Category Archives: Rise of Atheism

Interviews at the Global Atheist Convention

While everyone else was preoccupied a Perth Atheist was grabbing interviews with NonStampCollector, Jamie Kilstein, PZ Myers and finally Reverend Jim Brady from St. Pauls Cathedral.

The interviews were conducted by Kohdi Troy or

Hey hey! So I’m back from the imensely successful Global Atheist Convention in Melbourne, and I had an absolute blast, met up with a few good people, thoroughly enjoyed the event, the speakers were all first rate, even if I was only able to attend the final day (don’t tell anyone but I snuck in to see PZ and AC on the Saturday. I would have been glad to pay but unfortunately tickets had sold out). While I was there I organised a couple of interviews with Youtube Atheist (am I the only one that hates that term?) NonStampCollector, New York Comedian Jamie Kilstein and an impromptue interview with legendary blogger, biologist and all round awesome guy, PZ Myers (whom I’ve since discovered prefers zee to zed). On top of this, I made a mistake with my flight booking and ended up staying in Melbourne a day longer than I expected, which gave me the opportunity to have a chat with one of the preachers at St Pauls Cathedral, Jim Brady (unfortunately not Phillip Freier). Thought Crime Theater

I was only present at the final Interview with Jim Brady who I found quite interesting. Jim was much more open to discussion than I had initially anticipated. I think it was good that we managed to get an opinion from the “other side of the fence”.

Here are the interviews conducted by

  1. NonStampCollector
  2. Jamie Kilstein
  3. PZ Myers
  4. Jim Brady

You can also download all four interviews in a .zip file here.

What was the best thing to come out of The Rise of Atheism?

Following on from a Blog post by Jin-ohchoi

To all the Atheists, Rationalists, Sceptics, Free Thinkers and other like-minded people.

With The Rise Of Atheism | 2010 Global Atheist Convention only days away. I wanted to pose a question to those attending and not attending.

What outcomes do you hope will come from the convention? –Jin-oh – Atheist|Geek|Nerd|Social

I feel that since the Atheist Convention is now over we can answer another important question and that is. What was the best thing to come out of The Rise of Atheism?

For me the convention was not just about the presentations, although they were well worth crossing the country for on their own. I feel the greatest value in the convention comes from uniting Atheists who are notoriously disorganised, possibly because we won’t burn in hell for it. With Atheists all over the country having now met and begun the formation of new alliances a new wave of reason is sweeping across society and organised ignorance cannot easily escape it. The convention is appropriate named “The Rise of Atheism” because now Atheism is beginning to take center stage away from the Stupid, Ignorant and Deluded masses.

Atheism is on the rise and this is one ball that won’t stop rolling…

Who said Atheist's can't have messiahs?

Religious people like to accuse Atheism of being a religion, despite the fact that we have no scripture to follow, no god to worship and no messiah to listen to. At least until PZmyers shows up. Just wait until the “Atheism is a religion” crowd get hold of this one.

Photo courtesy of @pcostley

Not only do we have PZmyers doing the perfect messiah pose but we also had a standing ovation for the arrival of Richard Dawkins, before he had even spoken. With this type of response it should not be much of a surprise when the religious mistake atheism as another form of religion.

Ghost in Melbourne

I’m here in Melbourne and I decided to take a photograph of the city skyline only to discover a ghostly hand appearring in my photograph. What other possible explanation could there be other than the existence of a Ghost? (Click the image to get the  full size (1.4MB) version) Feel free to distribute it to as many believers as you can find. This is their evidence that ghosts exist. Don’t point them to the original source of the image, it’s more fun if they find out after using the image as “credible” evidence.

This image was taken with a normal consumer grade Digital Camera I did not use any special functions or abilities of the camera and the image has not been digitally edited, with the exception of my watermark being added to the bottom right hand corner. The phenomenon that allowed me to take this photo is the simple refraction of light off a sheet of glass (the window).

Pre-Rise of Atheism Meetup.

Where: Lygon Court Food Court off Drummond St, Carlton

Date: Thursday, March 11, 2010

Time: 8:30pm – onwards

Facebook Link

AFA forum Discussion

Since many of us are arriving in Melbourne on thursday we have decided to hold a meetup before the convention. So far approximatly 60 Atheists are planning to meetup in Carlton for food and Drinks.

 

Hi All,

With 2010 having hit and The Rise of Atheism Convention fast approaching, it’s high time for Atheists from across the country/world to get together for a few drinks to kick off the weekend.

“World-renowned philosopher A.C. Grayling will be in conversation with Russell Blackford on Thursday 11 March, 6.30pm, Cinema Nova. Free, but please book on (03) 9347 6633.”

Following the launch, we will gather in the food court at the far end (Drummond Street) of Lygon Court, adjacent to the Borders Books coffee bar. Usually, there is plenty of room there, and it’s not noisy. It is projected that this would be around 8:30 for those of you who are unable to attend the launch.

From here it’s off into the night to decide where is looking good for a feed and drinks etc. If this is much earlier or later I will be contactable by phone please feel free to message me for this number if you plan to meet up at 8:30 or later.

Really looking forward to getting to meet a lot of people from all over the place and putting a few faces to names.

– Ben Turner

Special thanks to fellow atheist Ben Turner for arranging this meetup.

The Rise of Atheism

The 2010 Global Atheist Convention is almost here, in only a few days time myself and other atheists from all over Australia and the world will be descending on Melbourne for “The Rise of Atheism” convention.

Such a large gathering of free-thinking individuals is bound to attract some attention, and indeed it has the convention is already sparking a considerable backlash before it has even started. But the convention is going ahead no matter how much the creationists attempt to disrupt things. It is time for human civilisation to move on from the darkages and now Science and Reason are pushing back against religion that has always dominated main stream society, Atheism is on the rise.