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Darrel Ray's Blog – March 2009 Archive (16)

Dawkins on Mental Viruses

I love Dawkins video on mental viruses and have added it to my videos. If you have never seen it, take a look. It is still the best articulation of the concept that I have found.

Added by Darrel Ray on March 31, 2009 at 3:41pm — No Comments

St. Louis Ethical Society and St. Louis Atheists

The photo shows me in praise of The Flying Spaghetti Monster or hypnotizing myself in prayer, not sure which. The St. Louis Ethical Society and St. Louis Atheists hosted my presentation on Sunday, March 29. 67 Attended with a great discussion and questions afterward. The Ethical Society has a beautiful facility. It is refreshing to speak in a venue that is both beautiful and dedicated to something other than the supernatural. Kate Lovelady and… Continue

Added by Darrel Ray on March 30, 2009 at 9:20am — 2 Comments

St. Louis Ethical Society

I am off to St. Louis. On Sunday I will be speaking at the St. Louis Ethical Society at 2:00. It is cosponsored by St. Louis Atheists and the Ethical Society. See this link for more info. http://atheists.meetup.com/463/calendar/9572173/

Hope to see some St. Louis A/N people there!

Added by Darrel Ray on March 27, 2009 at 9:48am — 1 Comment

The Center for Inquiry

I just learned that I will be speaking at the NY City Center for Inquiry on May 2. I will also be speaking on April 30 to the NY City Atheists. If you live in NY City, I hope to see some of you there. If you want details, let me know and I can send you the links. If you attend, please introduce yourself and let me know you are on Atheist Nexus. I am loving this site. There are so many great people with so much talent and insight.

Added by Darrel Ray on March 26, 2009 at 9:58pm — 1 Comment

Ethical Society and confronting the religious

I will be speaking this Sunday, April 29 to the St. Louis Ethical Society, 9001 Clayton Rd. St. Louis . Hope to see some of the Atheist Nexus members there.

I was discussing the issue of Atheist behavior toward theists with a colleague recently and thought I would put up my answer to one of his questions:

In my talks, I often try and discuss the four principles of communication with a theist (p. 182 of The God Virus). Unfortunately, I find that there is a good deal of… Continue

Added by Darrel Ray on March 25, 2009 at 2:30pm — 2 Comments

Answers in Atheism- Edwin Kagin

I'll was on Edwin Kagin's podcast/radio show today at 6:00 EDT discussing The God Virus. You can listen to the interview at this link. The interview starts about halfway through: http://www.answersinatheism.net/

I will also be speaking at the St. Louis Ethical Society March 29. Hope to see some of you St. Louis area people there.

Added by Darrel Ray on March 22, 2009 at 10:30am — 1 Comment

Recovering Religionists

As I travel making presentations on my book, inevitably several people want their copy autographed and want to tell me the story of how they escaped religion. The stories are at once fascinating and heart rending. It has been a joke for decades among former Catholics that they are recovering Catholics. It generally meant that they were actively trying to get over the programming and brainwashing in guilt and sexual repression taught in Catholic schools and churches. I would suggest a slightly… Continue

Added by Darrel Ray on March 20, 2009 at 12:30pm — No Comments

A little experiment

I just put up a video clip from my recent presentation at The University of Colorado. It outlines a little experiment you can do with your fundamentalist or evangelical friends. Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leBmSTet-NA

It is a great way to observe the effects of religious infection first hand.

Added by Darrel Ray on March 19, 2009 at 2:10pm — 2 Comments

University of Colorado

We had a great group at CU this afternoon. The Secular Student Alliance and Boulder Atheists organized it. One of the interesting questions that came up in the discussion after my presentation dealt with "Is there a way to eliminate the infection in someone once they have it." Interestingly enough two people seemed to be living answers to that question, a man named Kyle and a woman named Barb. Kyle had been a devout Mormon his whole life until 8 months ago. In a short conversation after the… Continue

Added by Darrel Ray on March 16, 2009 at 12:06am — 1 Comment

Sexual Control in Religion

Why is sexual control so important in most major religions? This is the subject of my next two videos. I just put up part 7 today and will get part 8 up soon. Sexual control is important to religions NOT to help people to control sex but to put them in a double bind - caught between powerful biological drives and teachings that appear to oppose those same drives. Sexual guilt must be taught/learned. There are cultures where sexual guilt is not experienced or is a very minor part. Food control,… Continue

Added by Darrel Ray on March 10, 2009 at 5:00pm — 1 Comment

Book presentation

Had a great group of 45 people to talk with at the Community of Reason on Sunday.

Added by Darrel Ray on March 9, 2009 at 6:13pm — No Comments

Radio and Community of Reason

I will be talking about my book on kkfi radio tomorrow, see: http://www.kkfi.org/ then speaking to the Kansas City Community of Reason at 1-3:00 Sunday afternoon.

Added by Darrel Ray on March 7, 2009 at 4:50pm — 1 Comment

Edwin Kagin endorsement

I am very happy to report that Edwin Kagin, National Legal Director at the American Atheist Association has written a strong endorsement for my book. Here is his quote:

"I have found The God Virus to be a most readable and important piece of work. I can happily recommend it to potential readers, particularly to those who are not overly burdened with too much formal education in the arcane aspects of theology and philosophy. Your book is, to me at least, an everyman’s explanation of… Continue

Added by Darrel Ray on March 5, 2009 at 10:03pm — No Comments

Music in religion

I just put up my latest discussion of music in the church where I discuss the "rock band" phenomenon in many churches and the reasons why music is used. The picture quality is not as good as I would like and not sure what is causing it, but the content is, hopefully, useful. See this link: www.youtube.com/user/damon132

Added by Darrel Ray on March 4, 2009 at 3:26pm — No Comments

Hypnosis and The God Virus

Added by Darrel Ray on March 3, 2009 at 2:30pm — 2 Comments

Music in Church

We have all been in church singing religious songs of some sort. Occasionally you may have thought about the words and realized how inane they are, or worse yet, how seriously wrong they are. For example, Amazing Grace. Sing the words a few bars and pretty soon you learn that you are a loser, you are lost, you are blind and your are totally guilty, and that is just the start. Why do churches sing such crazy things? It is directly related to the guilt cycle that facilitates religious infection… Continue

Added by Darrel Ray on March 2, 2009 at 8:56pm — 4 Comments