1st Annual Kentucky Freethought Convention (Atheist/Secular/Humanist/Freethinker)

I haven’t been able to put forward an entry in this blog for quite a while due to my involvement with the UU church, as well as making special trips to try and promote the Owensboro Freethinkers.  However, this week, I decided to place my experiences at the Kentucky Freethought Convention within this blog, though of course I do it with scrutinity.  No, this wasn’t a church per se, but we were a gathering of folks who take a position on certain philosophical and theological questions, so, to me, a gathering of non-believers – that being the strongest thread that binds us (there were deists there as well) – I find it fit to place the experiences in here.  If that justification doesn’t fly with some folks, as I completely understand that it may not, then we will settle on the fact that it’s my blog, and I’ll do what I damn well please.  That’s good enough for me, my friends.

So, a little about the convention for those who do not know.  The 1^st Annual Kentucky Freethought Convention (KFC) was a state-wide gathering of atheists, humanists, rationalists and, to use the all-inclusive term:  freethinkers.  We gathered for a day that was originally dedicated to include a virgin sacrifice and a baby-eating contest.  Since we couldn’t find a virgin (good luck finding a virgin on the U.K. campus) and those with babies had hid them away in the child-care that was provided, we simply settled for a schedule of highly educated and entertaining speakers that carried us throughout the day.  (That was a joke – most of my readers get it, but I put this disclaimer because I have some who really think we eat babies…)

In formulating how I wanted to put this together, I thought I would reflect on all the speakers, but I’ll only go into detail on a few.  I do this for one basic reason.  I was personally frustrated that more folks didn’t get up off their asses and make the effort to attend this rally.  I was the only one from the Owensboro Freethinkers that went, and the two other folks from the Evansville Freethinkers didn’t even live in Evansville.  That’s kind of pitiful.  Our freethought groups, of which I have readers from both the Evansville and Owensboro branches, can only survive and thrive by the interest of its people, their dedication to our shared principles, and their willingness to do something aside from just bitch about religion on a Facebook page.  I understand for some folks just couldn’t get away – the conference was made known in my circle like a week before it actually happened, so I had to shift some things around.  But there are some folks in my group, as well as in others that could have attended.  They wouldn’t have even had to pay for gas – one tank got me up there and back.  Hotel rooms divided between 2-4 people are cheap; I think I spent about $40 on this trip, including food (I stayed with a friend and her roommates).  So my job isn’t to report back to folks every detail that they missed.  The position of not knowing is the consequence of not going.  This doesn’t apply to everyone, but if you were in the position to go, you really, really missed out. 

But, on the positive side, there will be another next year (and I’ll probably go). 

The KFC, though, was one of the best, most enlightening, most entertaining, and most educational conferences I have been to.  Knowing that I could walk in and meet my fellow unbelievers – those who from all across the state have stories like mine, experiences like mine, groups like the one I started – it was uplifting, exhilarating, and thrilling!  I was reminded of a lot that I did know, but what I seek to gain from any type of conference – I was educated on what I didn’t know.  Here’s what I didn’t know that I do know now.  We are not alone.  We have representation all over the state.  There were about 125-150 people that attended this conference (it was hard to gauge because folks came and went as they pleased).  I met folks from Paducah and Madisonville – that’s on our side of the state, guys!  There were Louisville folks, Lexington folks; people from northern, eastern, western, and southern Kentucky attended.  This was encouraging.  While I was there, I was able to network with other groups, as well as put the word out about the Owensboro Freethinkers.  The only regret that I have concerns the fact that I was asked to be on a panel of local group leaders (can anyone say CV material?) but time ran out, so it fell through.  I did pimp our group out to those in the conference, and in doing so, met a couple of folks from our side of the state.

But, let’s go through what the actual conference looked like.  To do that, I have to take a step backwards to Friday.

I left Friday, drove up to Lexington (which I had never done before), and once there, attended a leadership meeting.  The conference was held at the ballroom in the Kentucky Center on the U.K. campus.  On Friday, there was a group of folks who went to the Creation Museum, but I declined to do so on two principles:  1) I can’t justify giving them my money to perpetuate ignorance, as small as my $20 would be; 2) as I was recommended to do, I would like to take a trip of Evansville/Owensboro people to see just how bad it really is.  I’ve heard horror stories on the internet, but to have people describe it in person is just as…disturbing.  We were shown pictures during one of the presentations, and you see them online, but you don’t get the commentary like we received at the convention.  I bowed out on the museum.

I did attend, though, a meeting that I would have loved to have seen some of the other leadership attend.  The leadership meeting was very educational.  I’m a very honest, blunt kind of guy, and I’ll go ahead and say that, speaking for my group, we’re running at about 30% capacity of what we could be doing.  We’ve done quite a few things right, but there’s quite a bit we’ve done that doesn’t work.  A few examples:  one person cannot lead the entire group, we don’t have any activities that engage the interests of people there, we’re not as personable as we can be, we don’t volunteer as often as we can be, and sometimes we seem like a bunch of folks just sitting around a table bitching about issues.  That has to stop if we want to grow and, as we all know, we evolve or go extinct.  I’m addressing it in my group (which will soon be “we” will address it – hearkening back to the first point I made) but there’s something to be learned here on everyone’s part.  The gentleman leading, Michael Werner (some of you guys may know him), gave us a PowerPoint presentation that, hopefully, I can pass along to the group leaders of all our organizations so we can start moving forward as freethinkers.  It was helpful to hear stories of both success and failure, because it places matters into perspective.  Our Owensboro Group, for example, is actually moderate size for a freethinking group, so that’s encouraging to know…and we’re growing.

After the meeting, I adjourned for some reflection over my notes, group reorganization, and hookah smoking with my friend’s roommates.  I conked out around 3:30 a.m. and woke up at 7:00 a.m. or so.

Back at the convention, I was given a nametag and met with my other guys I had arranged to get together with (out of decorum and habit, I won’t mention names).  I was amazed at how many people were there, how different walks of life were represented, and…as a side note…how many good looking freethinking women there were.  There’s hope for us to continue propagating our species with rationalists yet!

We sat through a general welcome, and the first speaker was probably one of the best.  Dr. James Krupa gave a presentation entitled “Evolution, Education, and Why Good Teaching Matters”.  Here, we received a plethora of information on the subject; not so much the science, but how the science relates to issues here in Kentucky.  We were educated on the Creation Museum, and we were told, through quite a few of Dr. Krupa’s anecdotes, the state of science education on the U.K. campus.  He was, like any of us freethinkers would be, dismayed at the hostility towards the established science.  He was gracious enough to display some of his teacher evaluations, which showcased a whole variety of opinions, with a huge emphasis on the negative ones.  What was so dismaying about the presentation concerned Dr. Krupa himself.  He goes out of his way to teach a basic course on biological evolution, and even after meticulously going over each and every matter that can accessible to freshman undergraduates, they still just don’t get it.  The disconnect is astoundingly frustrating, and while the world accepts evolution as fact, we’re the only nation with a huge problem concerning pushback from Christian fundamentalism, though he did allude to problems in other nations resulting from the same type of pushback.  Overall, I rather enjoyed his presentation, and as much anti-religious rhetoric as we heard (a moderate amount), I was there to be educated more on other issues that are peripheries to the nonreligious element of freethinking.  That mattered to me.

The next speaker, Edwin Kagan, was also excellent as well.  He discussed his experiences with Camp Quest and…that’s all I’m going to say about it specifically.  It was an inspiring story with its high and low points, but it also inspired me to seriously look into volunteering my time and efforts at a Camp Quest this summer.  I do have experience as a counselor…so it’s something to consider.  We have to invest in our young people.  Those who oppose freethinking ideas know it; we should be active in not indoctrinating our children, but to foster their curiosity, and to teach them to think critically.  We should teach them, as the old saying goes, not what to think, but how to think.

We then took a break, and came back to listen to Seth Andrews, the founder of The Thinking Atheist.  I’m not going to go into too much detail here as well, but his topic and story was much more personal.  He was quite entertaining (as it’s what he does), and this particular presentation seemed to be the turning point towards the discussion pertaining to religion and how it as affected all of us.  Seth Andrews does have a personal “testimony” (if I may borrow the language), as many of us do, but I believe it was him that asked “how many of you came from religious backgrounds?”  About 95% of the hands went up in the room.  In that moment of silence, that action spoke volumes.

We took our lunch break at an Ethiopian restaurant.  The food was good, I’ll plug it, though I completely forgot what it was called.  If you’re in Lexington, just look for it.  It’s right next to the U.K. campus.  At lunch, though, I was approached by one of the leaders of the convention who earlier noticed that I stood when all the leaders of groups were asked to do so for recognition.  She asked if I would be willing to serve on a panel, to which I essentially said “I don’t have much to contribute, but sure”.  We met with another gentleman from Louisville (I believe – it was central/eastern Kentucky), ate, “fellowshipped”, and returned back to the conference.

The next speaker, Gretchen Mann, gave us probably the most inspiring story of the afternoon.  She related her legal battles with “Gideon Proselytizing at Military Induction Centers”.  Very much a descriptive and narrative form of presentation, the end resulted with Gideons no longer given privileged access to new recruits.  I’m all for proselytizing in certain regards, but from all the stories and personal experiences I’ve had with the Gideons, they are trolls.  Sorry, for all Gideons reading.  You know your Bibles end up in the trash, on the floor, in lockers, toilets – you guys waste a ton of money for what can be done for free.  Trust me, the Bible is the easiest book in this country to obtain, and if I, as an atheist, were to shove secular literature in your face with your persistence, you wouldn’t be too pleased.  Empathy and understanding would allow you guys to relate and perceive where we unbelievers are coming from on this issue.  Gideons were real-life trolls long before internet trolling became popular.  Over all, a fine presentation, and it did elicit a reaction from me (as seen in my rant).

Annalise Fonza led the “What Difference Does a Story Make?: Why Ex-Pastors Should Speak Up for Atheism”.  Honestly, I thought this was one of the weaker presentations.  The story was interesting, but it’s one I’ve heard a lot.  She was an African American ex-Methodist minister (think about that one for a bit – first time I heard it, my response was: “does not compute”).  This is just my experience, and I’m sure those who aren’t familiar with the Clergy Project, or haven’t read stories on websites such as ExChristian.net would have received something from it more so than I did.

This sat up, though, a panel of former ministers.  While the names I don’t have (nor would you be particularly interested in), the panel included a Southern Baptist, a Catholic, a Methodist (Annalise Fonza), a Church of Christ (kind of), and…I can’t remember the other one.  It terms of specifics, it does not matter, but the key point of this panel was to give a representation of all different types of faiths we are likely to find in Kentucky.  All of their stories (save the Catholic who was a bit long-winded in my opinion) were quite interesting.  One of the gentlemen was kicked out of Seminary the day before his finals when he was found out as an atheist; one gentlemen just didn’t tell anyone; another was estranged from his family to a degree.  The panel represented a good cross-section of personal stories.

The last speaker, Dr. Will Gervaise, was another highlight of the convention.  His presentation, “The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience: What Psychological Science Can Teach Us About Religious Disbelief” was very informative.  His presentation delved into the different factors – psychologically and culturally – that can determine what faculties one uses in their decision-making processes.  He compared the two lines of thought to the “Colbert Response” (modeled after Stephen Colbert who, as quoted, said he goes with his gut-feeling) and the “Descartes Response (modeled after Descartes, as one who acts on rational thought).  He cited experiments that showed the effects of such lines of though on society and he used his personal research as one who has studied religion from a cognitive and psychological perspective.  I’d love to go into great detail about his research, but there was quite a bit to it.  I touched on the high points, but the individual studies that he himself had conducted or had referenced were fascinating.  There were some classics (atheists are the least-trusted minority in the United States), but there were others as well, such as what types of situations elicit a “Colbert” or “Descartes” response.

At this point, instead of having our Group Leaders panel, we ran out of time, and were allowed to plug our groups.  Most of the leaders had left, so it was I and some of the central Kentucky leadership.  I hung around about ten minutes, then buggered off.  We finished around 5:00 p.m. Lexington time, and I was back in Owensboro around 9:00.

So, my overall reflections:  it was awesome!  I’m not going to rank this experience using the rubric that I constructed to measure other churches.  I understand the double standard I’m using here:  I wrote about the experience here using logic suggesting it fits the mold of other religious institutions, yet I don’t hold it to the same standard.  Well, I don’t feel I can.  The other churches I review, they have services every Sunday, they have members, and they have activities.  The comparisons are mostly superficial to me, as this group was just a once-a-year matter.

That being said, this was an excellent event.  It reminded me a bit of the old Promise Keepers meetings I used to attend as a kid – an inspirational type of gathering intended to join folks together with common values.  Granted, we didn’t worship anything, nor did we sing or dance (we were all sober), we did get a chance to meet and fellowship with other like-minded individuals. 

As an atheist, I spent so much of my time alone.  Now I know that Kentucky has other freethinkers.  We’re gathering, we’re growing, and we’re here to stay.  This conference is hopefully one of many that we’ll be attending, and it’s been a pleasure to be one of the many individuals at the forefront of the Kentucky Freethought Movement.