Secular humanists, atheists, freethinkers, brights… a plethora of titles all united by a common goal; Defend reason, science, and freedom of inquiry in all areas of human endeavor.

This weekend was spent frolicking with the likes of these defenders at the Center for Inquiry’s student leadership conference in Amherst, New York at the Center for Inquiry Transnational. Before diving into the details and romance of the steaming hot student conference I’d like to just inform those who are not aware about what The Center for Inquiry is, and what affiliates transnational non-government organization has.

The Center for Inquiry is huge, with 9 active centers in America and one here in Ontario, accompanied by centers in Germany, France, Poland, Russia, Spain, Egypt, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, Nepal, Italy, China, India, Peru, New Zealand, Argentina, Senegal, Zambia, London, Low Countries, Romania and Cameroon it is clearly a very influential and extremely network-able group of people providing rational (and ethical) alternatives to a multitude of seemingly irrational things. Things such as paranormal activity, pseudo-science, and religion.

It is affiliated with numerous secular groups such as Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health, SOS and African Americans for Humanism. It publishes a large number of publications such as the Skeptical Inquirer, Free Inquiry, Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, Philo, The American Rationalist and more including 9 newsletters. This center is such a vital and extremely powerful part of the struggle to bring reason and rationality to the forefront of our communities and campuses. There are around 160 campus groups worldwide with 10, 600 at large – this conference was one of the many ways the center reaching out and helping these campus groups.

An interesting point that quite often came up during the course of the weekend was the idea of there being a shift in the purpose of the university system. Historically speaking the university was developed by philosophers to be a place of questioning and studying.

Somewhere over the past years, the purpose has changed – now university is a tool in which we use to get a job that we probably will not like, and probably will not be in our field. We do not go out of pure curiosity of life and ideas, but because we are “supposed to.” The more I thought about this, the more reasonable it seemed that groups on campus that questioned religion, superstitions and pseudo-sciences while discussing philosophy and life just… make sense.

These groups do not necessarily need to be called the “Atheist” group. Instead, we were given ideas on other names that were more inclusive and not so scary such as the titles I listed at the beginning of this post. With these new ideas in mind, the fantastic staff at the Center for Inquiry started on their quest to teach a bunch of rowdy 20 – 30 year olds how to start and maintain exciting and effective campus groups.

Our weekend started with a welcoming ceremony from the founder of CFI, Paul Kurtz. We also had an opportunity to introduce ourselves, and talk a little bit about our schools and the groups that may or may not have been active there. This day was quite short, ending with a lecture by Taner Edis entitled “What Cost Rationality?”

In this lecture we heard about the costs of reason, and why some people just don’t “get it” (science is “hard”.) It is much easier to think mythically and with less knowledge than with a surfeit of knowledge. The social costs such as morality and political legitimacy being tied up with religion. Edis will be talking at the University of Waterloo, very close to my home, in the near future and I definitely look forward to hearing him again.

The following day had a smooth flow of speakers about how to found a group, use the web for outreach, run a meeting, and attract media attention. After lunch was my absolute most favorite speaker Barbara Forrest speaking on “Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse: A Closer Look at Intelligent Design.” Forrest was a key expert witness at the Kitzmiller vs Dover Area School District trial.

She gave us a lot of information about the trial and you should definitely check out her website and book. The last two speakers of the day were Eddie Tabash – who released a frightening roar about the threat of the fundamental religious right to the freedoms of modern society and Jamy Ian Swiss who first convinced us all that magic and illusion is completely ridiculous and then played some tricks on us. He was a very entertaining man (but in all honesty, later that night in one of our hotel rooms this fellow named Chris was doing these insane magic tricks! and it was better. ooo.).

The final day was again a short one with only one speaker Nica Lalli. Lalli has written a book that takes a completely different approach to atheistic writing than what Dawkins and Harris have taken previously. Rather than attacking and throat cutting Lalli tells a story, a lovely and well written story in Nothing; Something to Believe In.

Overall, I found the conference was extremely successful. I personally met loads of people who I know will be beneficial in my future endeavors of starting a great secular group at Guelph University. The networking opportunities that this conference gave to me were unbelievable and the resource and support that CFI offers are extensive and nothing less than incredible.

This organization is extremely useful, and inspiring. It is doing something that I have seen the United Church of Canada fall flat on their faces attempting to do in the past few years, and that is creating a strong and firm support base of individuals and groups to build a really structured, empowering, intelligent, and effective group of young people.

As a side note – we did a whole lotta drinkin’. And I’m pretty sure us Canadians perpetuated the French speaking, beer drinking, rowdy and of course incredibly well mannered and polite stereotypes of Canada.

I really look forward to spending a lot more time working with CFI transnational AND Ontario. Yay! If you’re at all interested in these groups there are contact pages to see what you can do to help, and if there are events in your area and of course a really great forum you can participate in!

(Crossposted at appletree)