It was freakin' awesome.
Ryan and I attended only one day of the conference. It began with a discussion by the president of MN Atheists on the work they are doing to insure separation of church & state at a state level. Specifically, a bill was proposed in the House calling for funds to be allocated for separate meals in public schools for those whose religion calls for it. The MN Atheist President pointed out the folly of pursuing this route by appealing to the Democrats on the basis of separation of church and state and appealing to the Republicans on the basis of how much money it will cost (and personal responsibility in regards diet). The bill died in session.
Other discussions included a hilarious rant on the ridiculous beliefs of the relgious right. (One book advocated preventing homosexual tendencies in your child by taking him in the shower with you and showing him your similar, but larger, penis. I guess this advise was meant for fathers.) Another speaker detailed his discoveries in Israel regarding the myth of Nazareth.
In between each talk was a 15-20 minute break, during which time we hobnobbed with others, visited the booths, and spent our meager funds on books and t-shirts and grabbed all manner of freebies. Ryan quickly developed a crush on the woman behind the communism table, and I developed a crush on the books she was selling.
The highlight of the day, however, was the talk "A Cosmic Mystery Story", given by Dr. Lawrence Krauss. Larry (as I call him), excitedly regaled us with words and images about the history of Dark Matter - beginning with Einstein's "Greatest Blunder", Hubble's discovery of a non-static universe, and the debate between flat- vs. open- vs. closed-universes. He next explored the mystery of dark matter - how we know it's there and so forth. This was, hands down, the best talk I have ever heard, both on subject matter and speaking ability. (Possible exception: Mike Lewis' March 1996 talk "Local Needs". Just Kidding.)
In case you haven't figured it out yet: Larry is one of my heroes. He was the main reason why I purchased a ticket for the event. I've read several of his books, my favorite being "The Physics of Star Trek". His reads are always enjoyable, and I decided to buy his latest book, "Hiding in the Mirror", sight unseen while there.
After his talk, I lined up to have him sign both the new book & my tattered old copy of "Physics of Star Trek". I told him it was honor to met him, and he not only signed both my books (In "Star Trek", he told me to 'live long and prosper'), but agreed to have his photo taken with me. Unfortunately, I only had my cell phone's camera with me, which evidently erases people's upper lips, but, anyway, here's the picture as proof...
The Conference ended with an 'ask the experts' round table, where submitted questions were answered by experts. One of the experts had to cancel due to sudden illness, so guess who took her spot? Richard Dawkins! He had spoken at the Conference the day before and not hearing him speak was one of my biggest regrets about not attending Friday's session. Anyway, Dawkins spoke only briefly (when questions suited his area of expertise), but he spoke with such eloquence, such intellect, that I was happy to hear him for the little time that I did. Ryan totally whored himself out to Dawkins by buying a t-shirt, having him sign it, and then shooting footage of Dawkins as he spoke. I am hereby sending out a request to Ryan that he upload said footage sometime this decade.
Anyway, I don't know where the Conference is to be held next year, but I'm gonna put forth an effort to attend.
2 comments:
Sounds like a very interesting conference! I wonder, though, about the connection between atheists and really smart science people. Why do they go together so well?
Wow, that's a whole topic unto itself.
One reason that comes to mind immediately is that a really smart science person knows so much about the world and how it works that they see little need to invoke God as an explanation for anything.
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