming Out of the Closet As Non Religious
Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk
One of the most important things an atheist or agnostic can do is be "out" about their non-belief. It can also be one of the hardest things to do in unsupportive familes and communities.
Discussion and Presentation (Michaelyn Everhart) - Oct 11th, Fall Break
- Oct 18th, Skepticon Organization: Katie Hartman
Location: Kansas Union - Parlor
The country's largest student run skeptic convention, a juggernaut in our backyard! Don't miss this exciting preview. - Oct 25th, No Gods No Masters Discussion Group
Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk - Oct 30th, Halloween
- Nov 1st, 7pm, Meeting TBA
Location: Kansas Union - Centennial - Nov 8th, 7pm, Meeting TBA
Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk - Nov 15th, 7pm, Meeting TBA
Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk - Nov 19th & 20th Skepticon!
The midwests largest skeptic conference. Free and open to the public, SOMA's annual field trip to Springfield, MO is always a blast. Registration open now! http://skepticon.org/ - Nov 29th, 7pm, No Gods No Masters Discussion Group
Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk - Dec 6th, 7pm, Meeting TBA
Location: Kansas Union - Jayhawk - Joined the university's freshman interest survey and received interest from more than 150 incoming freshmen
- Tabled at the Hawk Week Student Group Info Fair the first week of school, connected to another 75 interested people
- Counter Protested Brother Jed's hate with love, picked up by FriendlyAtheist.com
- First informational meeting attended by 60+ students, a huge increase
- Ask an Atheist tabling through the year with printed vinyl signage to increased visibility
- Clinical Psychologist and Recovering from Religion founder Darrel Ray spoke to a crowd of 75 on "The God Virus"
- Hosted Pastafarian Pasta Party for International Talk Like a Pirate Day
- Hosted socials for Christmas, Easter, and Halloween
- Weekly social gatherings at Java Break with our information and artwork permanently posted at local coffee house
- Created literature library where members can browse more than 80 freethought books online and check them out for free at bit.ly/somalibrary
- Showed Morgan Spurlock's FX show "30 Days" episode where an Atheist lived with Christian family in Texas, followed by a behind the scenes presentation by the atheist participant Brenda Frei
- Held "Life of Brian" movie screening for Blasphemy Day
Reasonfest '12
February 11th & 12th, 2012
SOMA's very own annual conference, bringing reason to the Wheat State. Last year drew more than 700 and we've been hard at work dreaming up new ways to make it even better. Details to TBA, Don't forget to join out facebook below. Reason Shall Reign Once Again
ReasonFest
Past Events
2010 - 2011 Activities
- Darwin Day Activities
- Collected Signatures on campus for AHA's petition for a National Darwin Day
- Presented James Randi Education Foundation Director of Educational Programming Michael Blanford on the importance of evolution education to a crowd of 100 people
- Gave out science themed Valentines Day Cards (e.g. I Select You, Naturally! - Chuck Darwin)
- Event covered on front page of campus newspaper including interviews with JREF and SOMA representatives
Reasonfest 2011 President's Report
With great enthusiasm the officers announced the first annual Reasonfest would take place May 5th & 6th 2011. That enthusiasm was shared by group members, shortly after that announcement an internal fundraiser raised more than $350. Officers created a list of fun and soul-destroyingly embarrassing tasks they were willing to do for the sake of the group. Members then bid at this "Soul Auction" to decide which things they would have to do. Through a combination of generosity and light-hearted schadenfreude every officer was bid to the maximum which resulted in two on stage hair cuts (long haired woodsmen were made horrifically respectable and respectable philosophers were made in to Gregorian monks!), the college human trick trifecta (milk, cinnamon, saltines), an April Fool's reconversion by prominent youtuber Evid3nc3 that received over 20,000 views (http://www.youtube.com/evid3nc3#p/u/2/pk8qkyguBXk ), and my personal favorite a death metal cover of Justin Beiber's "Baby" among others (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2nqYiOrGLs ) While we were in the process of speaker selection a decision we made the previous semester to contact all the religious groups on campus to offer to debate or work together paid off when the law school Catholic group St. Thomas More Society contacted us with hopes to sponsor a debate on God with local thelogeon and author Dr. John Mark Miravalle. We contacted the Freedom From Religion Foundation where Dan Barker agreed to represent the decidedly 'con' side of “Does God Exist?” for day one. Not only did we work fantastically together but thanks to our combined efforts we filled the entire auditorium. My goal for individual presentations was a mix of topics that were informative, balanced, and challenging. Thanks to the generous support and enthusiastic cooperation of multiple national organizations we were able to have each on of our speakers be nationally respected and influential leaders in their field. Before even having contacted Dan Barker to debate for us, I was looking forward to having the Freedom From Religion Foundation's co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor use her experience with the National Day of Prayer to present the keynote address, America Doesn't Have a Prayer, an overview of the recent legal battle on the National Day of Prayer and the facts which should persuade every American, religious or not, that the government has no right to be in the business of prayer. (Due to a death in the family Annie Laurie was unable to join us, nor able to give her workshop on women in the freethought tradition based on her book, No God's No Masters. We agreed and insisted that she should stay there with her family, and were lucky thad Dan Barker could step in at the last minute and present the keynote for us). The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry provided James Underdown, Executive Director of the Center for Inquiry Los Angeles, and an experienced debunker, talk about How Modern Paranormal Investigations Refute Biblical Miracles. Many people are happy to accept or reject biblical miracles as either dogma or patently ridiculous, but paranormal investigators look at such claims in the modern world all the time and can go even further to tell us what evidence and explanations apply to such miraculous claims. We were lucky enough to have star clinical psychologist and researcher Darrel Ray in our own back yard having just completed the nations largest secular sex survey with SOMA member and now Director of Member Recruitment, Amanda Brown. The largest ever survey of secular persons' sexual experiences in and out of religion (12,000+ people responded to 69 questions, which was indeed a coincidence) and reported the unsurprising result that your sex life gets better when you leave behind religion. Not because you can be a hedonistic pervert, but because religious and non-religious people both share the human sexual experience but many religions try to convince people to be ashamed of it. (http://www.atheismresource.com/2011/sex-and-secularism-a-fascinating-study-from-darrel-ray-and-amanda-brown ) Recent SSA board of director's chair and prominent Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta joined us to discuss what secular students across the country are doing right. His talk was an engaging and exciting looks at the amazing things secular groups are doing all around the country and why they are so important in a society that often demonizes secular citizens. Philosopher, and Center for Naturalism founder Tom Clark discussed and challenged the audience with the implications of worldview naturalism and a lack of contra-casual free will. Surprisingly to some, it means a more just and empathetic society with all the freedoms, joys, challenges, and surprises we hold so dear. We marketed aggressively, reaching out to fellow student groups, writing op-eds, placing ads on campus radio and newspapers, posting large color and b&w fliers on campus and off, tabling, canvasing, and chalking. We also worked with professors on campus to announce the event and offer credit for attending relevant discussions. Thanks to SSA's project grant we were even able to hang a huge banner on the front of one of the university’s most trafficked building for the entire week leading up to Resonfest, inviting people to discuss the idea of whether God exists. In addition to the academic content of event, we also wanted to highlight two things that our community finds so valuable: doing good and having fun. We combined both in events buffeting the festival on either side. The infamous Westboro Baptist Church found out that atheists were questioning the unquestionable in their own neighborhood and announced they would be protesting us in a press release denouncing such a blasphemous concept (they are not a fan of Catholics either). There have been many rumors about how they found out about the event, but most people it may have had something to do with the personal invitation Reasonfest coordinator Conrad Hudson gave to Shelly Phelps by handing her a flier. When I asked myself for a quote about it, he said, "I thought it would be a question she would appreciate an answer to." This rabbit grew up in the briar patch of the Phelps Clan, so I saw nothing but positive in this. Soon after we discovered their intention to protest the event one SOMA member made a comment that would become SOMA's official sound byte regarding their presence: "I'm glad they are here, it means they aren't somewhere else hurting a grieving family with their hatred." Another upside to the attention they provoke is the opportunity to use it to do some good. Last year a campus activist arranged a huge counter-protest that involved dozens and dozens of hilarious light hearted and irreverent signs, to show support for Queers and Allies Brown Bag Drag that raised hundreds of dollars for Planed Parenthood. We partnered with that activist to again bring out signs and supporters to raise money for a worthy charity. More than $600 was raised and the crowd enjoyed the heartfelt sermon we arranged to urge them to "choose the greater evil" and worship not the vengeful & capricious god of Calvinist theology but rather bow to a truly fearful and destructive deity, Cthululu. After a reading of the Necrinomicon, a sign was called for and those who felt his unholy spirit felt compelled to embrace same sex partners in public displays of affection. It was fun, it raised money for a good cause, and broke down prejudices of LGBTQ couples. Westboro sure does know how to do some good in the world! To wrap up Reasonfest we all met at a local club to socialize and reflect on the event and were pleased to partner with the venue to give a portion of each person's cover charge to the Douglas County AIDS Project to fight the impact of HIV/AIDS in the community. Again the combination of providing social bonding experiences for community with raising money for issues it faces proved very successful. The two day attendance was well over 700 people and those involved reported an incredible amount of value from it. Having a large event really energized our membership and volunteers who were absolutely indispensable. They chalked sidewalks, hung fliers, collected donations, directed traffic, wrote articles, collected surveys, designed publicity, and did it all wearing a smile and their Reasonfest 2011 shirts identifying them as "Reasonable Staff." Youtube videos of the debate and talks have already received thousands of views at youtube.com/openmindedatheists, with SOMA's banner proudly displayed in the background. One of the most exciting and unexpected benefits has been to connect with members of the community willing to financially support our efforts, to educate and unite the community with events like these, which are always free to both members and the public. We sold more than $1000 in merchandise and raised a similar amount in donations allowing us to cover the cost of the event, and providing seed money for Reasonfest 2012. In addition to the members and audience this event was for, I want to thank our sponsors: Secular Student Alliance Center for Inquiry on Campus Committee for Skeptical Inquiry Freedom from Religion Foundation Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science And all the support we received from our university for their commitment to free speech and student engagement. It was an outstanding year, and with more people than ever excited to be involved in the "best god-damned group on campus" I'm confident next year will be even better! - Conrad Hudson SOMA President