Monday 13 December 2010

Annual General Meeting 2010

Sydney Atheists Incorporated
Annual General Meeting

will be held Monday, 20 December 2010
7pm at the Broadway Lounge, corner of Broadway and Shepherd St, Chippendale.

Agenda:
confirmation of the minutes of the last AGM
reports on the activities of the association during the last year
election of secretary and treasurer
reception and consideration of the financial statement

All members are welcome to attend. Quorum is five members of the association. Anyone wishing to appoint another member as proxy must submit notice to the Secretary by 7pm Sunday 19 December 2010, on the form at the back of the Objects and Rules, which can be found at sydneyatheists.org

Nominations for the positions of Secretary and Treasurer will be invited in person or in writing at the AGM, with the acceptance of the nominee and one other member. This means people who cannot attend the meeting may be elected if they indicate their acceptance. The duties of the Secretary and Treasurer can be found in the Objects and Rules.


A Sydney Atheists Committee meeting will be held immediately after.
Agenda:

attendance and apologies

acceptance of the minutes of the August meeting

action items

reportbacks

allocating jobs beyond the positions elected at the AGM

changing our address with the bank

authorising payment for our Annual Statement for the Department of Fair Trading

mardi gras

next meeting and regular meetings

general business

Committee members eligible to vote now and at that date will be: Kate Alway, Tim Baillie, Al Bayona, Jason Brown, Fleur Dickinson, JD Encel, Ansgar Fenkher, Andrew Lamond, Esther Trenowden and Ian Woolf. Jeff Melville will become a member and be eligible to vote if he attends on the day. Please note this is a list of Committee members, not Association members. All members of Sydney Atheists can vote at the AGM but only Committee members can vote at Committee meetings. All members are, however, welcome to attend.

Kate Alway

Sydney Atheists Public Officer

Originally posted by Ian Wolf

Monday 29 November 2010

Ethics Classes - Videos

What happens in NSW Ethics classes?




Ethics vs Scripture classes by Kitty Flanagan





Originally posted Ian Woolf

Monday 16 August 2010

Free Atheist Anglican Wallpaper

You might have heard that the Anglican offer you a free atheist wall paper in the subscription section of their site.
Anglican wall paper

This inspired me to come up with a free atheist anglican wallpaper.

Ok, I assume it applies to all christians evenly, not just anglicans. Click on image for a full version.

Originally posted by Ansgar

Sunday 15 August 2010

Festivus 2009

Andrew Test Photo

Originally posted by Andrew Lamond

Global Atheist Convention Cocktails

Melbourne Flinders St Station

Originally posted by Andrew Lamond

Royal Atheist Show, Sydney 2010

Cows

Originally posted by Andrew Lamond

Tuesday 10 August 2010

Who will rid me of turbulent god-botherers? Not our first atheist PM

Two hundred and twenty million dollars would be an impressive chunk of change, even in the huge amount of dough carved out of the federal tax take for education.

Much less impressive however is Julia Gillard is wasting that much on a naked and sadly desperate bribe for the god-bothering lobby.

We’ve all read the words ''chronic'', ''underfunding'' and ''state school system'' placed one after the other so many times now that I hesitate to do so again, lest your eyes roll back in your heads, your brain functions flatline and you all start thinking of Wendy Francis as a reasonable choice for your upper house vote.
But I’m gonna do it anyway. Because the chronic underfunding of the state school system makes a travesty of the ALP's election promise to throw hundreds of millions of dollars at untrained, unsupervised and very often unwanted school chaplains – and all because Gillard has a problem with drooling creationists and happy-clappers, people so irredeemably foolish and ignorant that they would assign supreme executive power on the basis of whether or not somebody claimed to be friends with their invisible friend.
It fair does my head in guvnor, it does, to think of the number of teachers aides you could fund with that money. The number of books you could buy for school libraries. The number of school libraries you could build, in spite of The Australian’s brave campaign to ensure the current stock of school buildings is the last we shall ever construct as a nation.
What is it about the school chaplaincy program that makes it so special that it should get funding that would be much better spent on … oh, I don’t know … education or something?
A simple question with an even more simple answer, of course. The religious nutters are organised in a way that those of us smart enough to get through life without the need for fairy dust and magic spells are not, and you’re really seeing the effects of that on the fringes of this election. If Gillard has done one thing since seeing off the Ruddbot, it’s been to draw out the whackjobs and bigots from the invisible friend lobby. To briefly scan their efforts since the poll was called is to see an increasing ugliness of mind concerning her marital status, childlessness, and of course her lack of belief.
Perth’s Catholic Archbishop Barry Hickey worried that 'Many Christians are concerned that someone who does not believe in God may not endorse the Christian traditions of respect for human life, for the sanctity of marriage and the independence of churches, church schools and church social welfare agencies''.
By ''sanctity and independence'' I think he might have meant ‘''tax-free status''.
And while Family First’s Wendy Francis scored her first real hit of notoriety this week for comparing gay parenthood to child abuse, she warmed up with this tweet about Gillard on August 7:

''First Prime Minister in a de facto relationship shows her willingness to degrade marriage and the family unit.''
Yes. The PM shacked up with her hairdresser because she hates your family and wants to destroy them.
It’s that kind of close-minded, hateful thinking that Gillard is trying to bring around with her $220m inducement. But the thing about that sort of thinking? It is never going to be satisfied.

Being based entirely on the dictates of faith in the unprovable, there are no limits to demands it will make. Pony up a couple of hundred million for school chaplains today? Where’s the billion you promised us for faith-based initiatives tomorrow? Yes, your internet filter meets with our approval, but what about repealing those anti-discrimination laws so we can treat those faggots with the contempt and the sick frisson of hatred we actually feel for them? Oh, and it’s not really good enough for us that you fund a bunch of preachy ''pregnancy counsellors'' to talk women out of abortions. We’d like to talk to you about banning birth control altogether.
Who will rid me of these turbulent god-botherers? Not Jules, apparently.
by John Birmingham in the Brisbane Times

Originally posted by Ian Woolf

Evolutionary Tree of Life



Originally posted by Ian Woolf

Sunday 9 May 2010

Sydney Atheists podcast #7: neurotheology and Western Sydney Freethinkers

Download the show here
Ian Woolf discusses research into the neurology of religious faith,
Alan Conradi describes the Western Sydney Freethinkers,
Wise thoughts from Jason Brown,
Hosted by Dave the Happy Singer,
produced by Ian Woolf

Show Notes:
"God is in the Wattles" by Peter Watts
Western Sydney Freethinkers
Ian Woolf
Alan Conradi
Dave The Happy Singer
Jason Brown

Originally posted by Ian Woolf

Tuesday 13 April 2010

Photos from Mardi Gras 2010

Some photos of and from the Sydney Atheists marching in the Sydney Mardi Gras in 2010
IMGP1081

IMGP1065
IMGP1070
IMGP1071
IMGP1072
IMGP1073
IMGP1074
IMGP1075
IMGP1076
IMGP1077
IMGP1078
IMGP1079
IMGP1080
IMGP1081
IMGP1082
IMGP1085
IMGP1086-1
IMGP1087
IMGP1088
IMGP1089
IMGP1090-2
IMGP1090
IMGP1090-1
IMGP1091-1
IMGP1092
IMGP1093
IMGP1094
IMGP1095
IMGP1096
IMGP1097
IMGP1098
IMGP1099
IMGP1100
IMGP1101
IMGP1103
IMGP1104
IMGP1105
IMGP1106
IMGP1107
IMGP1108
IMGP1109
IMGP1110
IMGP1111
IMGP1112
IMGP1113
IMGP1114
IMGP1115

Originally posted by Ian Woolf