I’m done, weeeee!

Yesterday I took my last final exam of my undergraduate career. Crazy to think how fast these four years went…and in a week I’ll be handed my degree. I’m officially done!

…Well, except for the fact that I have four to five years of graduate school coming up. And then a couple years of post docs. Hooray, academia. Oh well, I like it, and that’s all that matters.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m celebrating by going to my good friend’s day long bachelorette party in Indianapolis. If I return alive tomorrow, I’ll do some real blogging. Until then, consider this an open thread.

Purdue Non-Theist display case vandalized

The Stewart Center at Purdue University has a bunch of glass cases that line its hallway where student groups are allowed to put up little displays advertising. Groups get a week reserved, so you see displays rotating through of everything from breast cancer awareness, traditional African dance club, anthropology club, upcoming musical performances, College Republicans, religious clubs…

But apparently an atheist club is just too much for Purdue to handle.

The Society of Non-Theists (which I just officially stopped being President of – was for 3 years) finally got a display case of our own. I helped our former treasurer put up the display at 3:15pm on Monday. It included a sign saying “This is what non-theists look like” with happy photos of our club members, our benign club t-shirt, some atheism-related books, and Darwin fish stickers.

And now it’s covered in marker with “In the beginning, God created…”Thank you, vandal, for perfectly illustrating why we need this club on campus. Because we can’t even say we exist in the most friendly way possible without someone trying to come by and shut us up or put is down. Though it really doesn’t surprise me; our flyers are constantly vandalized like this (or just torn down). Makes sense that they wouldn’t stop because of some silly glass. Foolish of me to think the display would last untouched for at least 48 hours.

I’ve never seen something like this happen to another case, not the Episcopalians, the Pagans, or the Muslims (the Islamic case is right next to ours and untouched). I guess Purdue still has a long way to go. Off to email this to the proper Purdue people, though they’re just going to tell me there’s nothing they can do…again.

Three quick godless announcements

1. For those of you at Purdue or within driving distance of West Lafayette, IN, there’s an event tomorrow evening that you may be interested in. The Society of Non-Theists will be hosting Dr. Darrel Ray for his lecture The God Virus: How Religion Infects our Lives and Culture. It’s from 5 to 7pm in Beering Hall Room 2280. This is my last event as President, so you all should totally attend!

2. Women Thinking Free, a new non-profit organization founded by the Skepchicks focusing on women in science and skepticism, will be hosting its first official event on May 22. And their first speaker is…me! Elyse had the good fortune of asking me to volunteer before boobquake erupted – if she would have asked me now, I totally would be requesting a limo and $10,000 speaker fee. Sigh, I guess I can settle for her buying me a beer.

Anyway, if you live in the Chicago area and want to hear me ramble about feminism and skepticism, you should totally check it out. I’ll give a brief talk, and then we’ll have some food and booze – can’t get much better than that. The tickets cost $10, but it’s for a great cause. Go here for more information about the event and how to sign up!

3. The Secular Student Alliance Board of Directors elections open tonight at midnight. If you’re a member, you should totally go vote. Lots of lovely people are running (many of whom I’m friends with), and so am I. All of them would do an awesome job, but I’d also love to keep helping out the SSA. And if you’re not a member, you should definitely consider becoming one – SSA is a fabulous, hardworking organization that helps young freethinking groups, and every bit of money helps them a ton. I’ll also be speaking at their annual conference in July, which is an amazing opportunity for young people involved or thinking of starting non-theist student groups.

New Society of Non-Theists officers

I forgot to do this earlier in the week due to the media fire storm, but I want to congratulate the new officers of the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue for the 2010-2011 school year! Bryan is President, Amanda is Treasurer, and Mike is Secretary. Two of them have blogs, and they’re definitely worth checking out (seriously, not just because I’m their friend).

That now makes me the lame duck President (not the sitting duck, which my frazzled brain keeps making me accidentally say). It’s been awesome being President for the last three years, but I’m also excited to see what sort of things they’ll do when I’m gone. It’s always good to get some new, creative minds running something! And and top of that, we were finally allotted office space for next year, which is awesome!

And while I’ll miss the club dearly, there are some perks to graduation. Well, namely getting my degree and moving to a new, exciting part of the country… But people also like to give graduating seniors free food and merchandise. And I got to take my photo with all the Purdue icons! Huzzah!

Live interview in an hour!

This is incredibly late notice, but I will be talking live with Barry Lynn from Americans United for Separation of Church and State at 4pm EST at his radio show Culture Shocks. I’ll be on for about 20 minutes making a fool out of myself discussing boobquake and anti-women fundamentalists. Tune in!

EDIT: Sorry about that bit of miscommunication. My interview with Barry Lynn will air on Friday the 23rd at 4:30 PM! You can still catch it by going here then.

And thus begins the letter to the editor wars

Remember the wishy washy religious reply I got to my column on atheism yesterday? Well, after much persuasion from a friend, I decided to play Good Cop. I had a horrendously hard time writing that letter, since…well, I’m not good at being the diplomat. Like my friend said, I’m a firebrand who wrote a diplomatic column and is stuck playing diplomat for a while.

Him: All I’m saying is that you need to use judo instead of boxing
Me: But I like using flamethrowers!

But since I’m temporarily representing all atheists at Purdue, I probably shouldn’t come off as a jackass. Here’s the short reply sent in, with the goal of getting across “O hai thare, you’re kind of a pompous jerk, and you’re not worth my time for a longer letter. kthxbai“

Great science comes from theists and non-theists

Josiah Maas (“Claims already have extraordinary proof,” Monday), I agree, the universe is full of extraordinary evidence – evidence that natural processes shape everything from the formation of stars to the diversity of life on earth. Religious people can certainly be great scientists. Don’t insinuate that atheists can’t.

Jennifer McCreight
Senior in the College of Science

But needless to worry. Many other students decided not to play defense:

Don’t assume the weird stuff is God’s work

This letter is in response to Josiah Mass’ letter printed on Monday, “Claims already have extraordinary proof.”

As a fellow science major, I applaud your awe of the universe, but deride your methods. You say there is extraordinary evidence all around us, but if you insist that these claims are proven, you are failing in your task as a scientist. The purpose of science is to discover and learn about the unknown. To take a phenomenon that is presently unexplainable and throw your hands up in defeat and invoke “God” as the answer, you have simply admitted defeat.

Mark Webster
Senior in the College of Science

How is the universe proof of God but not others?

Josiah Maas (letter to the editor, “Claims already have extraordinary proof,” Monday), could you be a little bit more specific about exactly what the evidence for God is? Also, could you explain how it is evidence for God, but not for Zeus, the Flying Spaghetti Monster or the Invisible Pink Unicorn?

Alex Strinka
Senior in the College of Science

Subjectivity is the essence of understanding

In response to Josiah Maas’s letter, I would, at the outset, like to point out that proof and evidence are not the same thing. Furthermore, the qualifier “extraordinary” is subjective. What evidence you find compelling, someone else might not.

That it makes for an entertaining debate, that much I will agree. But alas! Your letter does in no way contribute to it. The only specific fact you give is what your opinion is regarding certain unmentioned evidence. In a place where ideas are exchanged (like this “Letters” section) specific facts an enriching discussion make, just stating your opinion belongs to opinion polls. And “look around the world” can never be substitute specific facts – it is too vague from the start. Try using that sentence for the next term paper in your science class, and sit back to enjoy the grades.

I read Ms. McCreight’s column. She was not debating whether any religion serves any purpose, or whether God of any kind exists. Her position is certainly implied in the article, but it was not about that. The article was talking about the motivation for a particular society, the kinds of programs they do, etc., a list of specific facts of some sort. The article also gave facts that were not related to the Society of Non-Theists in particular, but were relevant to the topic in general.

Now whether you found these facts interesting or not is subjective, but they certainly brought to the table much to discuss about.

What is there to discuss about your opinion? And what purpose will it serve to exclaim: OMG! You are a sophomore in the College of Science, Josiah.

Pinaki Bhattacharya
Graduate student

Ah, fulfilling to know that my last couple weeks at Purdue will likely be filled with an atheism flame war in the Exponent. Hey, the theist started it!

My honors thesis is done, woo!

My honors thesis was completed, signed, and turned in with a couple of hours to spare! Yaaaaaaaaay! Fifteen pages, nine of which were figures/tables/citations (wah wah, liberal arts people). Unfortunately I can’t tell you guys about it yet, but I will once it’s accepted to a scientific journal. All I can say is that it’s about copulatory plugs. Yeah, you’re just dying to know now, right?

Now all I have to do is grade some papers and finish a take home exam, and I’m good for the end of the semester. In fact, this week will suddenly change from The Week From Hell to The Week of Constant Drunken Happiness:

Tuesday: Labmate’s thesis defense – assuming that goes well, night at the pub in celebration!
Wednesday: Final meeting of the Non-theists! Pizza party, and hopefully not too much tearful nostalgia
Thursday: Free block party featuring concert by Asobi Seksu (omg yay!), then probably going clubbing afterwards
Friday: Party at my place
Saturday: Final Breakfast Club of the year (getting up early in costumes and going to bars… …it’s a Purdue thing)

Fuck yeah, college.

A not so good reply to my letter on atheism

Today’s Exponent contains a response to my column about being an atheist at Purdue. I think it’s attempting to refute what I said, but…uh, yeah:

Claims already have extraordinary proof

Jennifer McCreight (Guest commentary, “Non-theists, you are not alone on this campus,” Wednesday), You quoted Carl Sagan in the last line of your article about the Society of Non-Theists, stating that “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” You’re a science major, Jennifer. Take a look at the universe you live in. I’d say there’s some pretty extraordinary evidence all around you.

Josiah Maas
Sophomore in the College of Science

I really wish I could write in a reply without seeming like a total jackass, but I probably can’t. I’ll let some other non-theist defend me. But since this is my blog and I have the right to be as snarky as I want, here we go:

I find it amusing that you’ve failed to provide a single piece of this “proof”

Josiah Maas (Letter to the Editor, “Claims already have extraordinary proof,” Monday), You say that the universe I live in is extraordinary evidence. You’re a science major, Josiah. You should have learned that science is based on repeatedly testing hypotheses and gathering data, not letting emotional reactions or arguments from ignorance overwhelm rationality. In fact, what we’ve seen when investigating the universe is an overwhelming amount of data showing that natural processes shape everything from the formation of stars to the diversity of life on earth. The supernatural has zero evidence (though if you claim to have so much, would you please let me in on this little secret?). Maybe if you start paying more attention in your science classes, you’ll understand this concept. It’s okay, you have a couple more years until graduation.

Jennifer McCreight
Senior in the College of Science

Responses to my column on atheism

Yes, I know I should be frantically working on my thesis, but I’m taking a break to post some news I promised I’d share. On Wednesday I wrote an article on my experiences as an atheist at Purdue and the Society of Non-Theists. The overwhelming response was people emailing me, thanking me for writing it, which is absolutely awesome. I also found wonderful write up by a fellow Purdue student about how my experiences mirror his of coming to the Midwest as a Mormon:

When I lived in Utah most of the kids in school where Mormon. In Tennessee I could count the number of LDS students on one hand, two of them being myself and my sister, out of a student population of about 2000. And with Utah’s reputation of being “Mormon country” whenever someone learned where I was from the conversation would usually go something like this:

Person: “Where are you from?”
Me: “Utah”
Person: “Are you Mormon?”
Me: “Yes”
Person: (In disbelief and with a serious tone) “Are you going to have 10 wives when you get older?”

And the multiple wives question was usually just the tip of the ice berg. I could not believe how many strange outlandish questions I got asked about being LDS. It got to the point where I almost dreaded telling someone else I was LDS because of the various stereotypes and nonsense people would then assume about me. This was also when I began to meet LDS members who have had their families and friends shut them out of their lives because they became Mormon. I also met a girl here at Purdue who told us of her conversion and how her parents had cut off all contact with her because of her decision to become LDS.

So after reading Jennifer’s article I began to relate to what she was talking about. I could even relate to the preachers who stand out on the mall preaching hellfire and damnation on all those they disagree with because, surprise, they think Mormons are going to hell as well. Whenever you see one of the street preachers holding a sign with a list of “damned” groups of people, look at the names and you will see Mormons listed along with atheists, pedophiles, democrats, and homosexuals.

While we’ll probably never agree on theology, it’s wonderful that others understand what being an atheist is like, and realize we can be more similar than they might have thought. Responses like this make me think my article was a great success!

Brief “I am so fucked” hiatus

Dear Internet:

Jen’s honors thesis is due Monday, but she thought it was due Tuesday. Jen is still analyzing her data, and the computer decided to crash and erase some of her annotations (but thankfully not the core data). Jen also didn’t realize that the Department head needed to read, approve, and sign said thesis before she could turn it in. Jen has no idea how she’s going to be able to finish it in time so said Dept Head has time to do this, and work on the improvements he’ll no doubt suggest if he doesn’t reject her outright for being a dumbass. Jen only feels slightly better after realizing other biology students working on their honors thesis also didn’t know this, and are now frantically screaming while typing as well. But then Jen remembers this means the Dept Head will have many theses to read Sunday night, and he will hate us all. Jen is now kicking herself for wasting today by working at Fiction for Fiction and blogging.

tl;dr FUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKK

I won’t be on the internet until Monday. Consider this an open thread.