Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Reality Activist on February 23, 2009 at 3:02pm

Let see....
Co-ed Softball for 55+ MWF at noon. Any age softball on Sat. & Sun at noon. These pickup games are played all year. Most people don't show if the high temp for the day < 45 degrees, but some die-hards do. The dates and time changes depending on the time of the year. Late spring, the MW are deleted and the Friday game starts at 10am. Generally on a good day, we have at least sixteen players or more which enables us to play with two teams in the field and one at bat unless we have enough for two teams.

Md. State Atheist Meetup group have meetups usually at Columbia Mall's Starbucks, but you might want to join to be more informed about them. Last Saturday, we offered Swing Dancing at Glen Echo. We had a great time.

The Baltimore Atheist meetup group is showing Bill Maher's "Religulous" at a private residence on March 7th. You can attend in two ways, as a guest of a member of the Baltimore Atheist Meetup group or by joining the group. Be careful, residences usually have limits on the number of people attending. I have the DVD and may offer a viewing at a non Baltimore area venue, if I someone will offer their residence or another appropriate venue. If you haven't seen it...it is hilarious. The target audience though is people who aren't aware of the negative influence religion has on societies around the world.

There are a lot of atheist groups in and around the DC area...so GOOGLE for more info. Many seem to focused on debates and discussion if you are into that sort of thing.

I'm in the planning stages for offering a meetup group for public speaking for atheists, very similar to Toastmasters but without all the stringent rules. Hopefully, we can create more atheists that will feel comfortable with public speaking. The format will be to speak about anything that you like. Critiques will be done by listeners on presentation modalities not on content. No god belief proselytizing though. It should be fun and can be very intense.

I bowl Duckpin three times a week. Would like to start an Atheist team for one of the leagues in June. Daytime 50+ bowling is very cheap...eight bucks per three game session and you don't have to pay if you are absent unlike the evening leagues ($15-16). Duckpin is different then Ten Pin because everything is much smaller and lighter. The balls are the size of cantaloupes and weigh a max of five and half pounds. This enables children and older adults also to participate in this fun game.

As I learn about more activities, I will post them. I noticed that many belong to other atheist groups located in Md. Since I not a member of these groups, I don't have first hand knowledge so I encourage those members to come forward with any events that might be occurring.

By the way, I didn't mention the Hagerstown atheist meetup group. They do exist and usually dine locally. They had two groups, but one closed down. The Md. state group sometimes offers a venue in Frederick. Contact me and I will be able to create one for those residents.

Permalink Reply by Reality Activist on May 29, 2009 at 1:50pm

Softball has changed for the summer. Sat and Sun at 9am at Centennial Park. Sat. players must be 55 yrs. old or over. Sunday can be any age. Both days are co-ed. We have a reservation for these days. Operated by Howard Country Recreation. I'm the manager for the Sunday games.

Permalink Reply by Reality Activist on May 17, 2012 at 6:31am

We are still playing on Sat & Sun. Come join us.

Permalink Reply by Reality Activist on May 29, 2009 at 1:43pm

This Friday, June 5th at starting at 4:30 until 7 pm Happy Hour on the outside Deck at
Cancun Cantina.

Address:‎
7501 Old Telegraph Rd
Hanover, MD 21076

Located on the BWI Airport Loop.

Permalink Reply by Jack Russell on September 24, 2009 at 10:18pm

Renaissance Festival going on now in Crownsville. Always fun there.

Permalink Reply by Daniel Clark on March 25, 2010 at 10:48am

Join us in Annapolis, MD for our atheist discussion group. We just put up a website at mdfreethinkers.com for more info.

Permalink Reply by Gary Berg-Cross on January 6, 2012 at 1:01pm

Here's a free activity you may be interested to know about.

John Shook will speak Saturday, Jan. 7th, 2012 at the Wheaton Regional Library on "The Psychology of Religion, the Sociology of Theology, and the Humanist Strategic Response"

This is a free talk as part of the monthly The Washington Area Secular Humanists  (WASH) Maryland-DC  (MDC) meetings. See http://www.wash.org/ for more on WASH and  http://www.facebook.com/events/284235418285696/ for more on the event Saturday.

Abstract
The behavioral and cognitive sciences are determining how religions originated tens of thousands of years ago and how they manipulate basic functions of the human brain. Since 1000 BCE, religions have added intellectual theologies to slowly adapt to philosophy, science, and social change. Modern theologies are well adapted to survive naturalistic challenges. Humanism must be carefully designed to strategically challenge religions and offer viable secular replacements.

Permalink Reply by Gary Berg-Cross on May 3, 2012 at 9:43pm

Sean Faircloth, Director of Strategy and Policy at the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science,  is the WASH MSC speaker (May  from 2-4) at the Wheaton library.  It's free so please come.

The topic related to his general activism and arousing the sleeping secular giant in the context of  his new book Attack of the Theocrats which has an extensive critical review of religious bias in American politics and the social arena. For example:

 

More than ten states allow federally funded, unlicensed religious child-care facilities. Depending on the state, this can mean that some of these religious child-care facilities are exempt from a broad range of health and safety laws. Others are offered fewer exemptions, but the real question is why would any exemption exist at all, particularly when the safety of children is at stake?

 

As Richard Dawkins notes in his not-to-be-missed Forward the Sean provides:

 

a sobering picture, but fortunately, as anyone who has heard his speeches knows, he also has an inspiring and invigorating vision to offer. . . . Readers will finish the book exercised, energized, and eager to join Faircloth in a bold rediscovery of the secular dream of the European Enlightenment and America’s enlightened Fathers.”
-- Richard Dawkins, from the foreword to Attack of the Theocrats!

 

Copies of the book will be available for purchase. See http://www.facebook.com/events/284638361619455/ for details.