Let Blogathon begin!

It’s an unholy hour for me. Well, I guess technically each of my hours is unholy…but damn, it’s early. It’s not a problem though, because I’m ready for BLOGATHON!

That’s right. From 6am PST Saturday to 6am Sunday, I’ll be frantically writing a new post in order to raise money for the Secular Student Alliance. Just like you’d donate money to support a runner in a marathon, I’m asking you to donate to support my caffeine-fueled adventure. And you have options! Make a a flat donation, donate every time you read a post you really enjoy, donate every time a kitten photo appears, request a topic for me to write about…have fun with the process! And even if you can’t afford to donate (ever penny helps!) you can help by spreading the word via Facebook and Twitter, and you can comment along so I don’t feel totally alone. This is especially important from my international readers, so I don’t feel like  I’m blogging into the abyss at 4am PST.

The overall goal of SSAweek was to raise $100,000 for the SSA, and we’re almost there. We only have $15,000 left in our goal, and I want my blogathon to be what puts us over the edge. This is especially important since we have a matching offer going on right now, so ever dollar you donate is doubled! So donate now using the widget in the right sidebar or by clicking here.

And in case you get sick of me today, there are others who are blogathoning as well. The fantastic Natalie Reed will be typing away, and the lovable Sarah Moglia will be livestreaming. I won’t be livestreaming because I do most of Blogathon unkempt and pantless. Sorry for ruining the magic.

Anyway…let the games begin!

This is post 1 of 49 of Blogathon. Donate to the Secular Student Alliance here.

I get comments: There’s no patriarchy, just evolution

This comment gave me a good laugh, so I thought I’d share:

PZ’s reputation as a reasonable scientist is definitely tarnished by the way he sets aside reason in exchange for chivalry–i.e. the defense of women and femininity even when it’s clear that the other sex really deserves the defense. He likely rationalizes this with a conspiracy theory called “patriarchy” wherein women are infantilized and treated as robots with no free will.

It’s quite funny how someone can be so rational in some areas but completely credulous when it comes to patriarchy “theory”.
I really do think that men like him behave this way because of deep, evolutionary pressure to compete with other males for the favor of females. It’s not impossible, that’s for sure. It would be difficult to prove but, it makes perfect sense and is completely logical. I mean, those who didn’t behave in a sycophantic manner towards women would almost certainly not have reproduced in numbers as abundant as their competitors, right? I’m not evolutionary biologist, but the idea at least makes sense.

I don’t want to steal all the fun, so have a blast pointing out the 3864831 things that are wrong with those paragraphs in the comments.

Secular Student Alliance makes benign appearance on CNN…receives death threat

Jesse Galef, Communications Director for the Secular Student Alliance, appeared on CNN this morning discussing the recent Pew survey that found a growing number of Millennials are doubting the existence of God.


Get Jesse signed up for the Jedi Academy right now. I have no idea how he kept his cool during such an inane, biased interview that accused the SSA of “indoctrinating children.” You know who indoctrinates children? Every religion on the planet. I guess all those people who were baptized as infants and forced to attend church throughout their childhood don’t count as being indoctrinated…but teenagers voluntarily wanting to discuss God’s existence? Indoctrination!!!

Despite Jesse smiling his way through the interview and being polite where I would have popped a vein, people are still upset. Jesse and JT at the SSA office immediately received angry phone calls from an individual who called them faggots, threatened to “shut them down,” asked how they’d feel sweeping their teeth into dustpans, and said he’d come to their office at 1pm to tear his head off.

Christian compassion, everybody. Thankfully the guy never showed up.

This is why what the SSA is doing is so important. We’re assisting students who are organizing on their own, and we’re seen as indoctrinating the youth. We appear on the news to amicably talk about that support, and we receive a death threat. Our existence is threatening to the religious because our existence says “You’re wrong.”

Remember, SSAweek is still going strong. Donate here.

Seattle’s proposed solution to their gun problem: God

Seattle is brainstorming ways to deal with the recent increase in gun-related violence in the city…and I’m a little skeptical of the idea proposed by Seattle City Council member Bruce Harrell:

Harrell says he’s spoken with a number of pastors about putting together a gang outreach program that would combine clergy members with other mentoring organizations to get gang members off the streets and in work or education programs.

The program is tentatively titled, “Saving the Streets and Saving Souls” (SSS).

Harrell pictures clergy members and mentoring organizations offering at-risk youth paths to education and job training, and a spiritual safety net. He imagines setting up anonymous gun drop-offs to get firearms off the streets. “We have to have safe drop-offs where grandmothers, aunts, uncles, friends, can turn in guns without inquiries or questions,” Harrell says. “Then change the culture by messaging in all communities that we need to get these guns off the streets.”

“Every pastor I’ve spoken to has absolutely loved the idea,” he continues. “Church is a huge part of neighborhood culture, especially in the south end. This is a way to help kids get back on the right track while hopefully cutting down on gang and gun violence.”

Harrell is hoping for around 500,000 (tax payer) dollars for the project.

I understand that Seattle is desperate to solve their gun problem, but I can’t support a solution that boils down to “God! Jesus! Woo!” and a bunch of hand-waiving. How exactly are clergy members in particular more qualified to offer at-risk youths the support they need? Why target clergy instead of also involving secular organizations? Why does the city give a rats ass about a “spiritual safety net” and “saving souls”? What about the 65% of Seattleites that aren’t religiously affiliated? I don’t want my money going into a program that’s only funneled into religious organizations with vague, nebulous goals. It works on the assumption that religion is inherently morally superior or helpful…which we’ve consistently seen is not the case.

Maybe we should try to actually solve the socio-economic conditions that perpetuate these problems, instead of treating religion like a cure-all bandaid we can slap on after the fact.

Creepiest pickup line ever?

Seattle buses provide ample opportunity for creepy, bizarre, and/or uncomfortable situations with strangers. The one I just witnessed is the current “winner,” as the creepy older guy managed to somehow simultaneously hit on and witness to an attractive young woman sitting behind me.

Guy: You’re so beautiful, intelligent, and spiritual.. I know because I can look into your soul through your eyes, because I’m a warrior of Christ. I’d love to have a relationship with you.
Gal: Um…no thank you
Guy: Well if you change your mind my address is (address) and you can visit whenever you like…you’re so wonderful.

He then proceeded to ask her questions about her name, age, profession, and if she would go on a date with him for the next 15 minutes…which she stupidly answered, albeit in a way that screamed “please stop talking to me.” EDIT: Hopefully she was giving fake information. When she got off the bus he started chanting all these facts to himself, including the intersection she got off because he assumed that’s where she lived. He then started groaning about how hot she was and how badly he wanted her for the rest of the bus ride, until he got off at his stop.

…

Lesson 1: Don’t give personal information to creepy people on the bus. Eek. WTF. I hope this guy doesn’t turn out to be a stalker. Women are socialized to be polite even in situations that make them incredibly uncomfortable. We need to feel more comfortable saying “No” or “Please stop talking to me” or even moving to another part of the bus.

Lesson 2: Women have to deal with this stupid shit all the time.  I had a similar event happen about a week ago where an older man tried to convince me to get off the bus with him to go on a coffee date, and was trying to pry all sorts of personal information out of me. Even though this time the guy wasn’t talking to me, I was incredibly uncomfortable. I was worried about the young woman (who was the same age as me) and worried that he may start talking to me next. It’s worse because a bus is a situation where you feel “trapped.” You can technically get off (if it won’t make you late for something important), but there’s the chance someone will follow you, so staying trapped on the bus with that person is actually the safer situation.

I know a lot of guys don’t understand why getting hit on by strangers can make many women so uncomfortable. I hear “I’d love random women hitting on me!” all the time. But when you can’t ride the bus in peace…when you dread sitting at a bus stop with other people because they’ll do the same…when you stop wearing nice or flattering clothes because you want to decrease your odds of receiving wolf whistles and cat calls…when you have no idea if any of these people are potentially dangerous…

“Flattery” turns into “fear” very quickly.

#SSAweek doodles!

Keep refreshing to see the new ones. Info about requesting a doodle is here.

Request: “Holland Lop Rabbit”

Dear readers:I’d be perfectly happy if all of your requests are adorable animals.

Request: “Owl, dancing”

I hope disco is okay.

Request: “8 kitties playing and ‘kitty mommy’ somewhere in the doodle. a gift for my wife :)”

Pixel wanted to use her expertise to help with that one, so she decided to fall asleep on my arm as I was drawing. Thanks, Pixel.

Request: Doodle of an alien reading the Bolingbrook Babbler.

Brb, taking a lunch break!

Request: Vampire Squid (cuter than you’d think)

Request: “something with a cat and a violin. You decide how they relate. ”

Bad kitty.

Request: “whatever “No Iguana for Z” suggests to you”

A trolly friend requests: “dignity”

Request: “Happy Atom sketch”

Request: “Draw DNA :)”

EDIT: Taking a doodle break because my cold is catching up with me. Will finish the rest soon!

Donate to #SSAweek and get a personal doodle from me!

EDIT: I’m closing submissions now so I can catch up on the doodles people have requested. I may make the same offer later in the week, so don’t despair!

So far #SSAweek and Blogathon are going strong. $54,337 has been raised, though $50,000 came from the Stiefel Freethought Foundation and the rest came from 86 other donors. I want everyone to know they can make a difference even if they only have $5 to give. That’s just one fancy coffee or beer you can skip in order to support a great cause. My mini-goal is to hit 100 donors by the end of today.

What’s in it for you? I’m sitting at home sniffling and hopped up on strong cold medicine. I’m a little loopy and a little bored. If you donate $5 or more to the Secular Student Alliance, I’ll draw you a custom doodle in EDIT: OpenCanvas, so it won’t be totally crappy! All you have to do is while making your donation, look for the “SSA Week 2012 Topic Suggestion & Mailing Information” header, fill out Blogger with “Jen” or “Blag Hag” and tell me what you want to draw with “Topic Suggestion.”

In case you need further encouragement, you should know I’m armed with a Bamboo drawing tablet and this is some of my past artwork (more examples in this link):

So, donate and give me things to doodle! Let’s reach 100 donors or more by the end of today!

Why you should support the SSA explained in a single graph

From the Pew Research Center’s recent survey where they asked people if they agreed with the statement “I never doubt the existence of God.”

As a Millennial, let me take this opportunity to say WOOOO! The under-30s are kicking ass.

It’s not particularly surprising that the under-30s are more skeptical of God’s existence. We already knew that age group had the highest proportion of “nones” – people with no religious affiliation. But this poll is exciting for two different reasons:

1. It directly measures skepticism of God’s existence rather than religious affiliation. There are lots of people who believe in God, souls, heaven, or new-age woo without affiliating with an organized religion. What percentage of nones aren’t actually skeptical? While this graph doesn’t break it down by religious affiliation, it does show that 32% of Millenials have questioned God’s existence to some extent. They may not all label themselves atheists, and some may still be religiously affiliated – but these are the young people we can reach.

It’s much easier to discuss the veracity and effects of religion with someone who is open to the possibility of being wrong.

2. Skepticism about God is not merely a side effect of age. This is a question I got a lot when the “none” stats came out – are the under-30s less likely to be religiously affiliated just because they’re younger? Did people just affiliate as they became older, and all young people start out looking skeptical of religion?

By the results of this current survey, it doesn’t seem like young automatically equals skeptical of the existence of God. Millenials as of 2012 are age 31 and under. Gen X’s 31 and under point would be 1996, but Gen X seems stable about their beliefs throughout polling. The Millenial generation is in a unique position of questioning religion and the existence of God itself, something we’ve never seen before.

This is why groups like the Secular Student Alliance are so important. Yes, Millenials are our future. The SSA helps train secular leaders who will one day be secular journalists, teachers, humanitarians, and politicians. But more importantly, Millennials are our present. They’re already skeptical and already speaking out. If we want change now and in the future, we need to support the SSA.