You can nominate people who you feel would best serve Seattle Atheists and the atheist community now by e-mailing us. Candidates for the officer positions should have business and leadership skills, as well as experience running a business or a non-profit organization. Skills such as public speaking, writing and editing, graphic design, and Secretarial skills are desired. Experience with a board of directors is very useful.

Board meetings are held every other month, and generally run 2 to 3 hours. Board members are expected to attend the membership meetings, which take place on alternate months.

Interested? E-mail us for the job descriptions! Nominees should submit a statement, which will be posted on this website.

Harry Gilbert is a science writer, an author, a science teacher, a retired Rocket Engineer. Every month, he holds “science salons,” for about a dozen local regulars, on a variety of science topics. A few weeks of research, buttressed by his own knowledge, and “I can talk about any subject they choose,” he says.

He will speak about dark matter in the universe.

There will be light refreshments and a chance to network after the talk.

Check out the Seattle Times story about Harry!

Due to budget cuts at libraries, we’ve had to make changes to the format and location of our bi-monthly membership meetings.

First, we will no longer meet at the Greenlake Library, which is now closed on Sundays. We’ll be holding out meetings in a variety of places, throughout the greater Seattle area. This allows our members who have limited transportation options to get the chance to attend occasionally.

Since we’ve grown so much in the past two years, membership meetings are typically packed. We’re looking for larger venues.

Finally, we’ll be serving snacks and light refreshments after the speakers, so that you will have an opportunity to network with other atheists and agnostics.

We hope you will like the changes, and ask that you bear with us as we try to communicate those changes with you. We will post the most current meeting information here on this website, so stay tuned.

Thanks for your continued support as we try to better serve you!

Here is an excerpt.

Dr. David Barash, psychology professor at the University of Washington, will discuss the evolution of a drive for religion. He’s currently writing a book on mysteries of human behavior. The title of this talk is “Homo Religiosus: Can evolution help explain why so many people believe things that are so palpably untrue?” Prof. Barash was one of the early contributors to the field of sociobiology. He examines the underlying evolutionary factors influencing human behavior, called “evolutionary psychology,” and has been active in researching, promoting, and practicing the field of Peace Studies. He feels that the issues of animal behavior, evolutionary psychology and Peace Studies are fundamentally linked, because they involve questions of how biology affects behavior. He co-authored the book “Madame Bovary’s Ovaries: a Darwinian look at literature,” and was recently profiled in “The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America” by conservative commentator David Horowitz.

After short break,  we will welcome Paul Constant, who recently wrote the letter, “Dear Catholic Church: Excommunicate Me” for the Stranger.  He will be speaking about his life and the letter. His talk will take place after David Barash’s, instead of the Town Hall normally held.

This event is sponsored by the Seattle Atheists. If you have concerns about transportation to/from any of our events, please contact Becky, Member Relations Committee Chair.
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We also encourage you to bring canned food items for our year-round Seattle Atheists SeasonLESS Food Drive. Food goes to the non-sectarian distribution network of Northwest Harvest.  Please consider donating healthful non-perishable items (suggestions here).

NOTE: If you have concerns about transportation to/from any of our events, please contact Becky, Member Relations committee chair, at secretary@seattletheists.org.

Seattle Atheists member Casey Doran will present a talk entitled “Epistemology: A Critical Approach to Apologetics” for our March membership meeting.

This presentation will be a basic overview of the philosophical notion of epistemology, more commonly known as the “theory of knowledge,” and how thinkers from Ancient Greece to the Enlightenment and through the Modern Era have approached the question of how it is that we come to “know” anything. Casey will focus specifically on belief as a component of knowledge, how all of us (atheists included) rely heavily on beliefs to understand the world around us, and how standards of evidence that we use to justify our beliefs can differ drastically. Lastly, he will address common theological arguments and help arm quick-witted atheists with some counter-apologetics when someone claims to *know* that “God exists.”

Following a Q&A session with Casey, we will have a short break and reconvene for our Membership Volunteer Fair. This is a great opportunity to learn about how you can participate in the wide range of activities, events, and projects Seattle Atheists is embarking on this year!

We encourage you to bring non-perishable food items for our year-round Seattle Atheists SeasonLESS Food Drive. We donate items we collect to Family Works, Northwest Harvest, and Volunteers of America food banks in the name of Seattle Atheists.

In addition to the presentation and a Q&A session with Mr. Adams, there will be discussion, announcements, and updates from both Humanists of Washington and Seattle Atheists. Many thanks to Humanists of Washington for co-sponsoring this event with Seattle Atheists.

This event is free and open to the the public, but the venue is limited to 75 people, so arrive early.

WHEN AND WHERE: Sunday, Jan. 10, 2:00 pm at the Miller Community Center, 330 19th Ave. E in Capitol Hill. There is parking available in adjacent lots.

Location: Greenlake Public Library, Seattle, WA

These meetings are free and open to all. Sunday we will have informational announcements about SA activities from now till the end of 2009 followed by a guest speaker.

This event is not sponsored by Greenlake Library.

Seattle Atheists are proud to present atheist comedian Jeremy Whitman!

Fresh off his troupe’s “Delived from Dogma” comedy tour, a “freethinking” comedy, where there was just about no piece of bad logic that was not challenged, and no source considered beyond examination, Jeremy will be giving a talk about his ’slightly off’ definitions of dogma and faith.

He will also discuss the show’s influences and share his personal stories and history, and give a general look at the thought processes (i.e. circular logic, fractured logic, leap of faith logic) inherent in dogmatic systems of belief. Not intended to be straight standup, that is to say it will be funny, but as more of a lecture than a joke-a-minute performance.

Jeremy Whitman is the son of a preacher, the nephew of two more preachers, and had a great uncle who was a Catholic Priest. Whitman was raised a young earth creationist, and attending multiple private Christian schools; including one that his father served as the principal of. This upbringing has given Jeremy a unique inside-out look at the logical fallacies of hardcore fundamentalist Christianity.

Now an accomplished standup comic and outspoken atheist, Jeremy has, after years two solid years of road work in the deep south and the bible belt, taken it upon himself to put together the Delivered From Dogma Comedy Tour in an effort to bring the ideals of Freethinking to anyone who will listen to him gleefully lampoon the more regrettable aspects of religion, and just about any other topic he finds interesting, distressing, or fun to talk about.

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Afterwards, we will take a break, and have an Town Hall- this month’s topic, “Atheism in the workplace”

The Greenlake Library is served by metro buses 16, 48, and 316. For directions, click here. This event is not sponsored by The Seattle Public Library.

And we’d appreciate it if you’d RSVP at: http://www.meetup.com/seattle-atheists/