Monday, September 26, 2011

Project 42, Red River Valley Free Thought Convention

I attended the Red River Valley Free Thought Convention in Fargo this last weekend. I enjoyed myself and got to meet and talk to the speakers. The Red River Valley Free Thought Society has been in existence for few years and this is the second convention that they had. Jon Lindgren was the mayor of Fargo from 1978 to 1994. He is a retired professor of economics at NDSU. He is the president of their organization. Their primary goal is separation of church and state with promoting an atheistic world view. Richard Carrier is the author of Sense Goodness without God and Not Impossible Faith. He received his PhD in ancient history from Columbia University. His current interests is the intellectual history of Greece and Rome as well as the history of Christianity. Robert M. Price or the Bible Geek is a religious skeptic and professor of Theology and scriptural studies at Coleman Theological Seminary and professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry. He has authored several books including The Reason Driven Life and Inerrant the Wind; The Evangelical Crisis in Biblical Authority. Richard Haynes or better known as Brother Richard received a degree in Religious Studies and was minister for 19 years in a large Atlanta Mega church. He was "born again" into the real world. He works now to build non-theist communities and is executive director of AtheistNexus.org. P.Z. Myers the associate professor of biology at University of Minnesota at Morris and vigorous critic of creationism and intelligent design. He received the Humanist of the Year Award in 2009. He has the largest science blog on the net Pharyngula, which won the Readers Choice Award for 2011. We in conjunction with MSU had him here in Minot couple years ago to speak. And finally Michael Shermer the founder of Skeptics Magazine and is executive director of the Skeptics Society. He is adjunct professor of Economics at Claremont Graduate University. He has written many books and publishes Skeptic Magazine. He talked about his new book about the believing brain. The speakers gave talks on Saturday followed by a debate between an atheist and a preacher. A panel was held Sunday morning with Q & A. I thought it was a good conference, fun and meeting new people.
Peace
Skeptical DoDo

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