http://www.bigfatwhale.com/archives/bfw_439.htm

http://freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Percentage_of_atheists

here's the formatted version of what we hammered out yesterday. i've tweaked a few more minor bits, corrected grammar, reconciled bits relating to changes elsewhere, and rearranged the sections better than we could in a noisy pub at the end of four hours of work. i've also taken the public officer out of the category of officebearers where we put it yesterday, as  with my understanding of the position as we were discussing it, none of the clauses under that heading actually apply to it. this is borne out in the existing rules.

The Committee of Sydney Atheists is meeting on Sunday 22nd November 2009 at 2pm at the Hotel Clarendon . 156 Devonshire St Surry Hills.

The agenda includes making changes to the Rules of Association the structure of the new committee, and nominations for committee positions at the AGM on December 13th.

The next meetup is Sunday October 11th 2009 at 6pm at The Clarendon Hotel  156 Devonshire St, Surry Hills.

The guest of the evening will be Peter Bowden, from University of Sydney. Peter Bowden’s research is primarily concerned with individual and institutional ethics. He is currently a Research Associate in the Department of Philosophy at Sydney University, working on institutional ethics, runs with others a Philosophy Cafe (Philo Agora) in Sydney and is on the National Committee of Whistleblowers Australia.

Abstract: "The New Atheists - A Near-Total Failure?"

You can watch Christipher Hitchens gracefully endure the harranguing of his opponents on ABC's Q and A with Tony Jones: http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s2695716.htm

download episode WMV | MP4 (average size 200MB)

SBS has posted a pro-creationist blog entry here: www.sbs.com.au/documentary/blogs/view/id/113372/t/Darwin%27s%20Dangerous%20Idea in response to the documentary Darwin's Dangerous Idea which is being shown on SBS1. The text has obviously not been through a spell-checker, and is unashamably apologetic creationist. Blogger Mark Jones advocates creationism and attacks "Darwinism" as unscientific.

"Surely God is big enough to account for a world that is continually in a state of being created."

"Id like to know if every aspect of evolution can be definitively proved in the modern lab."

Christopher Hitchens is opening the Festival of Dangerous Ideas run by the St James Ethics Centre at Sydney Opera House at 8pm tonight. You can watch the live stream video of his talk here from 8pm (and after) : http://www.abc.net.au/tv/fora/stories/2009/10/06/2706358.htm