Atheists Women of Louisville

Wednesday September 9, 7-9pm: Details at http://www.meetup.com/Atheist-Women-of-Louisville/calendar/14493312/

Sunday September 26, time TBA: Louisville Atheists at the Movies! We will be seeing “Waiting for Superman” at the Baxter Avenue Theatres. For more information go to http://www.meetup.com/Atheist-Women-of-Louisville/calendar/14594160/

Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers

Tuesday September 21, 7-9pm: Emmett Fields will discuss research on property values, tax revenue, and money lost in Louisville and Kentucky due to church tax deductions. http://www.meetup.com/atheists-175/calendar/14027566/

Louisville Secular Book Group

Sunday September 26, 10:30am-Noon: We will be discussing the first half of Richard Dawkins’ latest book , The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. The second half will be discussed at our October meeting. http://www.meetup.com/The-Louisville-Secular-Book-Group/calendar/14661318/

Sure, we also got some Christian responses. Most came by, took a quick glance and went on with an odd expression on their faces. One woman from a booth selling roasted almonds, just one empty booth away from us, came over very irate and asked how dare we tell people not to believe in God! I explained that we were just reaching out to our own, and that faith should be strong enough to handle someone else having a different view. She stormed off that. A few minutes later she came back and apologized, saying that she had misread the sign. She missed the question mark after “Don’t believe in God,” and thought it a statement telling people not to believe in God. We (the other volunteer and I) accepted the apology, and I thanked her for the feedback and the act of coming back to apologize. And she told us about how some churches are hypocritical and that her and her husband worship in their home and like to watch Joel Osteen. I think she is still pretty scandalized by the booth though–I wonder if we will get anymore reaction from her as the fair progresses?

There was also a man with a young homeschooled daughter than came by and engaged us in conversation. He was actually very polite and respectful, even as he kept rolling out the stock arguments from tracts such as “Seven things God can’t do” (I never let him get past the first) and the one that starts “Have you ever told a lie” about the 10 Commandments. I’ve heard enough about that one and I was not willing to play that game. I explained to him that I don’t accept the authority of the 10 Commandments, that if US Law was based on them there would be no religious liberty, and that no one deserves to be punished forever because they told a lie when they were a child.  Or something like that. And I told him that if a god ever revealed himself to me I would acknowledge it–and until that happened nothing he said would make any difference to me. He brought up how he didn’t see how anyone could look at nature and not see God, and I told him I could not jump from nature to God. Better to say “I don’t know” than jump to “God did it.” And we both talked about our backgrounds and I told him a bit about why I am an atheist. And we ended with a couple of jokes. His arguments were not so great, but he was nice and fun to talk to.

We had others come by and talk as well, but these were the most memorable encounters.

We are in the South Wing in Aisle QQ, very close to the food court. Come and visit us!

I will be posting updates and pictures soon.