If you would like to help victims of Monday’s tornado in Oklahoma, you can donate to the Humanist Crisis Response and the American Red Cross.

Note that the reservation cost is priced for the entire weekend. To reserve a spot, select from the dropdown above and click “Add To Cart,” then “Check Out” to pay.

Seattle Atheists is organizing its second annual group camping trip this summer! We’ll be staying at Twanoh State Park July 19th – 21st. The park is situated on the shoreline of Hood Canal and features one of the warmest saltwater beaches in Washington state. This is because Hood Canal is one of the warmest saltwater bodies in Puget Sound. The 182-acre marine, camping park has 3,167 feet of saltwater shoreline. The name of the park derives from the Native American Twana tribes, better known as the Skokomish, who made their home in the area.

RESERVATIONS
The site can hold a maximum of 20 tent sites and 70 campers, so if you’re thinking about going, buy your passes early to guarantee your spot. If you RSVP through the MeetUp event page, you’ll be charged $20 per RSVP which covers the cost of a campsite plus one camper or four additional campers. Use the PayPal button above to add additional campers to your group.

Where is it located?

Twanoh State Park
12190 E Highway 106
Union, Washington, 98592

How long can I stay?

Check-in time is 3 p.m. on Friday July 19th. Check-out time is 1:30 p.m. on Monday, July 22nd. Join us for all three nights or part of the weekend.

What should I bring?

Tents, food, water, clothes for warm and cold weather — the usual gear. Here’s a great checklist of supplies and equipment to help with your packing. If you’re not too experienced with camping, fear not! Contact us if you have any questions. There will be at least one meal (probably Saturday night) where we eat a big potluck dinner together, so please bring food to share.

Comprehensive camping checklist from Love The Outdoors

What’s the capacity of the group campsite? What are its limitations?

The group campsite (like most group campsites) is designated as a “walk-in” site. This just means that you won’t be camping side-by-side with your car. We will be bringing a hand cart to help bring gear into the campsite.

• Maximum occupants: 70
• Vehicle Parking: 10 (try to arrange carpools to save parking space and cut down on commute costs)
• Do I need a Discover Pass? No: “The Discover Pass is not required if you are camping or renting overnight accommodations.”
• Max RVs: 0
• ADA Accessible: No
• Picnic Tables: 5 • Showers: Coin-operated on-site
• Shared and individual fire pits
• Privacy: Excellent
• Water and vault toilets are on site. A full-service restroom is 100 yards away.

Available in the park: 
• Camping • Park store • Pay phone • Fire wood

Available in the area:
• Auto repair • Camping • Diesel • Fishing/hunting • Gasoline • Gifts • Golf • Groceries • Hardware • Hospital • Marine supplies • Overnight Accommodations • Pay phone • Postal service • Propane • Recreational equipment • White gas • Wood • Swimming

The park sells firewood and nature books. Most other services are available within a few miles of the park.

General Group & Day Use Notes:

Fires are permitted in designated areas only – do not leave them unattended. Gathering of firewood is not permitted. Bring your own fire wood (and some extra cash in case you need to buy more at the park).
Behavior: Park ranger has the authority to remove any or all members of the group whose behavior at any time is in conflict with any state law, becomes detrimental to the health and safety of the group or other users, or becomes so unruly as to affect reasonable enjoyment of the park by others.
Cleanup: User group is responsible for cleanup of area, failure to do so will result in cleanup fees as well as loss of any use of facility in the future. Contact park staff for inspection prior to departure.
Do not post signs or banners on any trees, post or signs in the park. Temporary signs may be used if they are free standing.
Alcohol: Keg alcohol and alcoholic punch bowls are not permitted.
Amplified devices: are not permitted.
Parking: Do not park vehicles on the lawn area.
Collection of fees: or donations is prohibited.
Advanced Media advertising: is not permitted.
Pets: must be on a leash at all times.
Misc: Water balloons, straw bales and egg tosses are not permitted.

Fair Season is upon us!

If you would like to volunteer to help with any or all of the events below, please email vicki@seattleatheists.org, or you can always just come by the booth and say “hi!”  Don’t worry if you haven’t worked the booth before.  There will be board members on hand as well.

Our first street fair will be the University District Street Fair on May 18th and 19th.  We will need help with set-up and tear-down of the booth as well as staffing during the fair itself.  We will be on the central street (University) this year, so we expect a lot of foot traffic by our booth.

The next event is Relay for Life on June 15th.  You can sign up for our Relay team, help with fundraising (by directing friends and family to our team page), or volunteer to help with the booth we will be setting up on the track.

June’s going to be a busy month.  Next up will be the Fremont Fair / Solstice Parade the weekend of June 22nd.  The Flying Spaghetti Monster, with the help of her entourage of pirates, will be blessing the crowd with her noodley appendages in the Solstice Parade.  The parade is staged the night before which means there is also a mini evening parade Friday June 21st as the floats move into position for those who want to assist is FSM assembly.  We will also have our booth set up for the weekend if you’d like to show Fremont how friendly us atheists can be.

Did I mention June would be a busy month?  June 30th is Pride!  Seattle Atheists will be participating in Seattle Out and Proud Parade as well as PrideFest at Seattle Center.  We need pirates for the parade and some atheists who would like to celebrate our marriage equality victory to staff our booth.

Volunteer Schedule

University District Street Fair: May 18th & 19th

Thank you booth volunteers: Neth, Greg, Audrey, Ellen, Scott, Tony, Elizabeth, George, Kofi & everyone else who dropped in to say “Hi!”

Relay For Life

The Relay will run from June 15th 10 AM to June 16th 10 AM.

June 15th:

Set up 9-10 am

Booth/ walking (2-3 people for each shift) 3hr shifts:

10am – 1pm

1-4 pm

4-7 pm

7-10 pm

10pm – 1 am

Sunday, June 16th

Booth/walking:

1-4 am

4-7 am

7-10 am

10 am tear down

Fremont Fair / Solstice Parade

Booth and Parade float set-up will likely be the evening of June 21st.  Time TBD.

Parade (Calling all pirates!) will be in the afternoon of June 22nd.

Booth Shifts:

June 22nd

10 AM – 1 PM

1 PM – 4 PM

4 PM – 8 PM George

June 23rd

11 AM – 2 PM

2 PM – 5 PM

5 PM – 6 PM (and tear down) George

Pride – June 30th

Parade will be in the afternoon.  Time TBD.

Booth Set-up will likely be the evening of June 29th.  Time TBD: Rada

Booth Shifts: June 30th

Noon – 3 PM

3 PM – 6 PM

6 PM – 8 PM (and tear-down) George

Greenwood Public Library
8016 Greenwood Ave N, 98103

Guest speaker John Geisheker of Doctors Opposing Circumcision will be addressing us on April 28th, 3:00 pm, at the Greenwood Public Library.

Recently both California and Germany passed laws forbidding any restriction on a claimed adult ‘right’ to circumcise male children freely for religious reasons. These laws are ‘push-back’ resulting from a steadily growing First-world opposition to non-therapeutic, merely ritual, genital cutting of children, especially those traditions imported from the Third-world.

Where did the practice of circumcision, ritual or medical, come from, and is it good medicine or human rights’ abuse?

John Geisheker will detail the 19th cent. motivations of Anglophone doctors, and sort through the tangled intersection of medicine, religion, culture, and human rights’ for children.

“John V. Geisheker, J.D., LL.M., has practiced medico-legal law as a litigator and law lecturer, for over 30 years. He is currently the full-time pro bono Director and General Counsel for Doctors Opposing Circumcision.

D.O.C. is an international physicians’ charity based in Seattle, Washington, whose members oppose merely cultural, non-therapeutic, genital cutting of children, male or female, on human rights’ grounds. He has presented on the topic of circumcision and human rights in England, Italy, and New Zealand, as well as all coasts of the U.S.A., for the last 14 years.

John is a native of New Zealand, a country that fully abandoned male circumcision in the 1960’s to no detectable loss of health. He hopes his adopted U.S.A. will someday follow that principled example. He may be reached via the D.O.C. website, or atdocdirector.geisheker@gmail.com.”

Due to the delicate nature of the subject matter, some may be uncomfortable.  Parental discretion is advised.

RSVP: MeetUp | Facebook

Seattle Atheists/Agnostics MeetUp Night

Join us every third Thursday of the month to meet fellow non-theists, have good conversation and enjoy a pint at the Blue Star Cafe & Pub in Wallingford. We gather from 7pm to closing.  Click here to check out their menu.

Blue Star Cafe & Pub

Meet in back room.
4512 Stone Way N
Seattle, WA
7pm-10pm
Every 3rd Thursday of the month

Wed., March 27th @ 7pm

Nordic Heritage Museum
3014 NW 67th St, 98117

Seattle Atheists and the UW’s Secular Student Union are excited to welcome PZ Myers to Seattle.

PZ Myers is a biologist at the University of Minnesota Morris, with a special interest in developmental biology and evolution. He’s been battling creationists and bible-wallopers on the internet since 1993, and has gotten slightly curmudgeonly about it all. The blog Pharyngula is his outlet for venting his fury at faith, stupidity, and injustice, an occupation which somehow led to him being named American Humanist of the Year in 2009, and International Humanist of 2011 by the IHEU. He’s confident that science is the only tool we have for reaching new knowledge, regards faith and ignorance as vices, and finds happiness with his family.

$5 suggested donation for non-students.

Parking: The Nordic Heritage Museum parking lot entrance is located on NW 68th Street halfway between 32nd Ave NW and 30th Ave NW. There is also plenty of street parking in the area.

RSVP: MeetUp | Facebook

Here is the video of the event.

2100 Building, 2100 24th Ave S, Seattle

Darwin is turning 204! Come celebrate with us!

Join us for:

• Evolution Raffle
• Darwin Jeopardy
• Taste of Camp Quest Northwest
• Snacks and cake
• Jen McCreight keynote talk
• and more!

This year Seattle Atheists will be teaming up with Camp Quest Northwest.  Camp Quest provides summer camps for kids that teach critical thinking skills in a secular environment.  Our friends from Camp Quest will be providing childcare with donations benefiting this great organization.  They will give the kids a “taste” of Camp Quest that is sure to make them want sign up for a week this summer.

If you are planning on dropping kids off in the Camp Quest room, please note ages in the RSVP.

RSVP: MeetUp | Facebook

Saturday, January 19 @ 11:00am-1:00pm
Skagit Valley Food Co-op
202 S. 1st St., Mount Vernon, WA

Howard, a former member and president of HNPS as well as a non-believer in anything supernatural, gave the following statement regarding the event. 

I support women’s right to choose, Roe vs. Wade, contraception and the Death with Dignity Act passed by Washington’s voters.

More and more secular, tax supported hospitals are being taken over by Catholic health-care providers. This means that the ultra-conservative Catholic doctrine will control the now Catholic run hospitals which means, in short:

1. No end of life counseling, information, cooperation etc. will be allowed per
Catholic doctrine.
2. No contraceptive information, tubal ligations, abortions or other women
friendly information or services will be allowed per Catholic doctrine.

This has already happened in Whatcom County where both hospitals are controlled by Catholic doctrine. There is currently a proposed operating agreement between United General Hospital in Skagit County and PeaceHealth St. Joseph, a Catholic organization. The State Department of Health is currently considering a Certificate of Need which would allow the takeover of United General by PeaceHealth.

There are several other hospitals and clinics at risk for takeover in Washington State and some have predicted that unless the citizens of Washington wake up to the hazards, the Catholic doctrine will rule in every medical facility in Washington.

I intend to write a letter to the DOH and am looking for support from secular organizations, including HNPS if they’re willing.

Coffee and light snacks will be provided by the HNPS.

RSVP: MeetUp | Facebook

Atheists celebrate Christmas too! Join us at the Ballard Senior Center for a holiday potluck including board games, crafting projects for the kids, good conversation, music, lots of food, and holiday cheer! Join us when doors open at 1pm for early cookies & snacks and to help decorate the tree.

Ballard Senior Center
5429 32nd NW , Seattle, WA
Saturday, Dec. 22nd
1:00pm-10:00pm, Main Course at 3pm

Main course dinner will be served around 3pm but the party will last for hours so everyone can hang out and enjoy good company.

Please bring a dish you enjoy to share if you can. Sign up here for something on the list or add your own family favorite.

Have a card or board game you’d like to share? Bring it along!

Attractions Not To Be Missed!

• Celebration of The World Not Ending!
• White Elephant Gift Exchange
• Games (board games, cards games, etc)
• Gingerbread house decorating
• Cookie Contest
• AND MORE!

If you’d like to help and volunteer your time or if you have any questions, email ericka@seattleatheists.org.

Need access to the kitchen before the party starts? No problem! We’ll have volunteers on-site using the kitchen as early as 10am. Just let us know your needs so that we can schedule space and time in the ovens.

Parking is limited to street parking only and a nearby pay-to-park lot. The Ballard Senior Center is along the 44 bus route.

Alcohol is allowed as long as it’s consumed in moderation and not served to minors.

RSVP: MeetUp | Facebook

You are invited to join us for our 2012 Annual Winter Solstice Potluck Dinner

Come celebrate with your local freethought friends!

Where: 2100 24th Avenue South, Seattle, WA
When: Sunday, Dec. 16th
Time: 5:00 – 8:30 PM
Bring: a potluck food item to share!
Juice, coffee, tea, and adult beverages already await you.

This year’s dinner is organized by the Humanists of Washington and Seattle Atheists as your eager hosts.
Join us for food, entertainment from several musical groups, and secular camaraderie to mark the start of winter!

Families and students welcome!

Questions? Got time to volunteer to set up, take a shift during the party, or clean up? Contact Eileen Cabalo, Vice President of Humanists of Washington, at Humanists@comcast.net. We hope to see you there!

RSVP: MeetUp | Facebook